When I was writing one of my first
fantasy stories, I came across the conundrum that I ask about in the title of
this article.
My main character was a young girl
from a small village who had been selected by the officials from her government
to become a magician’s apprentice. I had the entire story laid out: the
character’s initial resistance to her calling, her travels to the big city
whereupon she was to conduct her training, the first meeting with the wizard
who would transform her. I wrote a good portion of the initial story with few
problems, but then I had to explain my main characters magical training, and
that’s when my troubles began.
I wondered how I could explain the
magic powers I wanted to have in my story, powers that read as distinct from
anything else out there. Every author has their own take on magic: J.K.
Rowling’s magical realm is governed by lessons in spells and skills with a
wand; J.R.R. Tolkien’s magic had a mystical quality that was never explicitly
explained; countless other fantasy writers put their own stamp on magic. So how
can I write something that won’t look like I’m copycatting my peers and predecessors?
This is a problem that many
authors—fantasy or otherwise—run into when they’re writing a new story in a
familiar genre. Vampire authors worry that they’ll retread ground covered in
the Twilight franchise or the tales
in Anne Rice’s southern gothic novels. Romance authors fear that their material
doesn’t bring anything new to the table, and sci-fi writers fret about whether
or not they’re being innovative enough with their futuristic settings. The
anxiety of originality is something that plagues us all.
The thing that I had to learn the hard
way is that there’s no use worrying about how my readers might or might not
react to my writing. Whether I envisioned a world where
magic is held by a few chosen people or if it’s something that everyone
possess; it doesn’t matter because it’s my
vision. I just had to write the story as I initially saw it and stick with
my ideas if I ever wanted to finish it. I stopped worrying about whether or not
my story would read as a Harry Potter fanfic
and focused on telling the story of a magician’s apprentice as well as I could,
drawing on all the experiences in my life as a devoted reader of fantasy.
As writers, we have to trust ourselves
to flesh out ideas that initially seem like they’re just a copy of someone
else’s work. If we ever expect to write something of our own, we have to push
through the anxiety that our work will look too derivative and keep working
until that half-baked idea becomes a fully realized story. We have to trust
ourselves that we can explain magic or vampires or romance, if we just give ourselves
the chance to do so.
Angelita Williams is a blogger who
writes about education, teaching, and the college student experience. Nothing
makes her happier than reading about student success in and out of
the classroom. Get in touch with Angelita at angelita.williams7@gmail.com.
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