Giants, perspective and scale
Photo by: Ben Roffelsen
The Importance of Scale
When I first started writing Nation of Giants, I needed a common reference to determine how to write from a giant’s visual perspective. I remember walking by a hydro crew doing work on the poles on our street. I asked them how high the pole stood, and they said 40-feet. As giants are 20-feet in Nation of Giants, this meant they stood near the middle point of the pole, or at the bottom wire. This was helpful as I wrote, because I could always look outside my window to see how tall the giants are, and if someone (a common human) walked by, I could also see how tall they are in comparison.
I felt quite confident after I finished my first draft, and I was certain there were no problems with perspective and scale in Nation of Giants. Then my editor, Ellen Michelle, suggested my scale was off the mark. Specifically, she zeroed in on a passage describing a giant’s foot as being slightly smaller than a common human’s upper torso. She did some research, and suggested a 20-foot giant would have very small feet if they were only the size of a common human’s chest. She was correct, and in my re-write I felt a bit more descriptive language would be useful, especially during first-contact scenes, like the following :
2017 first draft pre- edit:
“Before he knew it, Purity was through the gate and approaching the beast. Purity wore his black vestments and carried a long gun. As he approached the giant, Charter could see just how diminutive common humans were before the giants, and at that moment he felt a fear he had not felt before. His stomach loosened and threatened to spill its contents at either end. Nearby one of the soldiers vomited, and Charter knew he wasn’t the only one feeling this dread.”
2018 second draft:
“Before he knew it, Purity was through the gate and approaching the misshapen giant. Purity wore his black vestments and carried a long gun. As he approached the giant, Tholas could see just how diminutive common humans were before the giants, and at that moment he felt a fear he had not felt before.* This foolhardy acolyte stood as high as the giant’s knee, and the giant’s foot was considerably larger than the man’s upper torso. All the beast had to do was step on the runt-like acolyte and it would be over with a sickening crunch. His stomach loosened and threatened to spill its contents at either end. Nearby, one of the soldiers vomited, and Tholas knew he wasn’t the only one feeling this dread.”
*Yeah, I know this is redundant, I fixed it for draft three.
Scale
Another site Ellen directed me to belongs to Mr. Initial Man, a fantastic page that allowed me to reference just how tall a common human would be in comparison to a 20-foot tall giant. This would be the height comparison of a giant and someone who stands 5’8″: