Disney’s Beauty & the Beast Furniture
Can I help you find the perfect furniture for your home? Wait. Magic furniture? We only sell regular stuff. Is this some kind of joke? A very stretched skit for an author’s blog? He has no idea why he wrote ‘Furniture in Fiction (Olde Shoppe)’ on his topic list. Look, this is too ridiculous for me to attempt.
The truth is that furniture is part of the scenery. Describe it to set the scene, have characters use it if necessary, or turn them into blunt objects. Just make sure to pay for what you damage. Yes, people tend to forget about these things because we take them for granted. Most times that we do remember, it’s just an afterthought for scenery with no weight to the scene.
Of course enchanted furniture can be fun to play with, but you have to be careful not to overdo it. These items show more about their creators than the world, so it isn’t like they don’t have a use. Maybe the caster is lazy or is unable to do stuff for themselves. They could even be bored. This probably isn’t the post you were hoping for, but we’ve already attempted to write this 3 times and deleted it all.
If the furniture is important like an uncomfortable chair made out of swords or a cabinet to another world then make note of them with care. If you only need a chair for your hero to sit in while they eat breakfast then you only have to write ‘the chair’. Maybe color and wood can be noted, but why add complication to something that doesn’t need it?
Now are you going to buy a chair or not?
Legends of Windemere 
I think there are times to detail a bit more. The pink glittery captain’s chair on the spaceship might tell us a lot about her. The guy whose favorite is an old dentist’s chair in his man cave becomes interesting. When we see the girl in her expensive business attire carefully hanging up her clothes, then taking a TV dinner to the used lawn furniture in her living room, it tells us something about her.
Maybe mine has straps and a nice electric hat.
Most of the time, a chair is just a chair, but if you’re building a world like Blade Runner, it’s also an opportunity to add some flavor.
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Excellent point. Kind of like how everyone has a throne that speaks about their true selves.
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Ideally, everything mentioned in a story should reveal something or have some significance. A bit like Chekhov’s gun, really.
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Good point. Hard to always do, but good point.
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I have this inside joke in Pearseus: at least one chair per book must hit a wall when someone who gets up in rage. I believe I’ve used that in every single book in the series. I don’t think anyone’s noticed, though 😦
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Interesting. Funny thing is how those little things get overlooked. It’s fun to make them even if they get missed. I plan on having a pineapple take on an ‘important’ role in every big series I write. Just because I like pineapple. 😀
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I notice that I have “things” but I’ve never done it with that kind of purpose. Most of my books have a baseball reference. Most of them have an animal of some kind. None of it is universal though. It’s kind of a fun idea to plant an Easter Egg in your books.
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Most of mine are accidental. Think the only reason I’m conscious of the pineapple one is because I saw it showing up in my notes so often. Do you find that these seem to pop up without your knowledge? Like you start editing and stumble onto the Easter Egg yourself? Probably what you mean by ‘purpose’, I guess.
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I never designed something specific into each story that would leave my footprint behind. It’s kind of fun. I caught stuff in later stories, but it was never the same, and not in all stories. It’s kind of cool to add something like a pineapple to every story by design.
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Even if it’s just the word or scent or a discussion about it. Realized that having a pineapple turn up in the frozen tundra made little sense. Then again, working with fantasy means I can have multiple species of pineapple . . . think I need therapy.
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Maybe you just need some pineapple. I find pina coladas a good source.
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All I have is a bottle of vodka and another of bourbon. Too tired and lazy to walk to the liquor store.
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Lol – I’ll keep an eye out for it 😀
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Would love to buy two magical chairs. I hope the fabric color changes with my mood or even seasonally.
I love this topic. Ironically, I don’t have any magical furniture in my story. I’m not sure why. I will certainly have to consider the subject. I agree that an author could overdo it. Magical furniture, like a breakout character, is most effective when used sparingly. I can’t help thinking of something that isn’t a piece of furniture but was a magical item: the broom in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice part of Fantasia. The broom is a cautionary tale for avoiding an over-reliance on magical items. 🙂
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I’d recommend seasonal if you need them quickly. Mood chairs require a full psychiatric work up to get the calibration right.
I have some magic furniture, but not much. The most tends to be around really old casters and dragons. It’s implied that they’ve become so bored that they enchanted everyone to work on its own. Actually, I did have the scene in Kalam’s lair that was really fun to write up.
That broom was disturbing. I got the sentience part, but what did Mickey do to make it a regenerating, immortal creature?
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Good point about the psychiatric work up.
Yes, the broom and its eventual demise was really disturbing. But it made for a good conflict. And that’s what magical furniture needs to add to a story, I guess–some kind of conflict at least some entertainment.
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Or traps. They’re fun traps in some scenes.
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I was fascinated by the Lich chair. in book em…damn I can’t remember but it seemed so natural to have it move etc.
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The vampire throne in Book 3. That was a spontaneous creation that showed up during one of the midpoint edits. Happy with how it came out.
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Me too.
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Great point about the vampire throne.
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