As I’ve been writing The Cauldron (name still pending), the first book in my new urban fantasy series, I’ve been dealing with a lot of facts vs. fiction friction. The Cauldron takes place in the same world as Nightshade Academy, which means it’s basically our world but with magic (and also a parallel world, which we aren’t going to get into for this discussion). I’ve found that setting a story in the “real world” comes with extra pressure. If I place my story in a real town, for example, a reader from that town could easily get kicked out of the story if the town I present is nothing like the one they know. The same goes if I give a character a profession that doesn’t line up with someone’s experiences in that profession. The Cauldron has taught me how daunting it can be to use the proper terminology for either of those things.
Writing is hard, and no matter how much research, how much you pay an expert for their help, how many rounds of revisions and edits you go through, something will always be wrong. A story will never be perfect. That’s something I have to tell myself constantly, or I’d never publish anything. The fact is, I’ll never live long enough to be an expert on every little thing I’m writing about. And, to be perfectly honest, I care about magic first. I write fantasy for a reason. It’s strange, though, because I want that magic to feel real. I certainly want my characters to feel real, but does that mean I need to be a psychologist?
I wonder.
There are many kinds of stories. Some make you laugh, others make you cry, and still others give you whiplash with the range of emotions they make you experience. Stories are, in my opinion, first and foremost an emotional experience. I’ll forgive a surprising number of mistakes or questionable logic if a story resonates with me. I think that’s true for most people. I mean, how many Star Wars fans wonder about how conveniently doors open or close, based on the needs of the plot, when a character blasts the control panel? Now, Star Wars is by no means a hard sci-fi, so there are different expectations as well, which brings me back to my struggle. I don’t aspire to write hard sci-fi (though if I was a genius and knew all that stuff, I actually would because it’s hella cool), but when I’m writing a real-world setting, I want it to be believable, just as I want my complete fantasy worlds to be believable.
Sometimes, I have to find a way to make the logic work around the drama, because the drama is just too damn good. That’s my current writing update. Wish me luck.
