The Power of Whimsy
When we think of whimsical writing we often default to the same kind of ideas. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The Wind in the Willows. Mrs. Fisby and the Rats of NIMH. And typically books for children or young adults. But there’s plenty of whimsy to be found in adult fiction too. Anansi Boys. The Left Hand of Darkness. Kim Harrison’s The Hollows books. Something Wicked The Way Comes. (Just to name a few.) Some might even argue that pulp fiction and lots of action-adventure fantasies are nothing but whimsy stories for adults, feeding the hunger to see ourselves as the heroes unbound by the regular world. (Die Hard, anyone?)
How about you? Do you embrace the whimsy when you write? I figured that was a good question to put to the folks in the hot seat this week.
How do you define whimsy for your writing? Do you think about it as you write?
John L. Taylor: For me, even in Horror, whimsy is a factor I incorporate into most of my work. I define it as a dreamlike quality that awakens a sense of wonder in the reader. It’s one of the powerful aspects of fiction. being able to process the human condition through the lens of whimsy. Every truly successful classic of fiction has used it to some extent. Even Jane Austen and Herman Melville used small amounts of it to great effect, whether it was Austen’s Regency-era visuals that seem dreamlike today, or Melville’s legendary White Whale, the sense of whimsy helps the reader bond with the work.
Susan H. Roddey: Whimsy is at the heart of my writing. It’s a natural occurrence, probably because I write to escape the real world.
Danielle Procter Piper: A bit of whimsy appears in my work when I add humor in a cheeky manner to either break up too much seriousness, to spin the storyline off in an unexpected direction, or to punch it up with a bit of humorous showmanship that is intentionally a bit unrealistic but fun. In one of my sci-fi stories, I added whimsy when my astrobiologist had to sedate a large, rampant alien, and when asked how he’d known what to do, mentioned he’d only seen it done on TV. It’s unrealistic because he’s serious enough about his job that he would never risk a life in such a reckless manner, but it’s a pretty funny moment it exposes a bit of daring in the old boy, and it actually foreshadows an event further into the story. I might get a “joke” in my head as I’m writing and realize it will fit a section I’m working on, then include it, but I don’t typically plot these moments. The muses flick them at me occasionally to see what may stick.
Read the full article:
https://seanhtaylor.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-power-of-whimsy.html
