Disbelieve

Why write fantasy? Because some of the coolest writers ever don't even know what reality is. We'll talk today about how useful fantasy is to life and why we should treasure it.

Fantasy.

C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. K. Rowling, Orson Scott Card, Christopher Paolini, Brian Jacques... the list is endless!   These are all well-known writers in the fantasy genre.  They have written several best-selling books; Lewis, Tolkien, Rowling, and Paolini all have movies as well.  This genre is massive and still growing.  Why, though, is it so important to the thousands, millions, of hungry fans?

As an avid reader of Lewis and Rowling personally, I can say for a fact that the escape is one of the most appealing aspects of fantasy.  Realistic fiction and related genres, no matter how strange they are, still ground themselves in what we call the real world.  Without fantasy, we would have no magic, no prophets, no vampires or werewolves, no ghosts, and (GASP!) no religion.

Not to say that religion is a work of fantasy, but how would anyone believe in some invisible master of the universe if there was no such thing as magic or fate?

Fantasy pushes us to to do things that we wouldn't dream of doing otherwise, too.   Firstly, special effects have advanced from "Steamboat Willie" to movies like "I Am Number Four" and "Mars Needs Moms" in the last 100 years.  Secondly, there are a million things we would have never done without make-believe: Apollo 11, cloning, and probably a thousand military tools.

Our children would not have unicorns, talking rabbits, "Cinderella", or songs like "Rain, Rain, Go Away".  Who can make clouds go away with a song?

Basically, without fiction, there would not be any time to try things that seem "off the wall" or "out of this world".  Turn on a cartoon, and everything in it, you will note, it entirely fiction!  Spongebob, Naruto, Dora the Explorer: they all rely on fantasy to draw kids in.  Many adult shows, like Painkiller Jane and The Vampire Diaries, do the same thing.  We want to escape, so they help us do it.

Get in on this market.  It allows the most creative release, shows the most marketability, and maintains it's importance to society thorugh the centuries.  I hope you stick around for the next lesson.  Write on!

Lesson #2: Character Fishing

Coming May 20, 2011

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