Live Condiments? Beards Made of Fog? Underwater Birds? Sure!

Is that too weird?

That is the question I asked myself while writing my most recent short story. It's a fantasy story, and though I grew up on magic wands and talking animals, I always wonder whether the reader will come along with me on a story where the setting or characters are impossible in our modern world (depending on who you ask, of course). And while you need to make sure your characters are consistent - see this post - and the rules of your world are just as concrete (ex. if dogs can fly in chapter 1, they need to also fly in chapter 12), it's just as important that you're creative. One of the biggest complaints of people who read sci fi and fantasy is that it can easily be cliché, old, or stale. To avoid this, you need to remember to be original.

This advice applies to all genres. Originality is why we read. We want to hear a new point of view, meet a new character, or experience a new world. It helps us grow our own imagination, which, to me, is the mot important part of a human being. Without imagination, we wouldn't come up with creative ways to solve problems. We wouldn't have artists or dancers or writers outside of technical purposes.

Napoleon Bonaparte once said: "the default of our modern institutions is that they do not speak to the imagination".

That's why artists are so important. So if you're asking yourself if the story, character, or setting you're writing is too weird, don't worry. Write it as crazy as you want. You can always go back and tweak, revise, and reimagine if it truly doesn't work. But we all need originality - we need to feed our imagination. Who knows, your story may not only help exercise your imagination but it may help a reader solve a problem in his square cubicle or fix his relationship by seeing things in a new light.