I have a thing for magical worlds. Every time Lucy opens that wardrobe, brushes past the musty fur coats, and walks into Narnia, I get a thrill. I like my escapes big. In psychology, I wrote about transcendent experiences. In fiction, it’s magical worlds. For my money, the best kind of journey to a magical world is the one that begins right here—in the mundane everydayness of jobs and homework and dinners that need to be made. Nothing against Tolkien and Middle-earth, but I t

Meet Captain Happen—troublemaker, narrative enabler, change agent. The novelist, essayist, and poet, Charles Baxter talks about Captain Happen as one of several ways to increase urgency and momentum in fiction. Male or female, this kind of character shakes things up. They act impulsively and say out loud what everyone else is thinking. In short, they make things happen. Think Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, when she shoots an arrow straight through the group of bored Ga

Conjure, enchant, shape-shift, or summon—endless possibilities exist in the world of magic. Cast a spell, fight a dragon, wave a magic wand, and don’t forget the ruby slipper, the mermaid, or the unicorn. And then there’s time travel and scrying and divination—the options can easily overwhelm. Luckily, the talented Mark Fogerty, in his GrubStreet class on Worldbuilding, offered six steps to creating a magical system that can help manage all these choices. Here’s my version of