All About Your Story Setting!
How to Infuse Magic Into Your World (Contemporary Included)
Welcome to the Apple Hair CANON!
Here, I’ll explore creating a fictional universe, and I’m hoping you’ll follow along with your own world. I’m by no means an expert, so let’s discuss how to create a believable, magical, and captivating world. Let’s be storycatchers together!
Want to read Apple Hair, the boy band fantasy novel, from the very beginning? You can start here! Apple Hair is a fictional, Asian American boy band from Hawaii.
Welcome to the newsletter, and I’m excited to lay down the foundations of our storyworlds together, one word at a time.
Hi, storycatchers! In the last edition, I talked about the overarching story question, otherwise known as the dramatic question. As I reflect on the release of Apple Hair, I want to go back to one of my very early choices in the writing process. And that was to set the story in Hawaiʻi! More specifically, the island of Oʻahu.
Now, I’m all for a good fantasy story. Maybe this is what your ideal world looks like—a world without modern technology, with castles and villages, or combat that still relies on swords (and maybe even a wand or two). These types of stories offer an escape from the real world. I love diving into a novel where the Internet isn’t a thing and people still have to wait weeks for messages to arrive.
However, Apple Hair is set in the real world, on an island that is very much part of modern society. So, how could there still be magic in this storyworld?
In the literal sense, the boys of Apple Hair stumble upon a magic that influences their entertainment company. It was my choice to take “magic” and make it a little more substantial.
But what if you don’t want to do that? Could a contemporary story world still be just as vibrant as a fantasy one?
I am a firm believer that any type of story could use some magic. This means that even in a story set in a real town in the world that we know, writers can sprinkle some glitter here and there.
In Apple Hair, the boys may not live in medieval times, but they find something different in Hawaiʻi—more specifically, the company AWE Entertainment. This can be used in every story—finding some type of element (real, fictional, or embellished) to put focus on in your storyworld.
What you choose to focus on will bring your reader on a unique journey. If you could only choose one thing, what is the most unique thing about your storyworld?
If you’re thinking about your recent reads or your favorite shows, let me know the standout thing that makes the storyworld pop. One that comes to mind is Squid Game. Sure, we might know about South Korea, but the deadly game that the story centers on makes you think about the powers in the city and society in different ways. This one massive element in the storyworld transforms the real world, making it brilliant and attractive.
In The Poppy War, we see a fantasy world inspired by China. But we also see the real events of World War II come alive in a fantasy setting. This grounding makes sure the reader is fully invested—this is something that truly happened, the reader might think. This isn’t pure fantasy.
Even the most epic of fantasies has something to tie to the real world. This could be the horrors of war. Or maybe the timeless and universal experience of a found family—in both battered worlds and futuristic societies.
In every genre between, storyworlds can always use a bit of decoration. Choose something in your world that you can fully flesh out. Add a little twist that you can expand on. Perhaps it’s a piece of technology that doesn’t exist yet. Or the lack of that technology. Maybe the events of history were changed just slightly. Maybe it’s possible for the murder suspect to teleport or read minds.
Everything is on the table when it comes to writing. So, what is the one unique thing that you can bring to the table? Whatever you choose, make sure to have that grounding. It’s important that the reader sees themself in the story setting. Whether that be dread about ever entering such a time and place, or wishing to live among the characters they’re reading about.
What is your dream story setting? Is it fantasy? Light fantasy? Contemporary or historical?
I love a mix of contemporary and fantasy, but it wasn’t always this way. I used to write pure epic fantasy. And maybe I’ll return someday when I don’t get lost in building a whole new world. (So many names of places and things that need to be made up… It was a lot!)
Thank you very much for joining the CANON this week. What would you like me to discuss in the next post? Comment below. Or jump into my Chat or on one of my Notes, and I’ll be happy to hear your input. Let’s continue to write with love as storytellers!