5 Essential Tips for Writing Fantasy

[Black Dragon]

Hey guys,

I recently wrote a guest post for the Movellas writing community. Check it out here:

Movellas | 5 Essential Tips For Writing Fantasy

In this article I cover some essential advice that I learned from time spent on our own site.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Goos stuff. Agree 100% with the 5 points.

 

[danr62]

Yep, good article.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Congratulations Black Dragon, that is a great article and I am sure that the Movellas Community is appreciating it a lot!! It's great that we have a friendly relationship with other Writing Communities =)

 

[Ravana]

Nicely done.

 

[Zero Angel]

I've already mentioned this in the twitter stream, but I too agree with all 5 points and especially liked the "maintaining the veil" pointer.

I thought the beginning was even better though. Archetypes are difficult to avoid, and subverting them is the best way to make them your own.

 

[Dan Latham]

I particularly liked #3 Trust the Reader, and #4 Don't Lift the Veil. When I am reading a story, leaving some items unexplained forces me to read more deeply and pay closer attention.

 

[Steerpike]

Nice one, Black Dragon. All of these are good tips, in my view.

 

[JonSnow]

I think #4 is a big cause for mistake #3... as a writer, sometimes it is hard to trust that the reader will see your vision. and as a result, the tendancy is to vomit the entire history in great detail, so make sure the reader gets it. I did this a lot when I was a new writer. Thankfully, when I slip up on them now, I can usually catch myself.

That was a really nice article. Thanks for posting it

 

[JCFarnham]

Funnily, I find myself worrying that I don't "vomit the entire history" enough. I'm keen to not info dump, but I'm bever sure if I left out too much. All in all, of the little I've let people read I haven't yet had a problem.

Nice article I particularly like the good use of Mythic Scribes branding haha

 

[Steerpike]

Funnily, I find myself worrying that I don't "vomit the entire history" enough. I'm keen to not info dump, but I'm bever sure if I left out too much. All in all, of the little I've let people read I haven't yet had a problem.

Nice article I particularly like the good use of Mythic Scribes branding haha

I think we can include a lot less history than we generally like to think as writers and world-builders. In most cases, a writer could probably get by mentioning little to no backstory or history.

 

[JCFarnham]

I'm not specifically talking about world history (I'm writing urban fantasy so that's a write off), rather, the mechanics of certain (important?) magical curiosities.

Eh, that's enough derailing. My problems will be certainly be fixed when someone other than me reads the whole damn lot

 

[Architect_of_Aurah]

Good advice. I've read some fantasy and science fiction that was simply too dense and high-concept to be enjoyable. Good fantastical writing should dazzle, but be straight-forward. Your point about the word "apocalypse" meaning an unveiling makes me think of a wonderful quote from Elgar's work "The Music Makers"; each age is a dream that is dying, or one that is coming to birth. Profound and very apt words.

 

[Reaver]

Excellent article Black Dragon! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Black Dragon]

Thanks guys, for the kind words!

 

[Rikilamaro]

Good advice, Black Dragon. Thank you for sharing with us.

 

[Darkfantasy]

As someone who is new to writing Fantasy, I'd like to thank you a lot of those tips because they have helped me out a lot.

 

[Chamomile]

I especially liked #4 and thought #5 was a good way to wrap everything up. Thanks for the article!

 

[Weaver]

I especially like #2: Subvert the archetypes. (Roger Zelazny was one of my favorite fantasy authors, and he subverted the archetypes better than anyone.)

In the matter of trusting the reader, I think writers run into problems because some members of our audience want us to give every minute detail of setting and the Entire History of the World Until Right Now... In the face of audience demands, it's hard not to give in, even when we know doing so would be bad for the story.

 

[Kim]

Nice article. I have shared it on facebook.
I think especially 3 and 4 are really good points.