How to Write Magical Realism: 4 Tips for Writing Great Magical Realism

Magical realism is a genre of literature that depicts the real world as having an undercurrent of magic or fantasy. Magical realism is a part of the realism genre of fiction. Within a work of magical realism, the world is still grounded in the real world, but fantastical elements are considered normal in this world. Like fairy tales, magical realism novels, novellas, and short stories blur the line between fantasy and reality.

The term “magischer realismus,” which translates to “magic realism,” was first used in 1925 by German art critic Franz Roh in his book Nach Expressionismus: Magischer Realismus (After Expressionism: Magical Realism). He used the term to describe the “Neue Sachlichkeit,” or “New Objectivity,” a style of painting that was popular in Germany at the time that was an alternative to the romanticism of expressionism. Roh used the term “magischer realismus” to emphasize how magical, fantastic, and strange normal objects can appear in the real world when you stop and look at them.

The genre was growing in popularity in South America when Nach Expressionismus: Magischer Realismus was translated into Spanish in 1927. During a stay in Paris, French-Russian Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier was influenced by magic realism. He further developed Roh’s concept into what he called “marvelous realism,” a distinction he felt applied to Latin America as a whole.

In 1955, literary critic Angel Flores coined the term “magical realism” (as opposed to “magic realism”) in English in an essay, stating that it combines elements of magic realism and marvelous realism. He named Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges the first magical realist, based on his previously-published collection of short stories Historia Universal de la Infamia (A Universal History of Infamy).

While Latin American authors made magical realism what it is today, authors had previously written stories about mundane situations with fantastical elements before magical realism was a recognized literary genre. For example, Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis—a novel with themes that today’s critics would consider to be magical realism—was published in 1915, a decade before Roh wrote about magic realism and well before the genre emerged in Latin American literature.

What does it take to suspend a reader’s disbelief, and immerse them in a world just a little bit stranger than their own? Here are a few key characteristics of magical realism:

1. 1. Realistic setting: All magical realism novels take place in a real-world setting that’s familiar to the reader.
2. 2. Magical elements: From talking objects to undead characters to telepathy, every magical realism story has fantastical elements that do not occur in our world. However, they’re presented as normal within the novel.
3. 3. Limited information: Magical realism authors deliberately leave the magic in their stories unexplained in order to normalize it as much as possible and reinforce that it is part of everyday life.
4. 4. Critique: Authors often use magical realism to offer an implicit critique of society, most notably politics and the elite. The genre grew in popularity in parts of the world like Latin America that were economically oppressed and exploited by Western countries. Magic realist writers used the genre to express their distaste and critique American imperialism.

Writing magical realist stories is not unlike all creative writing: New worlds spring from the mind of the author, and when well-rendered, are convincing or compelling enough to transport the reader. Here are four tips for creating that kind of story:

1. 1. Remember that magical realism is neither science fiction nor fantasy. It can be tempting to confuse magical realism with the science fiction or fantasy genres, but it’s all about the dividing line: Science fiction and fantasy tell stories that are clear departures from our own. In magic realism stories, that line becomes blurry. Magical realist stories are about the world as we know it—just tilted a touch off its axis. And just as establishing rules for the reader is an important step in sci-fi and fantasy worldbuilding, there are typically none in magical realism. The strangeness just is, and the characters in that world accept it completely.
2. 2. Pull inspiration from dreams. The striking illogical settings and interactions in dreams are a great place to get ideas about how to tweak the reality in your story. Was everything in your dream totally normal—except that your dog had wings? Maybe you dreamed that the ocean could speak. Start a dream journal to keep track of the magical details that flit through your mind as you sleep.
3. 3. Keep an eye on the news. Truth, as the saying goes, is often stranger than fiction, and daily news items can be great proof. Elaborate on any headlines that catch your eye, and try to build them into character attributes or natural phenomena.
4. 4. View the world through a metaphorical lens. Writers love to describe the world around them in poetic terms—what would happen if you took a favorite metaphor and made it literal?

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