I’ve always approached my inner world from an analytical viewpoint. If our inner world is the lens through which we view the outside world, it follows that the barrier between the two isn’t particularly easy to define. All experience is inherently subjective. Even if the greater details match up to someone else’s experience, they can never know what it looked like through your eyes, and vice versa.
Regardless, by viewing ourselves as part of the world and not apart from it, it follows that our inner worlds are subject to the same rules as the outside world. This isn’t to say I believe the processes I’ll be describing are literal. In fact, I believe it would be foolhardy and even dangerous to claim any of these concepts as universal or literal. “Idea physics” is simply a metaphorical framework to describe how my own creative process works. Whether it resonates with others or will just be seen as the ramblings of someone who thinks way too much, I don’t particularly care. Much like the design of this site, idea physics is for me to enjoy, and everyone else to behold and just kind of deal with.
Idea physics as a concept first began to take shape in a conversation I was having with my friend and fellow writer Joanne over on Instagram. We were talking about the nature of ideas, and how stories coalesce from a bunch of little ideas sticking together. I likened it to planet formation, with ideas gaining mass and energy, getting bigger and more complex. That’s when I first used the term “ideamatter.” At the time I was working a lot on developing a magic system for my fictional world, and the concept ended up being compatible with some scattered ideas I already had, becoming a self-demonstrating article in how it grew beyond the scope of that initial conversation. So, idea physics is mainly intended as a world-building device, but it also happens to reflect the literal world-building seen in our universe. Kinda neat, huh?
I don’t feel any pressing need to rush into an explanation beyond that. I’ve rambled enough already. All the basics are covered over on the Magistics Glossary page, but I also don’t expect anyone to scour that whole document for such a small nugget of information. Instead, I think idea physics is something I’ll discuss over subsequent posts, at my own pace.
-Seven
i·de·a·mat·ter 