I’m half finished writing the draft of my next novel. Much like my previous work, it's my twist on Low Fantasy. By twist, I mean my hero, Jeremy Pour, is thrust into a world with different rules and different entities, without magic wielders running around trying to get him. Can I even call my story Fantasy without magic? Regardless, it’s still Speculative Fiction. I’m at the point in the story where my hero finally begins to make sense of why he’s in trouble and begins to understand his relationship to the world around him. My heroine is the mysterious Johinda with a connection to Earth in past centuries. Maybe Johinda is not as human as she appears?
When I write my stories, I don’t build out my outline with magic in mind. I don’t sit down and say “here are the cornerstones of what makes Fantasy, Fantasy. Magic—check; strange entities—check; different world—check”. As with my current story, I focus on the characters first, situation second, objectives third, then obstacles. It seems in my thought process, magic never really enters into the equation. Don’t get me wrong, I love stories with magic weaved in, and when done well, are fantastic.
My trilogy, ‘The Bounds,’ has magic, although I never call it magic. In the story, I describe magic as a person’s ability to manipulate energy. As I said in an earlier post, there must be rules and consequences to make magic believable and I detail the boundaries and repercussions in my story.
I think my next story will be magic laden and I'll approach it with magic being an integral element in the story. I already have the concept of what I want to do and if I can pull it off, it’s going to be awesome.
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