Write What You'll Never Know
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “Write what you know.” Few people interpret that correctly. Especially if what you write is speculative fiction. I’ve never moved through a realm using mirrors. I don’t have the ability to summon up spirits. And believe it or not, becoming a monarch of any kingdom, magical or otherwise, is beyond my lived experience. And yet, these are all things I’ve written about in my series and in short stories.
“Write what you know” really means, learn. You want to write about an astronaut, learn about astrophysics. A medical thriller? Better find some info about medicine. What if you write fantasy or sci-fi?
Some writers of speculative fiction take the tack of answering any sticky questions by throwing magic at it and some do it well. Some don’t. I prefer (and I know this will sound counterintuitive) to make my magic as realistic as possible. Why? Because
I like to think we’re standing on the hairy edge of seeing all the magic, like stories about being whisked to Faery and as terrifying as that sounds, I’d like to make it happen
The realer it sounds, the more realistic the imaginary world will feel.
This, however, means I need to make some decisions about my story and “research the periphery.” What do I mean by that? Whatever surrounds your magic should sound as plausible as possible or at least have an explanation for the fantastical. For example, one of my projects involves a dragon shifter. This is not a new concept, but I’ve had issues with regular sized people suddenly growing to colossal proportions.
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Where does all that mass come from? Where does it go?
I know plenty of people who are fine with this phenomenon and say, “It’s magic” but I don’t like that answer. It’s like an itch inside my brain.
Instead, I figured out how my character carries extra mass both sub-dermally and skeletally. It’s a small thing, but it made me feel better about the process of shifting. It may never make it into the story, but I know and sometimes, it’s enough.
How about you? Do you like your magic based in reality? Can you “go with the flow”?