Writing Magic.I have always enjoyed reading books with magic. I loved The Magic Faraway Tree, and Diana Wynne Jones’ novels will always have a very special place in my heart. I’m currently reading VE Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic series, and completely carried away by it. I love the possibility, the beauty, and the darkness that comes with magic, the exploration of worlds and people, of action and consequence.
And I love writing it. It’s like adrenaline, like it’s real, for all the time I’m writing, it fills my mind in a way nothing else really can. And I think it might be addictive. I did set out recently to write something without magic. It was fairly gritty, a bit dark – and by the end of the second page my main character was a mythical, magical creature.
I sat there for quite a while scowling at him on my screen, wondering why he’d done that. It wasn’t the plan. And then I realised that perhaps it was because without magic, it was too painfully real. Life is a beautiful thing but it can be difficult, sometimes tragic, and I just can’t live there in my writing. I have to live somewhere else, where the very best of humanity and the real world is amplified, where our bodies are capable of just as much as our minds can imagine.It’s not to say that real issues aren’t dealt with – A Far Away Magic deals with very real grief, and what it’s like to be set apart from others by the way we look, or the things that have happened to us - or that magic can make everything better; actually, it is non-magical Angel who makes all the difference in A Far Away Magic, with her very human heart, but that with magic, I can find a way to explore all of those issues, in a place that feels just a little bit safer. For me, it’s necessary. My mind won’t have it any other way!
Thank you, Amy, for such a fascinating post! Be sure to visit Amy's website, follow her on Twitter, and check out A Far Away Magic.
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I'd love to read this, thank you x
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