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What makes a fantasy story interesting?

Kellth

New Member
Title. But what makes a fantasy story (swords, dragons, humans, orcs, dwarfs) and all that interesting? I'm currently reading the World Of Warcraft novel: Rise Of The Horde and I'm finding that this is a very good novel.
 

Scribble

Archmage
I'll draw a line between engaging and interesting. Engaging is what a story is if you took away all the dragons and swords and all you had were people. Interesting, I think, comes from ideas: magic systems, alternate realities, the breeding habits of dragons, the industriousness and ingenuity of dwarves, the natural affinity of the elves, etc... IF it plays along with what is engaging about the story. Otherwise, it is fluff.

If there is no story-point to knowing the long and sordid history of the Mage-Dukes of Whuffington and the evil ends their ambitions wrought... it will read like most high school history texts, dull and apparently unconnected to the reader's experience.

If we take Tolkien`s LOTR, he put all these appendices at the back of the 3rd book that get into all the exposition that would have been atrociously boring within the story. It is interesting, but not engaging.

A challenge for people who dream up these wonderful magic systems or sci-fi technologies is to find a way to tell people about it without being boring! You may have thought about all the strengths and weaknesses of your magic system, and you should make clear the salient points about it to the reader, but not add things for the sake of adding things.

I like to quote Vonnegut`s 4th rule of writing:

4. Every sentence must do one of two things – reveal character or advance the action.

Every sentence. Not just chapter or scene or whatever. I’ll go one further and say every letter must advance or reveal. OK, not really.

If the sentence is doing neither, then it risks being a pointless or boring sentence.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
There is no real answer to this question because all readers are different and find different things interesting. The best you can do as a writer is write what you find interesting and try to attract those readers to your work who are also interested in the same things.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
Vonnegut's 4th rule is nonsense, in my view. How many great books can you name that don't follow this? A lot.

As for the OP's question, I think it comes down largely to interesting characters with interesting problems to deal with.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
I'd like to challenge that, but will accept the quibble that no books are perfect. ;)

How many books are there that actually follow this? I'd think they are firmly in the minority. Is there a single fantasy example that could be said to adhere faithfully to this rule?

In any event, I think it is a misguided way to approach books as an overarching art form. Certainly, you can write a book in that manner if you wish. But there is no reason an author should feel compelled to limit her writing to that style.
 
Pretty much everything by Shakespeare or Dickens would fail the Vonnegut rule. I think Dashiel Hammett would as well.

I don't think fantasy is unique about what draws readers in. If you're writing a realistic story about an isolated tribe, and your readers are not themselves members of that tribe, some will be drawn in by the tribe's traditions and practices, enthralled by a life different from their own. Others will focus on individuals of the tribe, interested in their personalities and the things they learn over the course of the story. And of course, some are only interested if your tribeswomen go topless, or if there's a bloody war with another tribe that you describe in way too much detail. Whether that tribe lives in central Africa or Middle-Earth is immaterial.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
I think the vast majority of books would fail it. I'm not even convinced all of Vonnegut's books would pass :)
 

Scribble

Archmage
How many books are there that actually follow this? I'd think they are firmly in the minority. Is there a single fantasy example that could be said to adhere faithfully to this rule?

In any event, I think it is a misguided way to approach books as an overarching art form. Certainly, you can write a book in that manner if you wish. But there is no reason an author should feel compelled to limit her writing to that style.

Maybe we are taking two different ideas from what he is saying because even reading the first few paragraphs of Twilight, though not regarded as a well-written series, does in fact adhere to this.

It isn't great, but it is free from fluff - that's what I was talking about.

Now, if she spent an hour at a tourist spot and had an impromptu talk with someone about vampire legends that could be considered back-story albeit dreadfully obvious telegraphing, it would be within the rule, because it leads to something. If they talked for paragraphs about mummies that do not feature in the story but serve to make the world appear "rich", that is something to cut, in my opinion. The mummies may be interesting in a sense, but in the context of the story, they become fluff... and then that thing that was interesting becomes boring in fact... does that make sense?

Anyhow, that is my opinion.
 

T.Allen.Smith

Staff
Moderator
As a reader, good characters are what makes a story interesting & engaging. Complex characters that I can understand, if not condone...characters with flaws...story arcs that gradually change the character's makeup. That is what I find most interesting & engaging. It makes me want to read more because I must know what happens to them.

If I can experience your world through great characters, I will likely enjoy that setting and it's events as well.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
Maybe we are taking two different ideas from what he is saying because even reading the first few paragraphs of Twilight, though not regarded as a well-written series, does in fact adhere to this.

If you take what he is saying at face value, it isn't sufficient for the first few paragraphs to adhere to it. Every sentence in the entire book has to adhere to it. Do you think there are many books where every single sentence in the entire work adheres to this?
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Folks all make good observations here, but I'm not sure they speak directly to the original question. The comments are all about what makes a story interesting. Any story. The question was: what makes a fantasy story interesting.

The easy answer is: the fantastical. That's what sets good fantasy apart from other good tales. Moreover, the fantastic element has to be something that is impossible in the real world. It can't be merely exotic. Tarzan is adventure, but Conan is fantasy.

The fantasy story succeeds *as fantasy* insofar is it transports the reader into that fantasy.

That's the cake. The icing might be that the fantasy serves as a commentary on the real world. Or that it lets us see people react to extraordinary situations. Or that it re-tells a familiar trope in a new way.

Underneath all of that, of course, are the basic story-telling elements folks have already brought up here. First it must be a good story, before it can be a good fantasy story.
 
Vonnegut's 4th rule is something to aim at and is 'broadly true' - but I think he meant it as a guide to avoid self-indulgence. I've always found it's easy to get sidetracked and add exposition etc - and more times than not we get away with it because we find that bit of explanation interesting.

BUT

I think the main thing to remember is that the majority of readers want the story to progress or to find out more about the characters as a priority - everything else is secondary (unless they're into the world's mechanics - and they're a small minority) any delay in giving them this info makes them impatient.
There's a big risk that if that interesting bit goes on too long it stops being interesting and just breaks up the story. How long is too long? I'm bug**red if I know. All I know is that I know I've gone over it a fair few times when explaining stuff I thought cool - only to find out that people (who don't think it cool) tend to stop reading at those points and don't start again.

If you need to add exposition I think the best way is to put it into the context of what a character believes, likes/dislikes etc. or how it messes up/helps his plans - that way you're doing both at the same time.


It is however worth saying that it's also a recognized aspect of scriptwriting, there every scene has to advance the plot/story/character in some way.
 
Folks all make good observations here, but I'm not sure they speak directly to the original question. The comments are all about what makes a story interesting. Any story. The question was: what makes a fantasy story interesting.

The easy answer is: the fantastical.

Defining what is meant by the fantastical is however very hard - some people put Time Travel in the fantasy realm. Unless the science fiction is hard SF its often best to think of it as science fantasy (I'm sympathetic to this as there's no way on earth that films such as Fantastic voyage or Star wars can be considered straight SF in the same vein as 2001).

Personally what makes fantasy interesting to me is an original premise properly explored. (Which you could argue is the same for any story in any genre).
One of the best books I've read was James Clavell's 'Shogun'.
It's not fantasy or SF, but it reads like a first contact novel between earth and a strange exotic alien culture. Which is exactkly what it is really. Except earth = 17th century englishman and exotic alien culture = Japanese (then almost unknown outside Japan).
 

technopony13

Acolyte
There is no real answer to this question because all readers are different and find different things interesting. The best you can do as a writer is write what you find interesting and try to attract those readers to your work who are also interested in the same things.

I have to agree with Mythopoet, there is no real answer to it. What I would do is aim for a certain group of people. eg; girls, boys, adults, teens, children, elderly.

:)
 

Amanita

Maester
One important point in my opinion is the interaction between the characters and the fantastical elements. I think this applies to any fantasy story not dependent on target audience but the exact execution does. Human emotions and thoughts meeting the fantastical and trying to deal with it in some way. The difficulty about this is making it fantastical but still relatable. One of the biggest genre-specific challenges in fantasy I think.
I don't really think that technical issues like the meaningulness of every sentence really do it, usually, readers simply skip sentences discussing something they're not interested in at the moment. If the story is engaging, they might come back to read it, if not, they won't.
Adding a personal thing: I don't generally dislike stories with Elves and Orcs in it but if the Elves and Orcs aren't characters but the author expects us to know everything relevant about them by calling them Elves and Orcs, it's lazy and annoying.
I also think there are two (probably more) types of fantasy. One depends on the action and the character getting into difficult situations all the time, the other is slower-paced with more reflection and deeper character inside and there are probably various mixes between the two and they depend on different things to make them interesting.
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
One important point in my opinion is the interaction between the characters and the fantastical elements.

I like this line.
I think that this is one of the reasons I'm so drawn to urban fantasy at the moment. It mixes a familiar world with a fantastical one and it fascinates me to see how the writer handles that. I'm also interested in seeing how the fantastical elements of a fantasy world interferes with the everyday life of average people. I'm not sure how much of that comes through in most stories, but here and there you get a glimpse of it and I tend to find that pretty cool.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
What makes a fantasy story interesting? The same things that make any other story a good read. Tension, character development, and setting are the most important to me as a reader. Lots of magic and fantastical elements too, which is why I love this genre. :D
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
Folks all make good observations here, but I'm not sure they speak directly to the original question. The comments are all about what makes a story interesting. Any story. The question was: what makes a fantasy story interesting.

For me, what makes a good fantasy story interesting is the same as what makes any story interesting. I think approaching it differently because it is fantasy is a mistake, personally. Interesting and engaging characters, quality writing, a problem to overcome and me caring about whether they overcome it.
 
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