Notes from New York: Meshing Fantasy with Reality

Welcome back to Notes from New York. Last week we talked about world building, but this week we are going to dive into a more specific kind of world building: meshing fantasy with reality.

Contemporary fantasy, urban fantasy, magical realism and a host of other genres involve placing magical elements into our normal, everyday world. It can be a great way to view modern day issues through a different lens or just spice up the mundane. It’s an extremely popular method of world building and most comic books make use of this trope with great success, in addition to a swath of movies, TV shows and, of course, novels.

However, just because your book takes place in the modern world doesn’t mean the world building is any easier. In fact often times, meshing fantasy with reality can be difficult. So here’s some problems I’ve noticed in these genres and how to fix them.

1. Not fully integrated

Sometimes it seems like the author tossed in a fantastical element without really thinking about how it would affect the world. Like sure, a vampire society sounds cool, but how the heck hasn’t anyone gotten suspicious, considering all of the people drained of blood? If there are magicians that cause such disturbances, why is everyone so aggressively dumb to the magic going on around them? A lot of books come up with various ways to explain this. Memory charms, hallucinations etc. But if you don’t acknowledge how your magic society deals with the outside world, then it becomes a plot hole. Conversely, if the magic elements are fully integrated and everyone knows about them, how has that changed and shaped society? If it hasn’t had some significant effect, then your world won’t seem very well thought out.

2. Skimping on the setting

Just because you’re not making up the world doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give as much detail to the setting of your novel. Your job is still to root your reader in the story and maybe they haven’t been to the city where your book takes place. Make sure you still do your research and know what you’re talking about or the world will seem quite inauthentic.

3. They Just Don’t Mesh

Sometimes fantasy elements can seem downright random. I read a manuscript in which a fairytale like buddy comedy was mixed with a real life abusive relationship and it just did not pair at all. The fantastical elements felt so random and poorly integrated that sometimes I thought I was reading two different books. Make sure your fantastical and realistic aspects are all wholly necessary to the story you are trying to tell and take time to seamlessly fit them together.

In some ways, I think contemporary fantasy is even harder than inventing a world from scratch, because you do have to play by certain rules. However, so long as you focus just as much on the world building, your manuscript is sure to draw in readers.

Notes from New York: World building is Important

Welcome back to Notes from New York! Let’s continue with more tips for preparing your book for submission. This week: World building.

Obviously I’ve posted a lot on this beforehand, given that it’s a pretty prominent part of my favorite genres. I even started a Vlog series on it that I hopefully get back to soon. I really enjoy talking about it and actually doing it. But world building is also an exceedingly difficult thing. There are a lot of elements to take into account to make your world a fully fleshed out reality.

And that’s the key here: fully fleshed out. It’s pretty easy to spot a fantasy world as thin as parchment paper. While it theoretically exists on the page, there’s clearly no foundation holding it up. It shows that a writer wanted to tell their story in a fantasy world but thought way more about the story than the world itself. Sometimes it seems like they’re making up the world on the fly, and that always shows loud and clear.

In fantasy, the world is a character. You want to give it the same development as your protagonist, maybe even more so. Worlds are, after all, more complicated than people. And when querying you can’t get away with an under developed world because a lot of awesome fantasy comes through the slush. I read more than one MS that had me ridiculously excited because of its unique world. A lackluster world pales in comparison to that. So before you query your fantasy, here are a few tips:

1. Consider all of the main aspects of your world including: Geography, government, history, economy, religion, culture, technology etc. You should understand these things even if they don’t play a huge role in your story. Because if you don’t, the gaps will show

2. Don’t skimp on the setting. Setting gives us a picture of your world and places us inside of it. So focus on your descriptions in order to envelop the reader in your world

3. Don’t use stock fantasy worlds. The typical medieval fantasy setting with few variants is played out. If you want to catch someone’s interest, make sure the world has something new to it, be it a magic element, a technology element, or a cultural element. If you’re going to stand out in a sea of stock fantasy worlds, you need to add some new twist.

World building is obviously much more complicated than that, but it’s important to know that agents can often tell even from the query and first pages whether or not your world is well thought out. So develop that setting and make your world shine! Your book will improve right along with it.

Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Jumping out of the YA pile for a week, let’s look today at The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. This was a book my grandmother gave to me, so of course, I assumed it would be good. My grandmother has excellent taste and she worked at a bookstore called The Book Bin, for a while, so she’s seen a lot of books. But when I eventually got around to reading Shadow of the Wind did it live up to my expectations? Let’s find out.

The Plot: Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

Characters: There are honestly too many amazing characters to count in this book. They’re all very life like and real and oftentimes funny. I love Fermin for his lust for life layered over a tragic past. Lain Coubert gives me chills up my spine. Julián Carax' past is layered in a well told mystery. Most importantly, the main character Daniel is very likable. He doesn’t always do likable things, but you understand him. He isn’t the most interesting character in the room but he reacts well off his more intriguing counterparts. This is a huge cast, and their arcs are woven through the plot with expert ease.

The Good Points: I’ve talked plenty about the characters but the real strength in this book lies in two things. First off, the plot. This is a bit of a mystery story as Daniel is investigating the life of Julian Carax while trying to figure out who is burning all of his books and why. The past and present fit together like perfect puzzle pieces. Its hard to pull off a story that jumps between time periods but this book is never slow, nor is it confusing. The ending, as well, is absolutely nail biting and wonderful.

But the greatest strength of the book is the prose. The prose are just the most gorgeous thing. You feel the weight and beauty of Barcelona in every word. The atmosphere of this book just envelopes you. And there are too many beautiful lines to count. Go through this book with a high lighter. To me this book is the prose equivalent of melted milk chocolate. The entire plot could be rubbish and I wouldn’t even care. It’s just so pretty. Luckily the plot isn’t rubbish, so this makes The Shadow of the Wind an exciting and gorgeous journey.

The Bad Points: Lol, what bad points. I might say that the book is long and might be slow in parts for some people but I loved it, so that’s hardly a criticism from me. Go read this book.

The Shadow of the Wind has taken its place as one of my favorite books of all time. It reads like a classic, and perhaps it will go down in history as one. If you’re in the mood for some literary historical fiction, pick this one up today. You won’t be disappointed.

Final Rating: 5/5 stars

Edit 5: Description and Setting

Back with another edit! We’re halfway there, and now that we’ve edited a lot of our larger elements (the plot, world and characters) its time to get a little smaller. This is the description and setting edit!

This is probably my least favorite edit to do. Like… ever. If character and dialogue writing is my strength, descriptive writing I my kryptonite. Don’t get me wrong, I know that its important. I greatly admire writers that can weave prose together in a way that makes your brain melt. I get all fangirly over literary prose.

But writing literary prose? Nope.

 It’s one of my greatest struggles as a writer. Which means that this edit takes quite a bit of effort and concentration. It requires choosing my words carefully in order to not seem to cliché. It takes reading some of my favorite books to get myself in the descriptive mood. It means scrolling through pinterest for hours looking at pretty pictures.

Okay, maybe that last one is just me avoiding my work. So what does this edit require? Well it requires looking at the beginning of each chapter and scene to make sure the setting is defined. It also means deciding a clear aesthetic for each location, which if you’re writing fantasy, means a lot. On a smaller level, it requires paying attention to character descriptions.

Also fight scenes.

Freaking fight scenes. I sure can picture them clearly in my mind but translation them into words, the attempt can be clumsy at best. I sometimes need a separate edit just for fight scenes. And in the case of my current WIP, I’ll probably take that extra edit. And I’m not looking forward to it.

But we all have our painful edits and this is mine. What’s yours? Let us share our pain together and then get our rears in gear and fix it!

Edit 2: World Building

It’s week 2 of my editing so let’s talk about the world building edit!

Oh world building. Why must you hurt me so? I guess it’s my fault in the case of this book for making such an overly convoluted world. I never take it easy on myself when it comes to the world building, mostly because my favorite fantasy novels like Lord of the Rings, Mistborn and Game of Thrones all have extremely involved worlds. Heck, the world of my favorite books of all time, Harry Potter, has an incredibly intricate and complicated history. Even though its not always at the forefront, really good world building can MAKE a story.

But it’s hard. Oh is it hard. This is the edit where info dumping becomes a huge issue. You have to give enough info to make the story make sense, but too much info sounds awkward and forced. No one wants to read a history text book in the middle of their fiction.

I’ve talked about world building before here, and what I said there holds true. World building is a dragon, awesome if it works for you, deadly to your novel if it doesn’t.

That you do world building edit. That you do.

In the case of my current MS, there’s a lot of world building to be fleshed out. The devil is in the details, and those are what I need to focus on to make the world come alive. And then of course there’s those info dumps. But they’ll be meeting the delete key very soon.

Don’t think you’re off the hook with a world building edit if you’re not writing fantasy though. World building, of course, is an important element of every story, whether its fantasy or not. Even in the real world, you have to have your facts straight depending on the time period or place. So next time you’re editing an MS, take a look at the world building. Your readers will thank you for it later.