All great stories include magic. Characters dance around rules or constructs that define their world.

For example:

Guess my name and you may keep your child.

Find love before the last pedal falls or remain a Beast forever.

Never say the name of he-who-must-not-be-named, or Death Eaters will find us.

Magic applies to non-fiction, too. We buy books about real, faulty people who win despite their flaws.

We want stories about people struggling and limited in the same way that gravity limits us. Limits and faults make real life and fairy tales come alive. Gravity is magic by another name; no one knows what it is.

Doctor Patient Magic

Medicine has its own magic, the doctor patient relationship, that defines and controls medicine every bit as much as gravity rules us. Continue reading “Doctor Patient Magic”