Will the General Audience Relate?

[YohannIan]

The question pops up in my head all the time: Will the general audience relate to it?
I feel one big problem the fantasy genre faces is the lack of ability of the common audience to relate to the setting.
If you look at Harry Potter, a world wide phenomenon; you could say that the mass audience was able to relate to it very well even though it had a fantasy setting; Because...well..you know why..because there are two worlds: the muggle world and the wizard world. Even a casual reader (who doesn't read fantasy) could get drawn in because HIS/HER world is also a part of the Harry Potter universe. See what I mean? They can relate very easily to it in that sense of the word.

But if you're talking about a fantasy setting, a total separate world by itself, (readers of many natures across many age groups) might be a little too reluctant to give it a try, don't you think?

What are your thoughts on this? What would you do to make your story/world relatable?

 

[Devor]

What are your thoughts on this? What would you do to make your story/world relatable?

In my opinion, books in other genres are more likely to succeed at capturing the mass audience only because the authors relate better to their characters and their situation. People write about what they know, and it shows in their work. But fantasy authors dream, and they venture into territory that nobody knows, and somewhere along the way that depth you feel with authors who write from their own experiences is lost by writers who don't understand the world they're writing in, who in some ways can't understand the characters they're writing about.

I believed when I was younger, before Harry Potter, that a fantasy book held more potential for a story and for reaching a mass audience because the world itself could be shaped to help capture the depth of the human experience. I think Harry Potter proved that. I think authors will continue to prove it. If they can wrap their heads around it.

 

[Codey Amprim]

Well said, Devor. While I cannot bring much to the table in answering this question, I do want to say that when I create my worlds and the settings within them I try to make the reader feel comfortable in a setting that is every bit alien to them as an other-worldly life form. I try not to introduce multiple "my-world-only" concepts and things within a brief time, so much so that the reader would feel like they are reading a textbook. Establishing an easygoing relationship with your work and your reader is essential for your fantasy, and fantasy in general, to survive.

Think about it, you're teaching while you're storytelling.

 

[mirrorrorrim]

I think the best strategy—and the one most successfully used by popular authors—is to make everything as foreign to the main character as it is to the reader. Harry Potter does this rather obviously with its Muggle/Magical world duality, but Tolkien achieves the same result just as effectively, and without ever having to break his setting. Bilbo/Frodo comes from a world that, despite its fantastical underpinnings, would be quite familiar to Tolkien and other English individuals who shared a common background. Bilbo loved smoking, gardening, geneologies, parties, eating, living the easy life, and many other common affections of the author's era and generation. Never mind that hobbits live in holes in the ground, have hard furry feet, and are only three feet tall—where it counts, they're good country souls.

Bilbo is then jarringly removed from all that and thrust into a world of danger, adventure, and magic, all of which were as unfamiliar to him as they were to to the typical reader. Thus, he easily becomes the proxy for every emotion the reader is encouraged to feel.

Most fantasy settings have several mutually-alien societies, and most involve having the hero leave her home and familiar comforts (or, for characters like Harry, familiar discomforts) to face a world of the unknown. It shouldn't be hard to have your reader relate to that.

This also makes exposition a much more natural part of the plot, moreso than the bloated text blocks (or even worse, prologues) that some authors are so fond of.

I suppose some may suggest that this approach isn't exactly novel, but there's a reason most successful authors use it: it works. I think innovation is best utilized when it is done with consideration and care, and not merely for its own sake.

 

[Anders Ämting]

The question pops up in my head all the time: Will the general audience relate to it?
I feel one big problem the fantasy genre faces is the lack of ability of the common audience to relate to the setting.
If you look at Harry Potter, a world wide phenomenon; you could say that the mass audience was able to relate to it very well even though it had a fantasy setting; Because...well..you know why..because there are two worlds: the muggle world and the wizard world. Even a casual reader (who doesn't read fantasy) could get drawn in because HIS/HER world is also a part of the Harry Potter universe. See what I mean? They can relate very easily to it in that sense of the word.

But if you're talking about a fantasy setting, a total separate world by itself, (readers of many natures across many age groups) might be a little too reluctant to give it a try, don't you think?

I'm thinking that, if this was true, shouldn't urban fantasy in general be invincible? I mean, maybe I'm just not up to date but I can't say I've noticed any urban dominace on the fantasy market. Harry Potter's popularity seems inexplicable at times - and I say that as a part-time HP fan - but whatever the cause, I think it's something inherent to Harry Potter, rather then the setting.

I see what you mean, but I also believe you are oversimplifying something very, very complex.

 

[YohannIan]

I'm thinking that, if this was true, shouldn't urban fantasy in general be invincible? I mean, maybe I'm just not up to date but I can't say I've noticed any urban dominace on the fantasy market. Harry Potter's popularity seems inexplicable at times - and I say that as a part-time HP fan - but whatever the cause, I think it's something inherent to Harry Potter, rather then the setting.

I see what you mean, but I also believe you are oversimplifying something very, very complex.

Yes, I know I left out the part that Harry was written very well and it gains credit for more than just its setting. I understand that there is a lot more to Harry than that. I just wanted to use that aspect of it as a simple example to which we can all look to.

Devor says that some readers feel that fantasy authors don't really know their characters and world ? What does he mean by this?

 

[Gwynneth White]

I think the key to all this is character - not world building. Take Harry Potter, Twilight, and now Hunger Games - the books which i have launched fantasy onto the wold stage. All of them were character driven first. Strong - or in Bella and Edward's case whinny - characters led the story. where would Hogwarts have been without a very flawed, but very real little boy called Harry. Everyone could relate to him. We have all felt out of our depth, we have all felt unloved. It was a 'simple' (how dare I profane her effort) matter to create a world that pulled everyone in. But who would care about Hippographs unless a character we loved was riding one. Edward conquered because he loved, and he showed every woman who swooned for him, how that love could be. We even accept that he sparkled. And Katniss Everdeen was the girl on fire - until Collins blew her out the water in Mockingjay. I honestly believe that people will continue to embrace fantasy if we give them believable characters they can identify with.

 

[Dark Huntress]

I think a good story and strong characters will attract readers no matter what the genre is. In fact, novels are no different than movies in that respect. A good solid movie will attract viewers. I have no interest in wartime stories be they book or movie but I am going to see Act of Valor. The reason? It looks like a good entertaining movie.

People look for a good story be it fantasy, mystery or romance. The general audience is the same across all types of media...from music to plays. Everyone wants something that is entertaining and professionally done.

I think the real question is, how do you let people know you have a good interesting story so they will read it. There are so many novels out there that having yours rise above the rest is the problem. Not so much the genre of your story.

 

[Klee Shay]

Well-written, character-driven stories almost always do well with the general public. Keep in mind, though, that no matter how good (or bad) a story is, there will always be those who don't like it. Goodkind's 'Sword of Truth' and Jordan's 'Wheel of Time series come to mind. A lot of people like them, a lot of others don't. Very long stories tend to get bogged down without some serious effort to keep them interresting.

That being said, write for yourself and let the supreme beings sort it out.

 

[sashamerideth]

Characters, characters, characters. Your worldbuilding may be top notch, you may have the most amazing and imaginitive magic system and mythic beasts so sublimely fantastic that they haunt dreams, but without interesting characters and a vested interest in the well being of your characters, you won't have a readership.

This is, in my opinion where a Game of Thrones falls down, I stopped caring about the characters I was supposed to care about, the interesting people died, and our attention was turned to people that were uninteresting.

 

[Devor]

Devor says that some readers feel that fantasy authors don't really know their characters and world ? What does he mean by this?

I just mean, most authors in other genres write about something they know. They lived a life full of heartache, and that's what appears in their characters. Their characters are richer and deeper and their experience shows in the story because they themselves have lived something close to it.

Now take Harry Potter. Pay attention and you can pick up his weekly schedule, what he does every hour of the day. Rowling knows Harry. She knows every detail about he does, so she gets how he feels. Let's say you're writing about a swordsman, or a hunter, travelling in the wilderness. Do you understand his life that well? It's going to show if you just don't get how tedious it is, how often traps will be empty or catch the wrong animal, how much meat is on one stag or how long it takes to skin the beast. That sounds like I'm talking about needless laborious detail, but I'm not. I'm talking about understanding your character's life. How does it feel to skin a deer once? After ten times? A hundred? It hardens a person a little bit, but in what way? And who do you become after seeing a hundred empty traps? It makes you more patient, but in what circumstances? Maybe you have an answer, but you probably don't know from experience. You're probably not grounded in it. (If you are an experienced hunter by some chance, just pretend I gave some other example.)

Then take an all-powerful, once-in-a-million-born-with-a-destiny wizard..... *whistle* ..... now we're almost just guessing. And it's going to show in the character.

And it's that guesswork, that distance between author and character, which I think makes readers feel that they can't relate to the fantasy genre. They're just picking up on the slightly weaker relationship between character and author.

But when we can overcome that, I think fantasy has more potential than other genres even at attracting the mass market. That's what I mean.

 

[YohannIan]

Interesting perspective. I'll seek to overcome that gap! (The hunter example is a good one)

Thanks so much! I shall now go to Skyrim and hunt some deer. LOL!

 

[Needamedic]

I believe that the character is the key also. However.... I believe the world he/she lives in has alot to do with if your reader is going to be able to put the text down and if he/she will tell her/his friends to read it. You should aim to immerse your reader in the setting as soon as possible (whether or not you release the main plot hook right away). Portraying the character/s individual anchor to the setting and the setting ambiance from the start will bring the reader into the story, the you bring them along for the ride.

Bait, hook and reel them in. Don't throw them back until they have ink all over their fingers.