22. Magical thinking for practical writers

This month, sort of in honor of Halloween and sort of just because, I want to share and explore a single phrase about writing that has been inspiring me lately:

Your characters are your ancestors.

This idea unlocks all sorts of potential for me—but I admit that it also feels a little overly sentimental. Even for creatives, there can be disdain around ways of thinking about writing that feel precious instead of practical. There’s a sense that while of course art is magical in its way, your perspective on your own work better not be, or you risk being naïve and unserious.

And it’s not like there’s zero truth to that. When you get too precious about every word that hits the page, you can’t work through projects, and you can’t keep improving.

But magical thinking doesn’t necessarily have to lead to precious thinking—I’d actually say that in the creative life, you have to find ways to maintain a strong dose of it if you want to thrive.

And in that sense, magical thinking can be practical magic.

Tune in to unpack how a magical mindset can help even Very Serious Writers do deep and liberating creative work.

Writing praxis tip

As promised in the episode, here are two ways to bring an ancestral view of your characters into your current practice. First up is the practical tip, and then the magical one.