Writing Modern Fantasy

[Cia]

Okay, so anyone who has read my works, gay or straight stories, can tell that I like a hefty dose of fantasy, magical and paranormal, with my reality. I like to create things that cannot be in this world, yet set my story in this world. I consider this to be 'Modern Fantasy'. That has become a very popular subset of fantasy, with Harry Potter, Twilight (yes, haters be quiet, it is still a contribution to the genre), Black Dagger Brotherhood, New Species Organization ... just to name a few.

 

Now, a lot of people think with fantasy that anything goes. Well, to some extent, that is true. You can create the fantastical, like a whole new world contained within speck that a talking elephant rescues, or you can take a scientific phenomenon like a black hole and turn it into a space surfing route for humans to travel the galaxy. That's the beauty of it! The interesting part comes when you mix it in with the world as people know it today.

 

How does it fit? How do you explain it? Is it a shock to everyone, like werewolves suddenly admitting they exist to the world at large, or have they evolved along side people and everyone has always known? Is it still a secret from the world at large but the main characters, and the reader, get to be the privileged few that find out about the magic hidden away from prying eyes? That's the question you really have to figure out; how do you make the implausible become plausible? How do you make the unrealistic come alive in the reader's mind?

 

It's not easy, I guarantee it! I once had a reader tell me that they loved one of my series, simply because the characters, who really aren't human, are people they can see. They have otherworldly characteristics but I made it so believable and it worked so well in the modern world I created that they felt like real people they wanted to meet and get to know. That was a compliment of the highest order, because that is EXACTLY what I think a writer of modern fantasy should strive for.

 

However, there are some rules, or perhaps you might call it a formula, to create a 'modern fantasy' story, imo.

 

1. Your main plot event MUST be something that isn't possible in our world, as we know it.

2. The setting should be Earth, as we know it, or as close to as we know it as possible.

3. The special characters should seem human, but make them your own special twist. They don't have to look human, per se, but give them that something that makes them seem like a neighbor, or a person on the bus, or in the grocery store that you could walk up to and say hello. They should be both ordinary and extraordinary.

4. The solution that overcomes the plot obstacle can often be something magical, or fantastical, as it were.

 

A few examples of ideas I've bandied about:

 

Spoof the Iditarod: Have a human racing through freezing black holes in space with the help of a space person/animal that is like a sled dog guide, in order to find some magical cure for a deadly plague on Earth. The cure might not be magical on whatever alternate Earth they'd find it on, but it could be on Earth they come from. The main plot event is finding the cure in space, the setting is earth-both alternate and 'real' and 1 character could be human, and another human like but with fantastical powers. Obviously, the cure would seem magical on the Earth the character is trying to save.

 

Gift a person with the ability to control their body down to a cellular level. Then say they were captured by the government and forced to produce stem cells that were being grown into embryos or even children that were being used as experiments. But... if that person had the ability to control their cells... would they destroy the embryos and children if they found out what was going on? How would they not know about it, unless they were being kept in stasis? Would they have say, a psychic type link, to any 'body' created by the cells if they were aware of them? A story like that could go in many directions.

 

 

So as you can see, it is relatively easy to take something that is 'modern and real' and make it into 'modern and fantastical'. If that's a genre you're interested in, try it out! I'd love to see your stories, so if you do, link it here!

[The Pecman]

To me, the general rules of good story telling always apply, even with Fantasy and to SF. One of the best that I've used over the years is: the central characters have to want something. For example, Harry Potter wants to stop Voldemort and avenge his parents' deaths. To me, this is pretty straightforward. Everything else is just window-dressing, whether the characters have powers or there's some other fantastic element.

 

I like the fact that in J.K. Rowling's case, she spent almost a year setting down rules and limitations of the characters' power, and religiously stuck to them throughout the novels. For example, the wizards' power could not bring somebody back from the dead, nor could it create a living thing (particularly something as basic as food). Without the limitations, you wind up with characters who have no weaknesses, and it doesn't make for a very interesting story.

 

I find that often, the characters' weaknesses and flaws can be pivotal, particularly when they find ways to overcome them (or wind up with enormous problems because of them). In some cases, the solutions are not magical at all, but boil down to something as simple as friendship, loyalty, courage, even love. Tolkien's work is filled with stuff like this, where the adventure of the story boiled down to bravery, not necessarily any special powers. Sometimes, when the hero's power fails is when they're tested the most: Superman facing Kryptonite, a vampire threatened by the blinding sun, Harry Potter having a duel with Voldemort. I think the magic is often in the emotion of the character, and how they change over time. 

[Ieshwar]

Well-said. Flawed characters are the best. If I can add, the limitations should not only be restricted to the powers but also with the personality of the characters also. Continuing the example of Harry, he was a simple boy with horrible mood swings (remember the rage bursts in book 5) and dealing with the everyday little problems that we all face. He wasn't the most intelligent, the most beautiful. Like he said in book 1, he was "Harry, just Harry." 

 

A well-rounded character should have flaws. And qualities of course. 

 

Really interesting topic.

 

Cheers

Ieshwar

[The Pecman]

Well-said. Flawed characters are the best. If I can add, the limitations should not only be restricted to the powers but also with the personality of the characters also. Continuing the example of Harry, he was a simple boy with horrible mood swings (remember the rage bursts in book 5) and dealing with the everyday little problems that we all face.

 

Yes, I thought Book 5 (Order of the Phoenix) was the best book overall, and I was floored that the movie completely eliminated Harry's terrible outburst where he pretty much destroyed Dumbledore's office after finding out that he would have to die in order to defeat Voldemort. It was a powerful moment that never happened in the movie. 

 

I thought one of the greatest character flaws revealed in the Harry Potter stories was the revelation that Harry's own father was a jerk, and had tormented teenage Snape (hanging him upside down and pulling off his pants, if memory serves). I think these shadings showed that many of the characters were more well-rounded than we initially expected -- even the discovery that Snape was pitiable and very human. 

 

Twilight doesn't do much for me. To me, it's just a modern spin on the Anne Rice books, many of which I think were very well done. I particularly dislike Stephenie Meyer's breaking of all known vampire rules: having them walk in the sun, seen by mirrors, crosses having no effect, vampires having sex, and so on. To me, it's just ludicrous -- but clearly, there's a huge audience for this crap. Hunger Games at least makes some kind of vague logical sense to me.

[Cia]

Blending the expected bits of modern society with your fantasy is vital when you cross genres. Fantasy characters need to feel human to readers to make them relatable. Adding in foibles or characteristics we can understand can make them someone/thing we can understand. Determining the rules of your world and how they can be like ours, and how they differ, is vital so you can explain those elements. Fantasy can let men be pregnant, or make a rabbit talk, or blend a person and animal into a new species... but above all, it must make sense. That angle is a bit different than what I was intending the discussion on this to be, however, you can find other discussions on follow the 'rules' of  our world on GA too. They're both important elements to creating a great story.