✨ Something magical is happening this week — and you're invited

You know that feeling when you're reading and something shifts?

The world on the page is completely ordinary. A kitchen. A street. A woman hanging out washing. And then — without warning — the extraordinary slips in. Not as a disruption. As a revelation.

That's magical realism. And this week, we're writing in it.

Before Monday arrives, here are five ways to create magical realism moments in your writing.

Not rules. Starting points.

Five ways to write magical realism

1. Keep one foot firmly on the ground. The magic only works because the ordinary is real first. García Márquez didn't describe fantastical worlds — he described Colombian villages with the precision of a journalist. The magic arrived into specificity. Your enchanted clock needs a chipped face and a particular sound it makes at 3am. Ground it. Then let it surprise you.

2. Show the effect, not the explanation. We don't need to know why the old woman's tears turn to seeds when they hit the soil. We need to see the neighbour quietly sweeping them into a jar. Never explain the magic. Show what it does to the people around it — and trust your reader to feel the rest.

3. Let the ordinary characters take it in their stride. This is the heartbeat of magical realism. The extraordinary happens — and the world barely blinks. A man sprouts wings. His wife asks if he wants soup. That refusal to treat the magic as shocking is what makes it land so deeply. If your character stops to gasp and explain, the spell breaks.

4. Use the magic to say the thing you can't say directly. The best magical realism is never really about magic. Toni Morrison's haunting in Beloved is about slavery. The fish raining in García Márquez is about grief, or fate, or the weight of family. Ask yourself: what is the real thing I'm circling? Then find the image that holds it sideways.

5. Specificity is your superpower. Not "a bird." The particular bird that had been sitting on the same branch for eleven years and knew everyone's secrets. Magical realism lives or dies on the specific detail. The more precise the image, the more real the magic feels. Vague enchantment is just fog. Named, particular enchantment — that stays with a reader for years.

If you want to take a deeper dive in to this topic and a discussion of each day of the challenge, I have added a bonus recording in the Kajabi Facebook group - Magical Realism Moments. Enjoy!

The week ahead

The challenge begins on Monday, 2nd March 2026. Five prompts, five days, five chances to write something that surprises even you.

Each day: read the prompt and the craft guidance before you write. Give yourself time to think.

Write your piece — up to 300 words. Share it in the group with ✳︎ #MagicalRealismMoments and read what others have written. When you comment on someone’s work, be specific: name what worked, and why it worked for you.

300 words is not a limitation. It’s a gift. It means every sentence must earn its place.

Share your pieces in the group (Facebook or the Kajabi comunity) with #MagicalRealismMoments — and read what the writers around you are making. That's where the real magic of this community lives.

I'll be here every day with craft notes and genuine delight at what you create.

Let's begin. 🌿

Happy writing,

Heather

creativewritingtips.club

P.S. Not in the Facebook or Kajabi group yet? That’s where the daily prompts and the community conversation will live. Join us — all are welcome.