Paranormal Romance Fans for Life is hosting a guest post for me today for the FMB Blog tour at http://paranormalromancefanforlife.blogspot.com/2012/12/why-write-fantasy-by-charlotte-henley.html
An excerpt:
At some level, all fiction is fantasy, and at some level, fiction is true. It’s the willingness of a reader to suspend disbelief that makes a story work. Fantasy requires a bit more suspension, and like a bridge, that suspension needs a good bit of structure.
Since the fantasy comprises things that are not seen in mundane reality, at least not for most people, the challenge is to make the differences in the fantasy world seem normal, at least to the characters. One reason for the Gulliver’s Travel trope, told by the stranger in a strange land, is so that the newcomer can think and comment about the weirdness of the world. The natives don’t notice their own normal.The newcomer also inadvertently breaks taboo, stumbles into a problem that he or she does not even see, but which causes turmoil for the natives. This works on any real-world setting as well, with the colonial trying to assimilate the natives, or the Yankee trying to fit in with her Southern belle neighbors.
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