What Is Magical Realism?
Magical realism has a long history of bending genres, exploring metaphors, and inspiring writers. Editor Michael Woodson breaks down what magical realism is and offers a four-step process to start writing your own magical realism today.
Many years ago, my book club read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami—a seemingly simple story about a man in search of his wife’s cat, and then his wife. I loved the title, loved the premise, and couldn’t wait to read it.
Then I got started, and my overwhelming thoughts as I got deeper into the story were, Huh? What? How? WHAT? It was a far cry from its simple premise, both precisely how it was described and not remotely how it was described. It’s a book that you will not be prepared for, no matter how hard you try. I couldn’t immediately say I liked it.
A few years later, we read another Murakami book, and I was, admittedly, dreading it. My first experience was so wild—a little unsettling, a little disturbing—that I didn’t know if I could sit through it again. But I did. And more than that, I loved it. So much so that it had me rethinking my opinion on Wind -Up Bird, so I reread it and found a completely new understanding and love for it.
This was my introduction to magical realism, a genre I fell into and now find myself reaching for. In a world of minute-by-minute news coverage and scrolling content as short as 30 seconds, magical realism requires a focus and a patience that is harder and harder to find. It’s where some of the most creative stories are being written, injected into them magic, lore, and reality in a way that is truly, well, magical.
Let’s talk about it.
What Is Magical Realism?
Originating in Latin America, magical realism combines elements of fantasy fiction with mundane details of reality. What makes it magical realism and not fantasy fiction is that reality is imposed upon the fantasy, not the other way around. There’s an intentional lack of explanation in magical realism about why the magic exists, has less of a traditional plot structure, and uses magical elements as more of a continuous metaphor. But more than that, magical realism does more than simply imbue stories with elements of fantasy—much of magical realism is about folklore, mythology, and fairy tales.
In fact, magical realism is a closer relative to literary fiction than fantasy—which helps in identifying it in the books we read. Series like The Lord of the Rings, The Kingkiller Chronicle, and even Percy Jackson, are fantasy fiction for myriad reasons, but a simple way to differentiate fantasy from magical realism comes from Gotham Writers: “Magical realism situates readers in a predominantly realistic world, fantasy takes place in an unreal world with unreal characters.”
This isn’t always precisely the case, but here’s kind of an annoying (sorry!) way to know, too: If you read a book with a description that sounds like fantasy but when you go to read it, it doesn’t feel like fantasy, chances are it’s magical realism. To me, magical realism often reads the same way my most bizarre dreams feel. Not scary, but not not scary, and a reality that is more of an unreality but one that I trust while I’m in the dream.
Magical Realism Books to Read
Magical realism dates as far back as the early 20th century but became hugely popular in the mid-century, and writers continue to explore the genre today. There are classics like One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (who is credited for popularizing the genre with this very title), Beloved by Toni Morrison, and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, among others.
Some of my personal favorites to explore are Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, Popisho by Leone Ross, Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi, Lanny by Max Porter, and Bliss Montage by Ling Ma. Each of these titles explores the genre in completely unique and interesting ways, which is a testament to the diverse offerings magical realism beholds for both reading and writing.
Writing Magical Realism
Consider the following when getting started in magical realism:
- Start with metaphor. What are you hoping to achieve through magical realism? What’s happening in the world that matters most to you that you want to convey through this writing style?
- Now make the setting realistic, almost monotonously so, and focus in on the things that make up an average day of anyone’s life.
- Now, build in magical elements, but do so in a way that makes them normal within your world. Maybe animals talk, maybe it rains fruit. Popisho is a great example to have on hand for incorporating truly bizarre, magical elements into a story in a way that matches the realistic setting in terms of its energy.
- Given the points above, begin writing by giving as little information as possible as to why the world is the way it is, or even how. The hallmark of magical realism is that it trusts the readers to simply go along with it—so whenever you feel an impulse to explain (which you will!) fight that impulse and move forward. Make the magical reality mundane to the people within your story. I promise it won’t be mundane to your readers.
Michael Woodson is the content editor at Writer's Digest. Prior to joining the WD team, Michael was the editorial and marketing manager for the independent children's book publisher Blue Manatee Press. He was also the associate editor for Artists Magazine and Drawing magazine, and has written for Soapbox Cincinnati, Watercolor Artist, and VMSD magazine. An avid reader, Michael is particularly interested literary fiction and magical realism, as well as classics from Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, and E.M. Forster. When he's not reading, he's working on his own stories, going for a run at his favorite park, or cuddling up to watch a movie with his husband Josh and their dog Taran.
