9780415317856_the_routledge_creative_writing_coursebook

www.ATIBOOK.irThe routledge creative writing coursebook 144often express through their own work a similar need to escape. What can’t be escaped,however, is realisation—the need, whatever subject or world you want to evoke, whetherbloodsucking bats or school common-rooms, talking hats or Hampstead dinner-parties, tomake that world real and habitable to its readers. As I have said repeatedly in this book,the key to good writing lies in a realist style as first practice, no matter how real or howfar from the real the subject-matter, characters, scenes and settings are for your story.Whatever we mean by magic as such, the real magic occurs for readers in narrativerealisation, the solid performance of an illusion before your very eyes and as you read,and in this sense the writer is involved in a kind of conjuring.Characters in stories involving magic don’t see its effects as take-it-or-leave-it formsof illusion or as entertainment. The consequences are often too overwhelming.Encounters with magic cause them to feel a sense of real evil, inexplicable good, and alsoto feel that these are forces in opposition. But how do we recognise the magical? In termsof stories, characters and events, what might be its manifestations? Below are summariesof stories for children, illustrating real-world and magic effects in a range ofcombinations.Madame DoubtfireAnne Fine’s story about three children and their divorced parents includes a sixthcharacter, Madame Doubtfire, who acts as a cook/home-help in their mother’s house.Problems? While Dad is an out-of-work actor living alone, seeing his children brieflyonly once or twice a week, their mother has a successful job in business. When sheadvertises for assistance at home, Madame Doubtfire, who seems a perfect choice, fillsthe post. This lady, extravagantly dressed, but also highly efficient, a hit with the kids,turns out to be their father disguised in drag (as we might have guessed). The childrenrealise this almost at once while their mother, at first too busy to notice, is outraged whenshe discovers the deception. A terrible argument between their estranged parents shocksthe children. They finally stage-manage a truce, insist on a better understanding, and lookforward to a more stable future. The story is at times harshly real; contemporary in itsreference to divorce and family conflict. Nevertheless Madame Doubtfire brings relief ofa kind indirectly associated with magic. Her name itself, mysterious, outlandish, derivesfrom the pantomime season—a dame figure—where magic is stage entertainment, liveperformance. Lydia, however, the oldest child, whilst enchanted by her father asDoubtfire and her home kitchen transformed into a ‘brightly lit stage’ still prefers him ashimself. She dislikes the illusion since it deprives her of his real presence. Behind herstated preference for the real lies the sense that she is growing up. Magic as entertainment(if that is what the story in part offers) now belongs firmly back in childhood. As childrengrow up they need to reason things out (the story implies), and take responsibility forwhat they themselves want.The Sleeping SwordThis story by Michael Morpurgo, told from the point of view of a twelve-year-old boypermanently blind from a swimming accident, is set in the Scilly Isles west of Cornwall.The boy, whose name is Bun Bendle, finds a sword from Dark Age Britain unearthed