HOW TO WRITE FANTASY
Fantasy and Sci-Fi are my two favorite genres. I’m currently working on a fantasy trilogy, and I have about 30 more pages left on the second book. I expect to be done with book 3 by August. We’ll see. My next venture will hopefully be a solo sci-fi novel that’s been mulling around in the old noggin.
Knowing your genre is critical to selling to agents. Some agents only accept A, B, & C, while others might only want C.
Fantasy novels need several elements to make them credible within the genre. I’m going to list these for ease of reading.
1. Hero
2. Villain
3. Global Conflict
4. Enchanted world
If a fantasy is missing these elements, I don’t believe that it’ll be successful within the genre. Could be. But not likely. The hero should be the protagonist. The reader wants to feel like she is traveling along with the hero through the adventure.
The villain must be clever and wise and deliciously evil — but not without a cause. So let’s not create those unbelievable villains who like to eat infants for breakfast. For some insight on villains, please read VILLAINS ARE PEOPLE TOO.
Unlike many other fictional genres, fantasy is done better if it is not localized to one city or town. This would constitute urban fantasy which is a different genre. Pure fantasy needs to branch out to the boundaries of the world that you’ve created so that a greater conflict can be exposed. Readers want to see your world.
An enchanted world is a must. Do you have to use magic and flaming weapons and all the perks? No. But the novel should include elements in it that make it fantasy. If everything is common to mankind as we know it, then it’s not fantasy. It’s just an adventure. But add a dragon, and now it’s fantasy. Most fantasy novels have magic, but it’s not a necessity. It just helps. My WIP doesn’t have wizards, nor does it have dragons, but it certainly is fantasy.
William Stadler 
It’s morning, so my thoughts after reading this are a little disconnected.
Ah the query process, don’t miss that at all. I love villains you feel sorry for before the end of the story. We write urban fantasy, so it is actually restricted to a single island. If you would like us to review either your previous book or an ARC of the next books when they come out, we enjoy expanding our book reviews section to new authors.
-Eliabeth Hawthorne
villians are people too. that’s great.
haha thanks man
Very true about villains. I often find them so much more interesting to create as characters than the protagonists. In their own minds, they usually think they are doing good. I wish you all the best for when you begin to query agents.
Thanks so much Sara, and yes, I do agree villains are fun!
Good luck getting it finished hon 🙂
I’ve never tried writing fantasy or sci fi….I don’t think I would know where to start! Lol
Xx
Thanks, Vikki! Yeah I didn’t know where to start either. My fingers did the talking for the first 75 pages and then I realized what was happening. So here I am 400 pages later with 200 more to write to finish the trilogy. Crazy….
Lol, and impressive! It must be your calling 🙂
Xx
haha calling? we’ll see about that. but thanks 🙂
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