I'm wondering how to add more fantasy to my visionary fiction.

[Arranah]

I need a way to free my imagination. I like the fantasy elements. I was told by a publisher that my last completed novel was fantasy. Cool, but.... I'm really not sure how to slip into more fantasy without it sounding trite and stupid. Any ideas? I'm not new to writing, just new to writing fantasy.

Can someone clarify the difference between visionary fiction and fantasy.

 

[Devor]

Can someone clarify the difference between visionary fiction and fantasy.

I would love to hear more about what you're doing.

From a quick wikipedia search, apparently visionary fiction is about teaching people to expand their mind and improve their lives, but by doing so within the context of a story. Fantasy is about telling a story in another world, breaking the laws of physics and the boundaries of the world to tell an impossible tale - escapist, as it were. The Chronicles of Narnia might be an example of where the two genres overlap.

My first thought, if I were to try to write and combine the genres, would be to create some kind of an urban fiction story trying to address poverty, using various magical elements to represent things like drugs, gangs, government assistance, private charities, and mental illness and their effects on the situation.

 

[Feo Takahari]

I've never previously heard the term "visionary fiction"--is this yet another name for slipstream/magical realism/new weird/Fabulism? If so, don't worry too much about the distinction. Plenty of great authors play a merry game of hopscotch along the line (like Kafka or Mieville.) Just write whatever comes to mind, and let your publisher determine which genre to market it.

Edit: Okay, so it's different from that. Still, I think you're at a disadvantage if you start by trying to write a fantasy, rather than starting by trying to write an interesting idea that may or may not turn into fantasy when fleshed out.

 

[Arranah]

Okay, then Devor, the publisher I sent my last manuscript to was wrong. She called the work fantasy even though it really was just a little magical, kind of like the magical realism that Feo Takahari is talking about. In nonfiction, it's called New Age. In fiction it's called visionary or magical realism. I don't know what new weird or Fabulism is, so I can't address that.

I started my writing career writing a true crime story--my brother shot his neighbors. It took me ten years. I learned to write on that book. For my next three novels I was working something through in fiction form, and yes, it was to help people improve their lives. I needed elements of the spiritual to help me cope, so I wrote it in. After that, I wrote a work where a person's past life overlaps her present life. It was sort of historical. After that I wrote the one that was called a fantasy. I started a sequel to that one, and I wanted to overlay a little more fantasy onto the storyline. I just got stuck. Not that I couldn't write anything, but what I did write seemed trite. So, I set it aside and started another one. Now I'm thinking I could splice the two books. I'm eight chapters into one and three chapters into the next. The people in my current stories somehow are connected to another world or dimension. Not sure yet. I just don't want to get stuck in the same old rut that says the world is going to crud. Yeah, it is, but how many times do we need to write about it in the woe is me kind of way. So....

 

[JCFarnham]

Is the world your creating going to crud? Really? What I mean is, is that necessary for the story?

It sounds to me as though you have the perfect background skills required in order to write a truly touching piece of writing. Treat these more fantastical outings as the same as everything else you've written. You have your style, you like trying to say something with your writing, so just channel that. That's what you're good at right? Find out what you're really trying to say with these books. I'm wondering whether the problem here is not how fantastical the works are but you losing sight of the message.

In the end, we write what ever comes to us. There's no point in forcing something that isn't true. So here's my advice:

1) Find that core theme/message and run with it.
2) The necessities of story will dictate how far you need to push the fantastic.

I too have drastically altered the chronology and pacing of a series of novels. In the case of these specific novels it closed up a lot of glaring holes and generally made things neater. I started out wanting to write a stand alone epic space opera novel (Which I did for Nano '11), but then I realised it was getting way too complicated. The writing needed more room to breath. I was skipping through events like it was a race rather than treating them how they needed to be. And so I made the decision to split the book in two. I mean, it already wanted to be two books, it had two climaxes for goodness sake but I was blinded from seeing it until I took some time out to think about it.

My experience could certainly be flipped and applied to you. Does there need to be two books if they both address the same core theme? Now, there can certainly be overlap in a series, in fact there probably should be, but you don't want two books doing exactly the same job. People will be wondering whether its worth reading both.

More advice:
3) Take a breather, and assess what the story wants to be. What is organic for it?
4) think about points 1) and 2), naturally.

 

[Arranah]

JC,

Thank you for taking the time to address my concerns. My major problem with the writing is that I've been going through some major life changes. To be straightforward, my mom died and my family completely fell apart. Now, I find myself drawn to the old ones who passed on before. Not my mom, but a couple of grand aunts and a great grandmother, feisty old women who didn't put up with anything. So my first "fantasy" story was about them. It was fun. I needed fun in my life while my mom was dying. Now, I want these old ones to come sit with me and share their wisdom. I decided the personality of the protagonist was to be based on my older friend Tosca, who passed away ten years ago. I started the story and suddenly she developed wings, honest to God wings. She's supposedly human. Since I liked the stuff with the wings, I decided to adapt the story. It started out to be a save the world story, but I realized I was tired of writing that stuff.

One of my underlying themes is that everyone has something to offer, something to give. In my personal life I like to encourage people to follow their bliss. In my stories my characters often have to figure their way around obstacles so they can do this. The Tosca character is already following her bliss. She meets others who are to help her with the primary goals of the story, but they are not advanced the way she is. I brought in the old women from the previous story, but they didn't fit. I kept Tosca and created some new characters.

I lost the thread of the story when my mom actually died. So, I worked on healing myself, took a breather and decided to start a new story about a woman who was trying to head out in a new direction. She suddenly found that she was literally bringing people back to life. The bottom line is that in my story I want to sit down with some of my characters and have them help me through some stuff. I'm not sure where it's going because I haven't been there yet. My writing is therapy for me. When I complete a story, first draft, I go through and take out the stuff that only applies to me. Hope that makes sense.

Thanks again.

 

[JCFarnham]

If I had a life I would certainly write about it like you... Alas!

It honestly sounds like, if we're treating this as therapy, you'll need to figure this out for yourself. I mean that in a nice way of course I mean, you're trying to make sense of the situation through the story, right? So perhaps if the story isn't working you haven't resolved the story's "muse" if you see what I mean.

I've done it for others, so if/when you have a story line I'd be happy to work through it with you (if you can find me on chat..) - At least to give you my spin on the work, or just to listen if you need to bounce some ideas around.

 

[gavintonks]

I think we are far to fixated on labels, write a good story and let people fall over themselves to create a niche for it

 

[The Dark One]

I think we are far to fixated on labels, write a good story and let people fall over themselves to create a niche for it

That's twice I've agreed with your left-field, curmudgeonly advice tonight gavin.

Well played that fellow.

 

[Arranah]

Thanks, Gavin and The Dark One. What my problem is, is to become more creative in a fantasy sense. I have to stimulate my imagination in that direction. That's what I'm trying to figure out how to do - new avenues of expression, how to create that.

You're right JC. I do have to figure it out myself. I just gotta figure out how to free my creativity to attack something in a new way. I'll look for you in chat. Thanks for the offer.

 

[gavintonks]

being a designer one becomes very attune to the fact there is no really new creations only adaptions of existing so I find if you make lists and choose a style it becomes a matter of choices, then it simplifies everything

 

[Arranah]

Thanks for your thoughts. You're saying there is nothing new under the sun. But I really like to create a sense of freshness to the story. I remember being at a writers' conference once where Sterling Silliphant, the movie producer and screen writer, said that one of the problems with writing now is that too many people don't have direct life experience. They learn writing skills in college and then go out with a masters in writing and try to create something...that's why the movies have so many chase scenes. He said that in the old days, people had hard lives. They flavored their writing with those experiences and created masterpieces. Since I'm not a formula writer, and I've had some hard life experiences, I always hope to come up with fresh ideas, or at least fresh flavors.