The Magic of the Ordinary

Fantasy is, all in all, about the unreal, the unusual. In a way, one basic definition of fantasy could be thought of as, “Anything that is not possible becomes possible.”

But in some ways, I think that fantasy can be at its most memorable when it goes a little bit in the other direction. When the stories aren’t just about dragons and wizards and enchanted swords, but about ordinary, mundane things.

Think about it. How many people have had their picture taken by a certain wall between platforms 9 and 10 in London’s King Cross Station?  Or paused an extra moment at the zoo to admire the owls? 

Junior postmen in training! 

(Photo taken by Artur Mikołajewski (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), 

CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.0  (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

How many people, after reading Alice Through the Looking Glass, peered extra hard into their mirrors, looking for that other world? And how many children have poked around at the back of wardrobes, looking for other worlds? 

You could argue that urban fantasy does this a lot. And yet, I don't find myself checking around street corners for vampires (though one time, there was a zombie walk in San Diego that I hadn't heard about, and I was a bit surprised for a moment to see some blood-covered people shambling down the street...). I think there needs to be a balance. The ordinary objects need to be something that stands out among all the magic, so that they are the exception rather than the rule.

And when that balance is right, I think it can get at the most powerful potential of fantasy, of any story: to take us out of our regular lives, and for one moment, put us somewhere magical.

What objects have books made magical for you? 

Magic Will Set Them Free

"I saw the angel in the marble
and I carved until I set him free."
Michelangelo

Last week, Sabrina wrote an excellent post about rationalizing magic. I can attest that she is amazing at coming up with story ideas. She says that often, after she comes up with the story idea, the scientist in her takes over, and by the time she's figured out the minutiae of the rules to the magic, she's lost interest in the story.  She asks:

As a reader, how much logic do you expect from magic systems?...And how do you, as writers, handle ideas that seem cool but don't make immediate logical sense? How do you explain them without getting frustrated?

Here's my answer: Both as a reader and as a writer, I expect perfect logic from a magical system. However, I don't want it over-explained. I want it to unfold so naturally that I don't notice that I'm being taught the rules to a new world.

Something in my subconscious tells me when I'm crossing a logic line, so I tell the story. As I tell the story, the rules unfold to me, and by the end, I understand them. Then I know what the reader will need, and I can go back and fill in the missing pieces, or take a few unnecessary pieces out.

Museo Subacuatico de Arte:
The Dream Collector (El Coleccionista de Suenos)
By: Jason deCaires Taylor

Evangeline Lilly
by: Adam Beane

 To me, creating a story is like making a sculpture. The story idea is the medium I make the sculpture from. The image I'm creating is my main character, and I find her (or sometimes him) by looking at my medium until I see her staring back at me. The magic (or science) is the tool I use to carve the character out.

"Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task
of the sculptor to discover it." Michelangelo

I come up with two, possibly three good story ideas a year, so I'm extremely careful with mine when they come. This is where I think Sabrina and I vary. Because of this, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about magic until later on. I need to spend more. I did some prewriting exercises with Sabrina and Sheena a few weeks ago, and I learned so much from them.

But perhaps my style can help people like Sabrina the way her style helped me. Trust in your subconscious to figure out the rules of magic. Mine has never steered me wrong yet. Instead, you've got your story idea. Discover your characters next, and use the magic to set them free.

Two views of The Gardener, several years apart
by: Jason deCaires Taylor