{"id":1252,"date":"2016-06-06T11:43:58","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T16:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zachbarnesonwriting.wordpress.com\/?p=1252"},"modified":"2016-11-02T02:33:42","modified_gmt":"2016-11-02T02:33:42","slug":"midi-chloriens-world-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2016\/06\/06\/midi-chloriens-world-building\/","title":{"rendered":"Midi-Chloriens World Building"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So, a bit of updating before I jump into the true post.<\/p>\n<p>A couple cool things happened to me in the past three weeks. \u00a0It doesn&#8217;t explain the radio silence, but still, I&#8217;d like to share anyways.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I got back the last round of edits from my editor for AVENGARDE.<\/li>\n<li>There&#8217;s a cover (and it looks badass&#8211;I&#8217;ll post it here and on my Facebook page when its finalized).<\/li>\n<li>Short story competition round-up on May 31&#8211;whew! \u00a0Fingers crossed for the &#8220;long list.&#8221; \u00a0(Yes, that&#8217;s a thing. \u00a0Comes before short list, don&#8217;tchaknow?)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Anywho, little old me finally saw the <em>Star Wars Rogue 1<\/em> trailer (felt the hype, of course), and this got me thinking about Wookies, parsecs, the Force, &amp;c.<\/p>\n<p>There are various and sundry complaints about the &#8220;prequel&#8221; trilogy (PT, or POS to some) in comparison the the &#8220;original&#8221; trilogy (OT), but one misstep has always stood out to me (I know you&#8217;re thinking &#8220;Jar Jar!&#8221; but that&#8217;s not it&#8230; just\u00a0hear me out). \u00a0The Force is treated very differently from trilogy to trilogy.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In the OT, the Force is a mystery to nearly everyone, analogous to space magic wielded by space wizards who more closely resemble Gandalf or Merlin than any sci-fi trope. \u00a0At one point, Grand Moff\u00a0Tarkin even refers to the Force as an &#8220;old religion.&#8221; This all fits the mythic feel of the original trilogy, the bildungsroman of a farmer-turned-hero that echoes through human history and storytelling.<\/p>\n<p>Turn this on its head and you get the PT, in a classic example of world building gone wrong. \u00a0For the prequel trilogy, Lucas chooses to explain to the audience, and even the galaxy at large, what exactly makes the Force do its thing: midi-chloriens.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, the tenuous divide between the right and wrong amount of information is, in my opinion, breached. \u00a0People don&#8217;t care about midi-chloriens. \u00a0In fact, their existence goes to cheapen the mysterious power that is the Force. \u00a0It makes the myth mundane. \u00a0Force lightning just got a lot less interesting, and that&#8217;s got nothing to do with Jar Jar.<\/p>\n<p>This is important because authors run across\u00a0this breed of trouble all the time. \u00a0We call it playing around in the sandbox. \u00a0What I mean by that is that you create a world that&#8217;s so interesting to you, the author, that you feel the world supersedes the plot in terms of importance; that details you&#8217;ve thought out (so that your world has consistency and reason&#8211;both important!) are also vitally necessary for the reader to understand.<\/p>\n<p>In so many cases, this is\u00a0too much information, especially if you agree with me that either plot or character is king. \u00a0So, build a world that is fully thought out, reasonable, and consistent, but when parsing through the details always ask yourself if they\u00a0further the story or just cheapen it.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1296\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/zachbarnesonwriting.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/06\/mountains_reflection_landscape-wallpaper-1680x1050.jpg?resize=640%2C400&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"mountains_reflection_landscape-wallpaper-1680x1050\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I\u2019m on facebook at:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zachbarnesonwriting\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zachbarnesonwriting<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">And Twitter: @ZacharyBarnes4<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Like or follow me if you enjoy\u00a0the blog!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Don\u2019t steal\u00a0my words. \u00a0They\u2019re mine. Zachary Barnes 2016\u00a9<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are various and sundry complaints about the &#8220;prequel&#8221; trilogy (PT, or POS to some) in comparison the the &#8220;original&#8221; trilogy (OT), but one misstep has always stood out to me (I know you&#8217;re thinking &#8220;Jar Jar!&#8221; but that&#8217;s not it&#8230; just hear me out).  The Force is treated very differently from trilogy to trilogy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2,13,14,18,19,27,50,51,52,53],"tags":[88,94,99,128,132,179,202,204],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1113,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2016\/05\/09\/vocabularied-egos\/","url_meta":{"origin":1252,"position":0},"title":"Vocabularied Egos","date":"May 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When you find yourself truculently bedighting your scrivenery with inimical prose, serried and thick as chaparral; I, for one, recommend elision instead. Otherwise, your writing may appear solecistic, and you, as a writer, solipsismal.","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Advice\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/01\/09\/the-author-ly-myth-of-inspiration\/","url_meta":{"origin":1252,"position":1},"title":"The Author-ly Myth of 'Inspiration'","date":"January 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"So when you picture a writer as that guy who sits at Starbucks\u00ae sipping his Flat White\u00ae, waiting for divine inspiration to fill his blank word document, please know that I'm going to try to slap you through the internet. And I'm not gonna feel bad about it.","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Inspiration\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/01\/16\/rantasy-or-hi-fantasy-im-zach\/","url_meta":{"origin":1252,"position":2},"title":"\"Rantasy\" or; Hi, Fantasy, I'm Zach","date":"January 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Place yourself in a writer's shoes, and you find yourself in an interesting situation. First of all, why'd you steal those shoes? Do they even fit you? Secondly, a person asks you \"what's your book about?\" the primary modus used to explain books is by genre. And that's where I\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Fantasy\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1365,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions\/1365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}