The Writer and the Environment

Have you ever considered the environment around or within your house? Look out your living room or bedroom window and study the surroundings. What type of trees, bushes, flowers or weeds are in your yard? What type of bugs and insects inhabit the ecosystem around and within your house? What effect do you have on the ecosystem you are inhabiting? These are some of the questions a science fiction or fantasy writer have to answer when planning a story.

Every planet and plain of existence has its own environment, its own ecosystem. An author has to look at this when planning a story or novel. What effect does the culture of the inhabits of a planet have on the flora and fauna? What effect does an individual character have on his or her surroundings? Does magic effect the plants and animals that live in the ecosystem in which the spells are used? What effect does a star ship putting down on a planet have on the creature of that planet? Do the germs and parasites that inhabit the bodies of the invaders effect the plants and animals of the planet? Do the germs and parasites of the planet effect the invaders?

Remember War of the Worlds and what the germs on Earth did to the Invaders from Mars. A writer has to consider these things when writing about life on other planets. I'm not sure how many writers do consider the environment and the effect it has on the characters or the characters have on the environment. I'm not sure how much I thought about it myself until I started to consider this blog entry today.

However, now that I think about it I'm going to look closely at the novel I'm rewriting. The reason for this is the actions of some of the farmers in the novel do effect the environment. Since I didn't begin with a plan or that novel I'm not sure how it came about concerning the effect of the farmers' actions on the environment. This will help rewriting that novel because now I have something to look at while rewriting.

Now consider what effect we humans have on the environment of Earth. Humanity evolved on Earth, we are as much a part of the ecosystem of the planet as a one celled creature. We effect the environment of Earth and that environment in turn effect us. As long as a balance exist everything works the way its supposed to, but once an imbalance occurs then the whole system is effected.