Being a Better Writer: Clarke’s Three Laws · 12:33am Jan 26th, 2021
Hello readers! Yes, I know I must apologize for the lateness of this post in coming online. But I had a really good reason, one that I think many of you will sympathize with: I was up extremely late last night reading a book. Which I then finished this afternoon as soon as I could.
Relatable, yes, but there’s a catch to this one. It wasn’t just any old book. In fact, it was quite new. So new that what I was reading these past two days was the print proof.
That’s right, readers, I stayed up late last night reading the first official paperback copy of Axtara – Banking and Finance and loving every minute of it. It really is a fantastic story with some very lively characters, and I almost can’t wait to start work on a sequel.
But I can. Because Starforge. Which … well, that’s for another news post. Back on topic, my having finished the print proof of Axtara is fantastic news because that means it’s readable. And as soon as this post is done? I’ll be making the final few tweaks to the master file … and the paperback will go live.
You read that correctly. Axtara – Banking and Finance will be available in paperback very soon. Look for a post tomorrow and be ready to start watching that shipping tracker!
All right! That’s it for news at the moment (I’ll save the other stuff for the now bi-weekly news post), so let’s get talking about today’s Being a Better Writer topic: Clarke’s Three Laws.
To be honest, I’m kind of shocked at myself that I didn’t get to this topic years ago. After all, my break-down of Brandon Sanderson’s Three Laws of Magic has been one of the most perused posts on the site (and if I may toot my own horn a bit, is also the source of Wikipedia’s summary as well as Google’s), so discussing three laws that have been influencing Science-Fiction for decades should have been as straightforwardly obvious as “Science-Fiction has science.”
But for whatever reason, I didn’t make that connection. Not until a month or two ago when I was discussing one of the laws with someone on a writing chat and realized, to my shock and embarrassment, that I’d never actually written about them.
It went on the list right then and there. Because it’s just wrong to have talked about one author’s rules for Fantasy Magic system but completely passed on Arthur C. Clarke’s rules for writing about the future. So no more! Today, we talk about Clarke’s Laws! So hit that jump, and let’s get started!
This law makes me a bit uncomfortable.
Yes, it makes good sense.
Clarke was a hardcore science guy, and he was at the hardcore science side of sci fi.
Away from Bradbury who was on the other side.
There is a grey area on magic.
If you look at the Warhammer 40k and Star wars.
Magic is separate from tech.
In the Mass Effect series, there were folks that use devices to amp up their Esp powers.
Think it was called biotics.
What if a person can sense magic?
They would be able to tell the difference between the two.
But maybe this is a rule that only works for hardcore science fiction?
I remember throwing all three laws at Twilight Sparkle and Doc in the second chapter of Lure of the Flower, just to watch them argue the toss out of it. Namely on where and when expertise doesn't apply, and whether to place their bets on technology or magic. Even had the Clarke stand-in be called "Hazardous Prophecy", as a nod to the essay.
It was tremendous intellectual fun, especially with Roseluck as (ineffectual) referee.