Is World Domination The Best You Can Come Up With?

For those who don't know, authors tend to hang out with one another. Even during pandemics, a lot of our social interaction is among our own number because we have very particular problems that sometimes only another writer can understand. Also, stories that strike us funny probably won't seem all that interesting to people who aren't pen monkeys. But I was recently chatting with my friend Alex Dumitru (whose stories in books like Duel of The Monsters and Attack of The Kaiju Volume Two: The Next Wave you should definitely check out) who told me a tale of his adventures in the depths of the Internet. What he stumbled across is something that I think we could all stand to learn from.

Because seriously... the lack of imagination on display in this one staggered me.

A Prompt, A Response, And The Failure of Imagination

This incident took place in an online writing group, and it started with a simple prompt. One of those little things to get the juices flowing, and to give you a jumping off point to start spinning your ideas. In short, it asked the question of what a character who was a modern-day science teacher (high school or college, I don't recall) would do if they found themselves in a medieval time period? What would they do with their knowledge in a time where so much of it simply had not been discovered yet?

As jumping off points went, it wasn't bad.

When presented with this question, my first thoughts were to ask how someone from today would adjust to that sort of life. There's new languages to learn, a whole different set of skills you need to master, and depending on the region of the world a bunch of different challenges (for the record the assumption most were making was that you'd be transported back to western Europe, not say, dumped in the center of the Middle East's burgeoning culture of mathematics and philosophy). Did the individual have any health concerns like eyeglasses that could become a problem? And so on, and so forth.

I tend to err on the side of, "Time travel sucks, and we forget just how much we take for granted," in case that wasn't coming across. The central question of the prompt, though, was basically asking what you would do if you could take a functioning knowledge of modern science back to a period that lacked it?

The first response to this prompt, before anyone could actually present something interesting, was to basically kickstart the arms race, build your own kingdom, and rule with an iron fist.

There's a lot to unpack there. But even if we can get past the extremely ugly attitude that has Colonizer! written on it in 12-foot-tall red letters, there is a stunning lack of creativity on display here. With all of the potential options this person had on the table in front of them, they just slammed their hand down on this one. And for those interested in the rest of the story, said individual basically picked this hill to die on, instigating a rather nasty back-and-forth that boiled down to their opinion that anyone with a serious advantage, whether it be physical might, intellectual know-how, or just more skill, would inherently use those attributes to put weaker, more ignorant people under their boot heels.

Clearly he didn't read my post The Failure of Imagination over on my sister blog Improved Initiative.

You Can Do Better Than This

The thing that really struck me about this story was how absolutely flat and hollow the argument being put on display was. The idea that hiding within your average science teacher is a techno-barbarian warlord just waiting to conquer struck me as something that was equal parts silly and sad. Partially because no explanation was given as to how he would turn his modern understanding into great military might (engineering better weapons, ensuring a particular force had access to crucible steel when no one else in the region did, etc.), but also because it was the vaguest possible motivation. It lacked teeth, and as such just didn't have any bite.

I'm looking as hard as I can, but there's just nothing here.

As a motivator, who the hell wants to rule a country they aren't part of, and up to that moment have had no stake in? Carving out a niche for yourself in society, sure, that makes sense. Setting up a trade also sounds sensible. But once your basic needs are taken care of, what motivates you past that point? Does our protagonist want to recreate the comforts of the modern era as closely as he can? Is his community threatened in some way that he is uniquely capable of handling (perhaps by preventing plague through his basic knowledge of modern medicine)?

What is driving their actions?

Now let's take a step back from our time-traveling science teacher, and look at a broader range of characters. Because our fiction is loaded with characters who want to conquer and control, but we so often take it as accepted that such things happen in our stories. Whether it's a dark army marching on the kingdom of light, or some warlord trying to step on the neck of the one town resisting him, some people out there believe that might makes right, and they just want to take control.

Why does that other kingdom consider you their enemy? Why does the Ragged Prince have such a burning need to take the throne? What do the giants get out of claiming territory and making humans their vassals?

If you don't have answers for these questions, you need to go back to the drawing board immediately.

All right, where the hell did this go wrong?

Take the warlord. He's got a small army at his command, but fighting men need food, a place to rest and train, and they need support. They're not farmers... so the logical course of action is to take over a town, and use its resources to upkeep your band. This gives you more resources, the ability to increase your numbers, and it makes you a more powerful force in the region.

It might mean you now have to fight off other bands of scum who want to steal what you've rightfully plundered, but that just comes with the territory.

Take the nation who feels it must crush their enemy with an all-out, total war. Why? Well, it might have something to do with the propaganda used to elevate someone to a position of leadership. A strategy they may not have actually expected to work, but which they now feel obliged to see through by throwing their armies against the nation they used as their scapegoat for the country's problems. Because they may have started this war machine up, but despite their position they don't actually have the power it would take to shut it down. It gets lost in the turning of gears and mobilization of warriors, showing how individuals can be swallowed up by the roar of war.

And the Ragged Prince? Well, he may just want the throne because his family was pulled down from it when he was a child, and he's clung to the belief that it is his by blood and right. But he's become so focused on actually gaining the throne that he hasn't thought beyond it. Much like the idea of revenge, it becomes a sweet need... but once you have it, what do you do next? It becomes a hollow ambition, but one he clings to all the harder when it's so central to his identity.

You Need Understandable Antagonists

Even if you don't want your bad guys to be sympathetic, you need them to be understandable. Not only that, but the bigger and more sweeping the actions they're taking are, the more the audience has to be able to understand things from their perspective. They need a resource, they require a technology, their way of life is dying/needs a certain type of support... whatever the reason is, you need to think beyond the old song about how everybody wants to rule the world.

Because most people don't. Most people just want security, resources, and purpose in their lives. And you'd get way more mileage out of a Bill Nye lookalike going back in time and building a tower on the edge of town where he sets up a laboratory to work on perfecting underground refrigeration and indoor plumbing than you would ever get out of that same guy trying to become the new King of the Britons.

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my short story collection The Rejects!

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!