My neighbor's kid made me rethink my whole 'no magic' rule for stories.

I was telling him my fantasy idea needed to be 'realistic' and he just said 'but your guy has a sword, that's already pretend'. It made me realize I was limiting my own ideas before they even started. Do you ever have a hard rule for your writing that you later realized was just holding you back?

3 comments

3 Comments

alice_wilson7321d ago

Wait, hold on, did you say your guy has a sword? That's not automatically pretend, some people still make and use swords today! But I get your bigger point, the kid was right to call you out. @xena886, I totally feel you on the parrot thing, I would have written a whole scene where the parrot just squawks random curses at the bad guys. My own hard rule was "no time travel" because I thought it was too overdone, but then I wrote a story where the main character accidentally skips ahead by five minutes and it actually worked. It's crazy how we box ourselves in without even realizing it. Now I try to ask myself "would this idea make me smile" before I say no to it.

xena8862mo ago

Got stuck on "no magic" once too. Wanted my pirate story to be super serious. Then realized talking parrots aren't exactly realistic either. Kid's got a point. Sometimes you just need to let the story be fun.

willow_king2mo ago

That pirate story sounds like it found its way. @xena886, did you end up keeping the parrot or writing it out?