Before I get into this, I feel like I've been Rambling more than usual lately. Guess I've had a lot on my mind. But this really helps sort out everything I'm learning and thinking about, so... yeah. Hopefully the more frequent Ramble posts lately haven't been too annoying <3
Now let's get into it!
This is going to be another longer Ramble simply due to how integral it is to writing in general. It’s a big topic, with lots of overlap in different parts of storytelling.
But today, I’ll just cover the points most relevant to my story specifically:
Discovery writing.
Cause and Effect.
Healing and Regeneration.
Character relationships/interactions.
Here we go.
I think when people say something feels “unrealistic” in fantasy, it’s a mix of things. That it’s physically or biologically unrealistic is… usually not it.
I think it has more to do with whether the story pays attention to its own cause and effect.
Like if things start happening just because the plot needs them to happen, rather than because the characters and the world actually made those things happen.
That’s a line I am hyper-aware of, and it’s a difficult one to avoid crossing sometimes. But that just means it takes more effort, and I try to give it that effort.
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Discovery Writing
I’m a discovery writer.
What that means is I don’t have a strict outline for my story that says “this must happen, then this must happen, then this…” and so on.
What I do is this:
I build the rules.
I build the world.
I build the characters.
I know the beginning they start at.
I know the end that they'll eventually get to.
Then I set them loose and write what makes sense at any given moment, place, interaction, and situation they’re in.
That's it.
In the most reductive way possible, it’s just 1 + 1 = 2.
A Dungeon starts releasing monsters. + People die.=An expedition gets sent to clear the monsters and the Dungeon.
Or…
A government tries to recruit Emilia into political nonsense. + Emilia hates politics.=Emilia says ‘fuck off’ politely. Ish.
There’s no guidelines leading her toward certain outcomes. She reacts the way I believe she would react, given what I made her character to be.
Sometimes that helps her.
Sometimes it screws her over.
Sometimes it creates new problems I didn’t plan for.
And most importantly, that applies to every character in the story.
Which leads me to…
Cause and Effect
The best—and most contentious—example of this is Emilia’s estrus medicine. It’s also the cleanest example of why something that looks like plot armor… actually isn’t.
Note: This isn’t me trying to convince anyone. I’m just using it as an example because it’s something a lot of readers have reacted to and I believe it will resonate best.
So originally, I planned to handle estrus the lazy fantasy way:
“Oh, magical birth control. Problem solved.”
Then someone raised a very fair point.
Emilia isn’t a beastkin anymore. She’s a Faefox. Manaborn—literally made of mana. So how does medicine designed for beastkin biology even work on someone who just… isn’t one anymore?
They were right. So I looked into it. I thought about it. Did some research. Debated with that reader about it, even.
That was the Cause.
Based on how mana works in the world I built, if you want to affect Emilia’s biology in a persistent way, you can’t just tweak hormones. You have to interfere with the mana that literally makes her what she is.
And you can’t start controlling what someone is without consequences.
That’s functionally equivalent to going into your own body and tweaking every strand of DNA that makes you human—and I mean that very literally.
So I came up with this:
The new medicine works.
It works by controlling her Mana.
Because Emilia’s mana is no longer fully under her control…
Side effects occur. Specifically, mana restriction (because that’s literally what the medicine has to do in order to function.)
This may come across as defensive, but it’s worth being clear here:
This was not planned.
It was not me trying to “nerf” or “balance” the MC for plot reasons.
It was just me following the logic to its conclusion.
The Effect.
1 + 1 = 2.
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Now let’s get into the more difficult ones.
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Healing, Regeneration, and Dying (probably)
A big part of realism in fantasy (especially high fantasy) is how you handle healing.
If characters can heal, then the type of damage often matters more than the fact that damage occurred at all. Losing an arm isn’t the same as losing your head. Bleeding out isn’t the same as near-instant death. Timing, severity, and context still matter.
But there’s significantly more leeway depending entirely on the author.
In my world, natural healing is… kind of busted. Everyone regenerates about 10% of their total health per minute. Minimum.
If you take that at face value, it means you can recover from almost anything short of death in under ten minutes.
That’s fucking crazy.
So, I balanced it with a bit of ~realism~! (silly gif link)
Natural healing works the same way it does in the real world. It’s just faster.
You can bleed out. You heal, but you scar. You don’t regrow limbs. You don’t magically fix severe brain damage. Nerves don’t instantly repair themselves.
Pain still exists. Shock still exists. Surprise attacks still exist. Mistakes still get people killed, even at absurdly high Tiers.
Even someone like Kophis could die if his head gets blown off… unless he has an ability like Emilia’s “What’s Death?” Title.
Magical healing is different though. It can regrow limbs. It can heal brain damage.
It’s magic. It does magical things.
But it’s also rare-ish.
It keeps the danger real without pretending that magic doesn’t exist.
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Character Relationships.
Now this is the really hard one. Before I begin, just know this bit will have some tie-ins with the future "Rambling about Competence" post.
From what I've seen over the years, a lot of “unrealistic” feelings towards stories come from character interactions. If relationships only exist to deliver exposition, romance, or drama on cue, they feel fake.
I’ll be blunt: this is really fucking hard to write well.
I’m not Emilia. I’m not Cari. I’m not Bella, or Scruffy, or Seraphine.
I’m just some guy who loves reading and writing.
But I made these characters. I know what I wanted them to be. I know what kinds of emotional weight and roles they carry. So I try my damnedest to give them opportunities to be who I made them to be, and to ensure they don’t exist only to serve the plot.
That’s why Cari can tease Emilia mercilessly and still be her emotional anchor.
Or why Emilia can be mortified, affectionate, and defensive all at once.
Or why Bella can be shy, composed, and amused without saying a single word.
That is the realism. They’d fail to be people without it.
But I gotta say, maintaining it is hard.
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For me, realism isn’t about limiting power or magic or characters. It’s about respecting consequences.
If the world has rules, they apply. Even when it’s inconvenient for the story.
If characters make choices, those choices matter. Even when they complicate things.
That’s the kind of realism I aim for. It’s the kind that made me want to write this story. It's also a huge headache sometimes, but...
That's kind of half the fun.
It's been a great learning experience so far, so I'm looking forward to more headaches lol