Writing a Fantasy Novel

Creating the Inner Workings of a Fantasy Novel

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I’m doing something a little different again for today’s Blaugust post!  Personally I have been writing a ton on my own novel series, and I wanted to share some fun tips I’ve learned along the way about writing in the fantasy genre.

Writing a fantasy novel is great fun – you can literally let your imagination run wild.  It’s a little different when writing a novel set in the real world as unlike books set in reality where you can use real life as examples, you’ll have to invent everything in your new fantasy world.  Do you enjoy writing, are you working on a fantasy novel, or have you had the notion to start one?  I hope the next few minutes while reading this helps you no matter what stage you might be in for writing a novel.

One of the best things you could do to kickstart things is read as many classics as you can find!  No matter the type of book you begin writing this will give you a good idea about what works and what doesn’t.  Remember though that reading other peoples works is something to help with idea spawning and relax your mind.  You must take note not to simply copy the ideas you’ve read from any of the good old classics or other pieces of work you find.  If you find yourself dealing with elves, half-lings and orcs whilst being a reluctant hero on a quest to destroy a powerful item, it’s probably best to scrap it and start again. It is true that all stories are a combination of those the reader has encountered over the years. But, you should always try to find an original angle and it certainly should not be obvious what the source material was. Reading the classics will also allow you to discover how well-crafted characters interact with each other as the story progresses.

Tip 1: Use established myths and legends as the basis for your fantasy world. Think about what your fantasy world might be like.  Do your studying and find out what your world and culture is most like….Is it Celtic, Roman, a medieval world or a blend of multiple cultures with your own twist on it? Once you’ve chosen, go and read about the myths and legends that relate to those cultures. The mythological creatures and characters and their stories will give you a great basis for your new world.

Tip 2: Get to know your imaginary world – you need to be able to describe it in detail if you are going to convince your readers, for the duration of the book at least, that it exists. Be thorough and detail everything you can possibly imagine about the world you are creating.

  • Physical – what does your fantasy world look like? Think about and make a note of:
    • the colour of the sky
    • what other planets can be seen from the surface
    • whether the air is breathable
    • what the plants look like
    • what creatures live there
    • whether there are seas
    • what the landscape looks like
    • futuristic world or something older
  • Residents – decide who lives in your newly formed fantasy world. You should spend time thinking about how they look, what they eat, how they move, whether they need sleep, how they speak to one another etc…
  • Society – what kind of society exists? Do they need money to buy things? Is there a complex system of politics they follow? Do they have a police force, a king or president? Is there a religion?
  • Special powers/magic – Do the residents have any special powers or use magic? If so, what are they and why do they exist? Does everyone have use of them or only certain people?

Tip 3: Make your characters believable. This is one of the most essential parts of the book if you want to hook and keep readers interested in the story. A great way to achieve this is to apply logic to every character in every fantasy world you create. This means creating a set of rules that apply to the world and the character. The rules can be based on either real life or they can be simply invented by you.  Remember if you are creating the rules of the world, don’t let a BOX hold you back from being creative.  Sometimes creating our own ways is just the push we need to make that next step in our creative writing.

Tip 4: Make sure you keep careful notes of all the details you invent for your new fantasy world. This will help you maintain continuity throughout the novel. There are many ways of doing this, some writers like to have a set of cards with the details on, others set up spreadsheets; so play around with different systems to find one that suits you the best.  I personally use a book mapping chart I created in excel that helps me track all major parts of the book I need.  I hope these few steps help you get started, or give an idea of what steps to take next in writing your new fantasy novel!

Remember, have fun!! That is the first and foremost thing I can say when writing… Have Fun and lots of it!

Writing Foundations of Fantasy Characters

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When you think of fantasy novels, most people think, epic battles, magical worlds, filled with creatures and mysteries to solve. Those worlds have to have must be populated with engaging characters, and instances to grab the readers attention.  Strong characters are important to fantasy fiction for many reasons:

  • Fantasy often tells the story of events on a grand scale, and having characters the readers can connect to and care about makes that story tangible, and more enjoyable.
  • Fantasy often has an element of wish fulfillment about it, so readers want characters they can identify with and understand.
  • Engaging characters can help readers feel as though they get pulled into the story, and feel comfortable in an otherwise unfamiliar invented world.

The most popular fantasy fiction tells us that enduring characters influence how much readers love a work of fiction. Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, Harry Potter and his friends Ron and Hermione, and a whole host of other amazing and enduring characters throughout fantasy history are all amazing examples of iconic fantasy characters.

Several of the characters listed above are protagonists, but the surrounding cast to the protagonist must be engaging as well. No reader will feel suspense if the antagonist is unbelievable and lacks the luster to engage the readers. If the love interest in the story is one-dimensional, readers aren’t likely to be interested.  A mentor adds gravity to the protagonist’s quest, and sidekicks make the protagonist more likeable by bringing in the chance of humor and good laughs. This creates a broad contrast, and wholeness that a protagonist who is busy defeating evil throughout the book might otherwise not have the opportunity to show.

Characters are the heart of your fantasy novel, and without strong characters, the reader ultimately won’t care what happens between epic battles, how the hero of the story grew and challenged evil, or ultimately how the book ends.

One way to create memorable characters is to begin with set types and add depth to each of the specific characters.  No matter what approach you take to creating and developing characters it has to work for you.  This is definitively a formula based way to create characters, but fantasy character types are no different then how the framework of a plot outline works. If you think about some of the characters listed above, there are several types.

Hermoine Granger is the smart girl, Harry Potter is the orphan boy with secret magical powers, and Bilbo Baggins is the reluctant adventurer. All of these are stock characters from literature and the fantasy genre in particular. Yet if you are familiar with these particular versions of these characters from your own reading, you know that this stock description only scratches the surface of who these characters turn out to be: it doesn’t fully convey their strengths, weaknesses or story arcs.

Here is a list of five different fantasy character types you can develop and make into memorable characters for your readers! 

The Protagonist – aka “The Hero”

 

Up to this point, we have mostly discussed the protagonist, but there is a reason for this. This is the most important character in your story. If the protagonist doesn’t work, it won’t matter how well-developed the other characters are as no one will care or even stay engaged enough to finish the story.

Here are a few points to consider as you develop your protagonist:

  • Is your protagonist an ordinary person or do they have some extraordinary powers that help them fulfill their destiny?
  • Is your protagonist more of a traditional hero or is he/she an antihero? In other words, does your protagonist display typical qualities such as courage, loyalty and goodness, or does the protagonist have a dark side?
  • What are some of the defining characteristics of a protagonist? This will definitely help you put together an initial frame for developing this character.

The Antagonist – aka “The Bad Guy”

One error some writers make is creating an antagonist who is purely evil. Their reasoning may be that a more evil character is more likely to create suspense for the reader.

The problem with this approach is that the character may become so over-the-top evil that the reader disengages. A story is often more interesting when the antagonist has motives that are clear and understandable, even if the characters logic or actions behind their motives are wrong.

Another approach to making your antagonist more attractive and enjoyable to read is giving the character a connection with the protagonist.  If you have ever read any of the great fantasy novels of our time, then you get to see these connections come to life very clearly.  Look at Voldemort in Harry Potter or Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars universe.  In The Lord of the Rings, Sauron is not relatably human, but Saruman was the mentor of the good wizard Gandalf, so when Saruman switches allegiance to Sauron, the betrayal increases a sense of threat and helps the reader understand the emotional roller coaster this has on it’s characters.

The Great Mentor 

This is one of the greatest categories of characters in a fantasy novel ever in my opinion! Like so many stories before this write up we saw such greats as, Frodo Baggins has Bilbo and Gandalf, and Luke Skywalker has Obi-Wan Kenobi.  Each of these great mentors are absolutely invaluable to the protagonist’s development. The main function of a mentor is to educate or train the protagonist, but the mentor can bring a very powerful and emotional component to the story as well.  One of the most interesting things over the course of a fantasy novel, is it’s almost inevitable that at some point the mentor and protagonist must part. Whether this means the death of the mentor or simply the mentor’s departure, this is usually a very emotional and dramatic turning point for the growth of the story.

Here are some points to consider when developing the mentor:

  • Does the mentor have any unusual abilities such as magical powers, or is their primary purpose to impart wisdom and teach?
  • What is the relationship between the protagonist and the mentor? Is it positive from the beginning, or is it a rough and bumpy ride?
  • How do the mentor and protagonist part? Is it sudden and tragic, or is it planned? How does the way the relationship ends affect the protagonist and overall cast of characters for the story?

The Sidekick

Protagonists can sometimes seem incredibly heroic, and sidekicks can help humanize them as well.  At times you will even see the sidekicks overshadow the protagonist.  This is not a fail on the part of the writer, but instead just a natural progression of the roles in the story.  In fantasy fiction, a protagonist often becomes so much larger than life that as the story progresses it becomes increasingly difficult for the reader to relate and engage. Meanwhile the sidekicks are often characters who are more ordinary and perhaps more likable or similar to the reader, which helps them enjoy and engage with this character. What is most important about the sidekick is that the writer remains in control and keeps things cohesive! It’s very easy to derail yourself when writing a character type like a sidekick, as you can pull the focus away from the main plot and protagonist so easily.

Sidekicks often offer wisdom, comic relief, or commentaries that match the reader’s perspective more closely than that of the protagonist. We’ve seen some very memorable and fond sidekicks but some of my favorites to date are still R2D2 and C3PO from Star Wars. Sidekicks are frequently invaluable, and often a protagonist cannot succeed without them.

 

The Famed Love Interest

Much like the sidekick, the love interest helps bring a level of humanity to the protagonist that is needed. The love interest also provides additional opportunities for conflict, suspense, and engagement with the readers. To create an effective love interest, writers should make this character multidimensional and not simply a perfect reflection of the protagonist’s — or the writer’s — wants, needs, and desires.

The love interest will usually be setup in such a way they challenge the protagonist by seeing or doing things in a different way. This character may also raise the bar for the protagonist which helps orchestrate their relationship.  This type of character opens up so many different paths you could take with the protagonist, such as a cause they can be committed to, or even a vulnerability the readers relate with.

One of the most important things to keep in mind while developing this character and the relationship, is that creating any relationship in a fantasy based novel should be no different from any other type of fiction. Writers in the fantasy genre will find it most effective and best suited to portray the growth of the relationship in real and concrete ways, as it makes it easier for the readers to engage and relate.

Protagonists, antagonists, sidekicks, mentors and love interests may seem like basic characters of fantasy, but they are the foundations of a well developed, and very complex set of characters that readers have fallen in love with for ages throughout the fantasy genre.  Have fun and enjoy the wild ride you get while creating the characters in your novel, as they will be the unique attraction points readers engage with!

Writing Fantasy – Do’s & Dont’s

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writing-a-bookFantasy is a fun genre of fiction that uses magic or other supernatural elements as a main plot element, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic and magical creatures are common. Fantasy is generally set apart and crosses paths with science fiction and horror as they all three have sub-genres in the fiction world.

Fantasy is one of those genre’s made up of many creative things and frequently includes elements from the Middle Ages.  Most fantasy is adventure based, with a conflict between good and evil which is usually the common theme of plot.  When you here fantasy you probably think of things like wizards, elves, magic, etc…Fantasy is often based on myths, legends, and folklore, that could stem across multiple cultures.

If you’ve thrown around the idea of writing fantasy then here are a few things to do.  

  • Read a lot of fiction in the fantasy, science fiction, and horror genre’s. Soak up as much as you can about the way the books flow, plot layouts, structure, etc.
  • Do the real world research on any folklore, culture, and traditions those era’s had you want to pull into the book.
  • Ask questions, find writing mentors, learn new ways to bring an idea to the page.
  • If you are setting your story in medieval times or using elements from those times, research medieval life in the real world.
  • Plan your fantasy worlds before you start, figure out all the details you want the readers to know about.  This will help you during the writing process as it will become more natural and eliminate any doubt you might have on the topics.
  • Set limits for your world and hero / heroine of the world, as this creates obstacles within the story for readers to be evolved with and helps get to know the world.
  • Bring your fantasy to life with lots of detail.  Give the readers a chance to meet everyone in the book, and make them feel at home like they are actually in the world you are describing.

Here are a few things not to do when writing fantasy. 

  • Don’t disclose everything you know about the fantasy world you’ve made.  The planning you do up front is for you to make sure the story is told correctly, but that doesn’t mean that every detail you write needs to make it to the book.  All the prep you do up front will give the readers something real to look forward to and enjoy. Give the readers some play room with things that you know about the world but they don’t yet.  Let them come up with there own ideas and conclusions about a specific personality of a person, or maybe a place in the book.
  • Don’t break the rules of the world that you have planned.  This in a way will give the readers a false sense of reading and make them feel cheated like what your telling isn’t worth the time for them to read it anymore.
  • Don’t copy people, places, things from other fantasy authors.  Use your imagination to create this magical universe you want the readers to be a part of.
  • Don’t lose track of the story and where you are at with it. Map the book out, the ideas, and all the fun details you get throughout the days while prepping to write.  It’s fun to create worlds with magical tales to tell but don’t get so caught up with the tiny details that you forget to create the main plot of the story.
  • Don’t forget to save MULTIPLE copies of this story and the details, along with any planning materials you have along the way.  You don’t want to lose that work and not have a backup to revert to.