The magical and fantastical isn't something I'm uncomfortable with in books, and I chafe slightly at the idea that a purely realist novel somehow has more value.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
In all my books, I try to have a strong element of realism underlying the fantastic.
Fantastic fiction covers fantasy, horror and science fiction - and it doesn't get the attention it deserves from the literati.
Good fiction must be entertaining, but what makes fiction special - and True - is that the realness of a novel allows it to carry a larger message.
Realism isn't something most people associate with the fantasy genre, yet it's an essential element of great fantasy writing.
It's weirder and more surprising than the other books. I think there are more places where it's just more reality bending, deliberately so. I think it's a lot more emotionally raw.
When writing fantastical literature, your biggest problem is getting your audience to believe the fantastical elements of your story.
I have for a long time loved fabulist, imaginative fiction, such as the writing of Italo Calvino, Jose Saramago, Michael Bulgakov, and Salman Rushdie. I also like the magic realist writers, such as Borges and Marquez, and feel that interesting truths can be learned about our world by exploring highly distorted worlds.
As with all types of writing, fantastical fiction depends on the same basic rules.
The writer must face the fact that ordinary lives are what most people live most of the time, and that the novel as a narration of the fantastic and the adventurous is really an escapist plot; that aesthetically, the ordinary, the banal, is what you must deal with.
I don't care whether the story is real or fantastical. I tell the story that needs to be told.
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