This blog often questions “What makes a good story?” and “Why can some stories absolutely entrance, bewtich and transform us?”

How can human-made squiggles on a page, reflect lights into our eyes, that sends signals to our brains, that we logically and emotionally decode as complex narratives, that move us to fight, cry, sing and think, that are strong enough to hold up a world that is completely invented by the author, but also to change the readers perspective on the real world that resumes only when the final squiggle is reached ?

This short video explains how writers weave their magic. Writers can paint fantastical fictional worlds with intricate rules, maps, lineages, languages, cultures, universes, alternate universes within universes.

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The key is believability. If your characters understand their world and its rules your readers will – and will inhabit it with them. Taking the fictional world utterly seriously is the first step to architecting the narrative that follows.

The truth is your imagination and a willingness to figuratively live in your own world are all you need to get started writing a novel.