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| The
Real Magic of Fantasy Writing
When I was thirteen, I went to the College of Magic, to learn all I
could. It was kind of a Harry Potter school for stage magicians - there
are rabbits coming out of hats, white doves flapping about and silk
scarves that turned into ropes. I sat down eagerly to my first class,
apprentice wizard that I was. I was told there is no magic. I was told
it is all illusion, all trickery, all a sham. I couldn't have been more
disappointed. What followed were three years of interesting sleight of hand techniques, visual effects and misdirection. They were right; there was no magic in it. They only used clever dyes, trick card decks and boxes with false bottoms. But I did not believe them that there was no magic at all. It was just that they had no magic to offer. I believe in magic, and so I found a way to work with it, or rather, it found me. I am a writer, a fantasy writer, and I work with magic all day long. Sure, it has taken me on a dark and lonely road, but I knew that when I began. Writing gives you the power to create. And as you create your tale, a man becomes a being, a character becomes a person whom you know, your creation comes alive as you spend more of your waking hours in their world. Writing is always a study of the human condition, even when you write of landscapes and weather, something of how they feel to the observer comes through. To understand a carpenter, write about a carpenter. You will spend so much time learning about the carpenter's way, about what they do, how they do it, what is important to such a man, what drives him to excell in his art, what troubles him. I write what I want to learn about. What do I want to learn? I want to learn how to do magic. And so, I chose to write about a young wizard, learning her way in a world where magic is a raw force. By working with wizards, by standing up close to them, I begin to understand what it is they do, and how they do it. I hope to one day be a Master. Then I'll just transport the whole audience with a wave of my hand and you'll see the fantasy world for real, but for now, you'll have to settle for my book. Writing gives the writer a gateway to a deep and timeless realm. Some call it the Aether. Some the Astral plane. I call it Heightened Awareness. It is where the Muse speaks to me, and I feel wise and gifted when I am there, even though I know I shall lose that feeling the moment I walk out of the writing room door. It is what makes me come back, day after day, to write. I've spent many years flying paragliders, soaring to 4000m above the earth and crossing giant mountains, yet I still say there is no higher high than the rush that comes with engaging the Muse, the deep meditative wonder of inspiration. Yes I place my characters in a framework of my own making, but that framework comes to me when I'm engaging the Muse. I suppose it's like channelling a spirit. I speak to myself. I hear a voice that is an infinitely wiser one than the voice I use to talk to the world. It is hard to record the thoughts that flood down upon me. Too many thoughts, too rich, too elevated for me to grasp sometimes, though I feel them pass through my entire being. Sometimes I forget to write the words, for it can be hard work, translating from angel-speak to English, and sometimes the thoughts are just too beautiful to reduce to the , they contain too much emotion and spirit to be adequately represented in words made up of 26 alphabetic characters. Slowly, my ability to capture these thoughts improves, for they should not be written in direct translation, but rather captured in metaphor, just as an impressionist painter strives to communicate the feeling rather than the form of what he has perceived. Anyone can write a factual report ; the skill of writing fiction comes in the ability to write a net of words and ideas that contain the emotional and intellectual impact of the deeper idea within those bare sentences. The author's job is to prepare the reader's mind so they can be receptive to the deeper thought-forms when they come across them. I don't know how well I have done this job, how well I have transported you as a reader into this deeper world of magic and wonder. But I know that if I could take you where I have been, if only for a few hours, I know you'll be blown away. There's a lot more to reading than the simple story. Fantasy writing allows me to be a sorcerer. Carlos Castenada wrote of the nagual, a sorcerer whose purpose was to shift the apprentice's point of perception so that they too may see the world beyond this world. Fantasy writing puts the reader in a world where magic is part of the accepted environment, and as you read you are in a receptive state. With just the right words, I can shift you to a place of seeing, a place of vision, where you experience the magic for yourself. The ability to bring that power back, to use it in this world, well that is true sorcery. Writing is the best way I know to work with that magic and to help others to step through the gateway, to see the unseen. Stepping through the gateway (or falling into the page, as some would say) is a deeply moving experience. I am not the kind of writer who can plot out an entire book and then write it, as if it were a building that could be planned with stark lines and then coloured in with panels. My stories are written in darkness, they come from darkness; I have no idea of the structure of the house when I open the door. I strike a match, the candle flares, and then, I see... And from there I explore, and learn, and discover. It's the way I enjoy fantasy novels, it's the way I want you to experience my story, as I did. The most inspiring pieces of writing came as flashes of visualisation, scenes I witnessed and then scrambled to record, with my fingers flying over the keyboard and yet still losing big clouds of exposition like smoke that scatters as I grasp for its threads. With the pivotal moments in the book I never feel that I am making them up - I have seen them, I am merely the (frantic) scribe. I feel priviledged to be sitting in a small chair in the front row of the action, and to have these heroes around me. I write as much as I can of what I see. When I write I feel everything with a heightened awareness, I feel as my characters feel, I know their pain. Yes I shout and curse, yes I laugh, yes I cry. I feel as if I'm watching flashbacks stored in some giant astral database, things that have happened or shall come to pass, and when I see them I am transported, as if I am a prophet or visionary. I am right there with them. If I could show you that, I know you would be completely gripped by the story. It would be like being in a 3D action film, and feeling the emotions and thoughts in 3D as well. Being in touch with the Muse is like stepping into a great mind. There is so much to explore down every train of thought, you feel there is so much beyond what you can touch that you could spend a lifetime learning and still know very little of the immensity. Writing fantasy is very much like the art of perfecting a spell. The book is the spell, an intricate pattern of thought, woven around you. If you feel uncomfortable about that, I suggest that maybe you aren't ready for this kind of fantasy, the real kind, the dark kind, the kind with magic in it. And it is a very real kind of magic. It is designed to transport you, body and soul, into another world. A world where you can feel what I felt, where you can see what I have seen, and learn what I have learned. Yet there is no place for me to feel smug about my learning, for there is another book, a new spell, and once again, I am the apprentice. There is so much to learn. And so, I write. |
 ABOUT THE AUTHORGreg Hamerton has been writing fantasy since 1999. His Lifesong cycle begins with THE RIDDLER'S GIFT.  |
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This article may be reprinted on condition that it retains the following byline. Greg
Hamerton is a fantasy
author. Get a free sample of his latest fantasy
book THE RIDDLER'S GIFT from
www.eternitypress.co.za/fantasy_book.htm |
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