With the popularity and profitability of The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones, there’s never been a better time to try your hand at a fantasy novel these days. However, writing a fantasy novel (at least one that people would like to read,) isn’t as simple as writing about dragons and calling it a day. There are things that you might want to keep in mind. Read on to learn how to write fantasy novels.
1. Read Up On As Many Classics As You Can
Would you trust an auto mechanic who’s only had experience with one kind of car? By that same logic, no one would want to read a fantasy novel written by an author with limited exposure to literature, both classic and contemporary. You need to broaden your horizons and read up on many of the classics that came before and after the fantasy novels that you like. If only for the reason that limiting your options to one or a handful of titles makes you more prone to accidentally “lifting” or “aping” the author’s style, which in turn will give people the impression that you’re just a hack.
2. Take Advantage of Established Legends, Myths, and Cultures
This is especially useful if you’re only starting out, as it will make it easier to build a world if you have something to pattern it after – is it Norse-like, Celtic-like, or is the world similar to medieval Europe? Or maybe it’s something entirely different in the sense that it’s set in modern times but incorporates fantasy elements? What’s important is you start with a base.
3. Imagine the World you Plan to Write About in Detail
Picture it in your head, plan the small details and try to see even the mundane parts of the world. If you want to convince your readers, you need to be able to describe the complete setting of the plot in detail, not just the main parts of it where the novel will occur.
4. Make Your Characters and Story Believable
This does not necessarily mean that you have to write them as completely normal people with no fantasy elements, whatsoever. It just means that your characters must be logical and consistent; if your character is a skeptic and extremely intelligent, you can’t let him be tricked by something so simple that a child can see through it. Or if you wrote a character that is made of metal and extremely durable, the story can’t have him being defeated by a wooden stake. Things have to make sense within the framework of the world you built.
5. And Finally, Keep Notes
Fantasy novels can run longer than the average novel, and the world built within is rich and full of minute details that can’t be found in the real world, so it is best if you keep notes and jot down minor yet interesting details about the world. Sort of like a laundry list of the story’s minutiae. You don’t want to have to reread everything you have written just to check if what you have written in page 312 is consistent with what you have written in the first few pages.
Image credit: Thalita Carvalho on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0
Hiten Vyas is the Founder and Managing Editor of eBooks India. He is also a prolific eBook writer with over 25 titles to his name.