Mundane Magic
Inspired by Rachel Ang’s Dream Diaries and the writing of Etgar Keret.
You will need:
Things to draw with
Post-It Notes
Paper
Instructions:
Think of a few everyday situations and pick one.
Establish the situation in a few panels, using yourself as the subject.
Once the situation is established, add some strangeness into the next few panels. Here are some examples:
Open a door into an unexpected space // Find an incongruous object // Notice a significant change in scale // The laws of physics malfunction // A strange creature arrives // Your task is inexplicably difficult // You have a sudden, strange realisation // Etc…
Think about what the weirdness might mean, and try to end your story without screwing up that meaning.
Rejig, rewrite, redraw as needed.
Thoughts:
The goal here is to explore stories where the rules of reality are abandoned, where anything can happen, where magic is mundane and the everyday is surreal, all the while maintaining a sense of emotional truth. This exercise is not a math problem, where all you need to do is complete the steps and add up the parts. This exercise is more like trying to find objects in a dark room. Feel your way along, pick things up as you go and see if any of them might be interesting or useful.
Better yet, see if you can find a flashlight... made of hair.
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