...fantasy knows no limits

The beauty of fantasy is that there are no rules. No limitations. And this summarises everything I love about the genre, both to read and to write.

To quote Lucy Maud Montgomery's character, Anne Shirley, "It's delightful when your imaginations come true, isn't it?"

And of course, writing is the way I aim to bring my particular "imaginations" to life, but sometimes when I can see things so clearly in my mind, I get so excited that I have to try and translate what I'm picturing to paper - whether successfully or not!

I keep a red leather notebook that is essentially a collage of pictures and notes dedicated to character and world creation. This is purely for my own benefit as I most assuredly would not inflict notebooks and sketchbooks on potential agents or publishers - (stick to the submission guidelines people!)

But for my own purpose, it felt very important that I accounted for every nook and cranny of my world. That I could walk the roads in my mind as clearly as I could walk through the village I live in.

There are maps and drawings to cover each of my three kingdoms, detailing their various landmarks.

So many pages I wish I could share, but they are too many spoilers splashed amongst them.

Colour is a key component to my story, due to the presence of the fantastical: dragons and phoenix and such. And therefore colour is as important as appearance when I'm trying to transfer my imaginings to paper.

The sun and the moon are characters in their own rights in my book, and they've long since become symbols that I'm minorly obsessed with. Even now that my story is written and complete I find myself painting them often, or buying jewellery that bears one or the other... Okay, perhaps it's a major obsession...

I'd love to know if any other writers out there (published or unpublished) also feel the need for a visual approach when writing!


~Zuzu
until next time, find me on Facebook @zuzuspages