Wonder. It's not me who thought of that answer. David Farland did in his outstanding little book, Writing Wonder. In case you're unfamiliar with Farland, he was a mentor to Brandon Sanderson, a prolific writer of fantasy, and a script consultant in Hollywood. His most famous series, Runelords, is a classic.
There are three basic reactions we have when discovering something new: horror, humor, or wonder. Consider a toddler, new to crawling, he says. He or she will pick up crumbs and lint from the floor and put anything and everything in their mouth. If they chomp down on a dried chili pepper, they might scream. Horror. If they see an ant, they might be amused. Humor. If they find a chocolate chip, they discover something desirable beyond all other desires. Wonder.
Working as a script consultant in Hollywood, Farland learned how to pick winning children's movies for studios to buy. He rated humor as a 96% attraction for kids. Horror scored 94%. Wonder scored 100%. If all three are present, it could be a blockbuster.
Now, consider the relation of wonder to fantasy literature. Farland makes a general point about wonder that sounds like the experience of a great book:
Wonder comes when we experience something that turns out to be far better than we could ever hope or imagine. When we feel it, we immediately want to search and try to find more of that thing.
—David Farland, Writing Wonder
This sounds like my dilemma after I turned the last page of Return of the King as a teenager. I experienced recurring sadness that the wonder of a first-time reading was lost. I reread it many times, with ample joy. But I could never get the original feeling back.
If you're a writer like me, Farland has a simple dictum for creating wonder:
Wonder is aroused in the story when something strange and unexplained happens.
And he found that the most loved stories create wonder repeatedly, introducing new places, things, or ideas as the story unfolds. It's not enough to have a little wonder sprinkled in a few corners of a book. A great wonder story will have numerous new and strange things.
I won't speculate how human beings came to be so susceptible to the emotion of wonder—although I have my theories. I will just say that Farland's analysis matches my experience. It's wonder I'm looking for most when I pick up a new story. I might enjoy character and plot intricacies, but I melt for wonder.
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