When your story calls for it, your characters may need to interact with their story world’s media – newspapers, movies, theater, books, and music. Sometimes, you might want to reference real-world media to establish your setting and time period or to underscore your theme. But other times, fictional media might better serve your needs. In an article for Writer’s Digest, Kristina Forest offers advice for creating believable fictional media.
In her upcoming novel, one of Forest’s characters has written a fantasy novel, struggling with both writer’s block and eventually success. “In order to make Nick’s book and his career seem realistic and believable, there were a few steps that I followed,” she says. They included:
- Finding a model. “Because Nick is a high fantasy author who lands a television adaptation deal, I immediately thought of George R.R. Martin,” Forest writes. “Nick doesn’t have George R.R. Martin’s level success, but initially his novel was read by remotely no one (except Lily) until it suddenly becomes the novel that everyone is talking about.”
- Fleshing out the details. Forest wanted the novel to feel real, so she engaged in some fictional worldbuilding. “I had an entire document dedicated to details of Ceradon: what the fantasy country looked like, the culture of the elves, and key details about the main character,” she explains.
- Having fun. “Drafting is usually the hardest part of the writing experience for me,” Forest says. “I often try to find things that excite me in order to keep going and creating this fictional novel within my own fictional novel was a lot of fun.”
