Fantasy and reality, my two favorite opposites, better than Yin and Yang, up and down, Simon and Garfunkel. For me fantasy is about reality, about the perfect balance of what is fake and what can be believable.
There’s a certain magic that happens when something fictional is also realistic. The story becomes more inviting. It’s just so much easier on the imagination. There’s a bridge to help the mind cross the gap from what is to what could be.
I really tried to capture this when writing my newest horror novel, Dead by Dawn. In some chapters it felt important to point out that these creatures didn’t just poof into existence one night by magic, complete with random weaknesses such as holy water and the sun. Instead, I wanted to establish a disease that would create a vampire like mutation inside the human body. As an extension of that, it was also important to show how the sun affects the disease and in turn the vampire as a whole (it causes a microwave affect). The same goes for wood and other vampiric weaknesses.
Human nature is another area where reality and fantasy often fall off track it seems. All too often when things are at their worst, it’s human corruption that steps in and becomes the biggest hurdle for our protagonists. But that’s just not what I see in the real world. Sure there are bad people who take advantage of situations and yes I don’t mind when these characters are magnified to enhance a story, the problem is when they become the story. I like to believe there are more people out there that would band together to help one another and whenever there is a crisis here in our little world, that shows. So if characters are stuck in a hard situation, it should be because of the challenge they face, not the people having an inability to help one another.
There’s a difference between believable and realistic. Vampires running around, sucking up blood and being borderline bullet proof, that’s not believable. But a disease that cuts off cell growth in bone marrow, causing its victim to search out a new way to gain fresh blood in their body, that could be a little more realistic. It’s about walking that thin line, finding what makes the unbelievable, believable. Taking fantasy and turning it into reality.
For me, that’s where the magic in fiction really lies.
I’m currently giving away some of my horror, fantasy, and thriller books on Kindle for free. I’m also planning to publish some new material, such as short stories, side stories to expand existing novel universes, and who knows what else. If you’d care to take a look at some of my books, check me out here: http://wellman-books.launchrock.com/
As a developing author, I’m always trying to learn ways to improve my writing so I‘d love to hear what some of you seasoned writers and readers think. Any critique or feedback is very much appreciated! Thanks.
I totally agree with your observation, “I like to believe there are more people out there that would band together to help one another and whenever there is a crisis here in our little world, that shows.” That’s certainly what we’ve seen in disasters like Katrina, where the government totally drops the ball: people pitch in and help each other out. That idea that the worst aspects of ourselves will come out in a crisis is what keeps me from buying into so many post-apocalyptic and dystopian stories.
You’re so correct in that what draws a reader in and keeps them in the story are the things they can relate to, things that could be, and what’s realistic. Giving the reader reasons for why something could be, allows them to give themselves wholly to the story world you’ve created. It’s almost like giving the reader a grounding rod before letting the lightening strike. And this holds true no matter what genre you write – cardboard villains don’t cut it. There has to be motivation, dark and light, etc. Like the adage that you never fully understand your antagonist unless you understand why he is a protagonist in his own world (sorry, don’t remember who said that originally). Good post and thanks for your thoughts here.