Some of the most famous adventures in children’s literature start with a character stumbling through a rabbit hole, a magic wardrobe, a forgotten door.
But have portals such as these become cliche? Some agents and editors seem to think so.
Do portals show up so often in manuscripts because writers are inspired by classic fantasy stories, or is it because it’s an easy device to fall back on? And can a portal story still do well in the marketplace, or are portals dead?
Parker Peevyhouse
lindajoysingleton
Joni Sensel
Chris Eboch
Nick
Greg R. Fishbone
I think the rant is about portals done wrong–used when they’re not strictly necessary or used in a cliched way. I’d hate to think that agents and editors are rejecting perfectly good manuscripts just because they have a portal in them.
Portals are way cool. And the important thing to remember is thing: when done well, a portal will sell. Maybe the problem is agents and editors getting a mass of portal submissions with nothing creative or unique about them. Or they aren’t well written. It’s just like any other genre. Vampire stories are still selling. Ditto Faerie. But I’m sure there are a ton of disappointed authors out there with vampire and faerie (and portal) stories which haven’t sold.
Ah…makes me want to write a portal story
What they said. I think portals also show up a lot in the writing of beginners because 1) it’s a manifestation of the hero’s journey “threshold” which is practically coded into us; 2) it’s maybe a reflection of a common desire to find a simple way to escape a dull or unpleasant reality (like, uh, writing a book and suddenly becoming a bestseller?) and 3) it’s an easy way to get a character from the normal world to a parallel world without having to muddle with how they coexist or a more complex interface.
And I agree with PJ — good ones will always still sell. The proscription against portals is equivalent to the proscription against rhyming picture books.
As a discriminating reader of all kinds of fantasy, I want to defend the use of the portal. Obviously, unimaginative dreck is unimaginative dreck, whatever the genre – but just because C.S. Lewis used his wardrobe so effectively a long time ago (and Lewis Carroll wowed us with a rabbit hole and a mirror even longer ago), doesn’t mean that the portal as plot device has been all used up! Case in point – N.D. Wilson’s 100 Cupboards and its sequel, Dandelion Wine. Those cupboards make fine portals indeed.
I do love me a good portal story.
And a lot of modern fantasy stories use the portal. Some use it really well. But some don’t come off as different enough from all the others.
I can’t actually think of a Portal story — a recent one — right off the top of my head… Huh.
Coraline–the film has a beautiful tunnel that represents the portal.
I loved 100 Cupboards. I am 60 pages into the sequel, Dandelion Fire, its living up to my high expectations.
The Faerie Door by Maxwll has a portal, but then he was inspired by classic children’s fantasy. Any story needs to be done right. There’s probably something very psychological about the use of portals in young adult literature– personal identity, liminal experiences, all of that. There’s a PhD thesis in them, somewhere!
Yes, it does seem like the portal is quite psychological.
I once read a very strange book in which the author psychoanalyzed The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and came up with an interesting theory about how crawling into the wardrobe represented a journey back into the womb.
One word – ew!
Lol–that’s pretty much what I was saying all the way through the book.
I third Eva’s “ew.”
My own favorite portal is the amulet in E. Nesbit’s Story of the Amulet.