13 tips from professional fantasy editors

[Steerpike]

The tips are at this link, and may be good for discussion:

13 Kick-Ass Tips For Writing Fantasy From Professional Fantasy Editors •

I do have some disagreements with respect to specific tips:

Tip #1: Younger characters does not mean you have to be writing YA or MG fiction. That's nonsense.

Tip #5: Real-world themes are not essential in fantasy literature. You may certainly address themes vital to the here and now of the modern world, but if you want to write lighter fare than what is described in this tip, without addressing issues like identity politics, racism, political violence, and the like, that's a perfectly legitimate approach to writing fantasy.

Tip #10: No, you shouldn't feel compelled to write like a "cinematographer." That produces a very specific kind of novel, and while there is nothing wrong with it, it is not something every author should want to do. A lot of fiction is decidedly not written like a prose movie, and it is wonderful that they aren't.

I think I'm more or less good with the rest of it

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

Tip #1: Younger characters does not mean you have to be writing YA or MG fiction. That's nonsense.

My WIP is adult fiction, but features one twelve-year-old POV character, whose POV is essential to the story I want to tell. There are two other POV characters that are older.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Love this, and have actually had to explain to a reader in the past that just because we have younger POV characters (16 and 18 in Faerie Rising) doesn't mean we're writing YA. We have many children in the series, it being a multi-generational family saga, and today's kids are tomorrow's protagonists.