If you’re an aspiring writer and you’re interested in writing books in the fantasy genre, then you’ve come to the right place. I’ve been writing books for a long time in the sci-fi and fantasy genres and I’ve learned quite a lot about how to build and create a compelling and interesting narrative within the realm of fantasy. So, for today’s post, I’ll be going through ten things that every writer should know before writing a fantasy book and why these things are important to understand!
(affiliate disclaimer: some of the links in this post are affiliate links which means that I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you when you purchase something through my links).
1. Know Your Subgenre(s)
Fantasy is a general term that covers a lot of different subgenres within its scope. There are lots of subgenres in fantasy and each subgenre takes a different approach to fantasy with some taking place in the real world while others take place in a far-off land in medieval times. Fantasy comes in many forms, but there are of course things that link them together. Still, before you embark on writing a fantasy story, you should research all the subgenres out there and try to figure out which one fits your ideas the best.
On my blog, I’ve written several articles about fantasy subgenres, and here they are so you can use them as a reference and for research purposes:
- How to Write an Amazing Urban Fantasy Book
- What is Science Fantasy and How to Write a Sci-Fantasy Book?
- Dark Fantasy vs High Fantasy Explained
- How to Write an AMAZING Contemporary Fantasy Book!
- What is Grimdark and How to Write Grimdark Fantasy?
- Epic Fantasy vs Low Fantasy: Everything You Need to Know
As you can see, these are only a small number of all the different fantasy subgenres out there, but these are the most common and should help you get a good start in your writing!
For instance, my series, The Fallen Age Saga, combines several fantasy subgenres and even combines things like military sci-fi into it. The series itself utilizes urban fantasy elements, medieval fantasy elements, grimdark fantasy, and more. So, there’s a lot of ideas packed into the series. However, this series came after years and years of writing all these sorts of fantasy subgenres and practicing my art with them.
Understanding your subgenre will help you greatly because you’ll be able to understand precisely what the readers are expecting to see in your book. Of course, putting your own spin on things is fine, but understanding what precisely defines a genre is very important as well.
2. Focus Hard on World Building
World building is one of the biggest things that defines fantasy and separates it from other genres. Most books require at least some level of world building, but the world building expectations of fantasy are extremely important and can make or break the complexity and intrigue of a story.
On my blog, I focus on the idea of world building because I genuinely think that it’s one of the most important things any fantasy author should take care to know about. I have seen a lot of fantasy stories unfortunately fall short on the world building aspects of the writing or create world building that’s a bit unclear, foggy, or muddled. You can make your world building complex or simple, but you have to make it defined.
There are many elements that go into world building such as mythology, religion, cultures, creatures, etc… and if you want a more overall and comprehensive overview of world building, then you can check out my ultimate beginner’s guide so that you can see the major details. You can also browse through my blog to see more of my world building articles to learn more about it as well.
For my series, it took a while to figure out the entire world building process but it’s super rewarding once you do!
3. Create Memorable Characters
Another big thing to know before you write a fantasy story is that you need to try and create characters that are compelling, interesting, and memorable. This is a big deal in any story, but it’s important in fantasy as well because most fantasy stories tend to be character-driven, even if the world is highly complex.
You want to focus on giving the character a backstory that’s interesting and a character arc that is compelling for readers to actually go along with. Furthermore, you want to create strengths, flaws, beliefs, values, and more to help define them as a person.
The way I think about creating characters is like this: If my character were a real person and I was talking to them, what would the character’s answers be to all my questions? Imagine the character is genuinely there and it’ll help you actually create one that is realistic.
4. Create a Plot Outline
Creating a plot for your story is essential for a great fantasy novel and planning your plot ahead of time can be really helpful in crafting an interesting tale. When you go to outline your plot, you can follow the three-act structure, which I’ve detailed in another blog post. You want to include how the story begins, how it will progress, what the main conflict is, what the turning points are, any subplots, and more.
If you’re not sure why outlining a plot is helpful, check out this post to see why I think plot outlines are so important. You can also check out this post to see how you can outline a whole book in one day for a more advanced version of plot outlining.
5. Develop Your Magic System Well
Fantasy has always been defined by the presence of magic and magical elements within a defined world. Magic comes in many different forms and styles, but there are important things to consider when you go to design a magic system in your story.
Firstly, you want to think about the rules and the limitations, the consequences of using the magic, where the magic originally came from, and how the magic plays a role in the society of your story.
For the most part, without magic, it’s a bit tough to sell it as a fantasy story. Magic can exist in the world and doesn’t necessarily have to be front-and-center in your story, but you should put some thought into a magic system.
6. Conduct Research Properly
One of the mistakes I’ve seen some writers make is when they go to write a fantasy story, they take inspiration from mythology, folklore, history, real-world cultures and countries and more. However, much of the inspiration seems very surface-level and doesn’t showcase any depth in the research. This is something that I think is a mistake because if you did some deeper research, you could craft and even cooler world in your story that takes from these elements.
Research is something that can be a little complicated to master and I’ve been conducting research for many years and I’ve taken courses on researching in an academic context and I think that it’s not too different from researching for writing a book. I’ve written a post before on how to conduct research by drawing on academic research methods and I think that it’s really helpful for writers too, so you should check that post out.
A well-researched story shows itself on the pages of your book and it can make or break the way readers perceive the world building and the quality of your book.
7. Make Sure Dialogue Sounds Realistic
Another major issue I’ve noticed that some writers make in fantasy is the dialogue choices. Unfortunately, sometimes, a writer will pick to set a story in a time period but will not try to differentiate the way words are spoken compared to our world today. If your story is set in the here and now, then by all means, type as you hear people speaking in the real world. However, if you’re writing a story that takes place in medieval times, chances are, the way they speak or the slang they use won’t be the things we use today.
This was an issue I had with a book called Fourth Wing, which has been very popular on TikTok but I personally found the use of modern-day slang to be a bit jarring against a European-inspired dragon-heavy fantasy story.
Working on realistic dialogue doesn’t mean that you have to be super authentic to the way words were spoken in medieval times, because their version of English was very different. However, you want to tweak the dialogue to fit the time-period as much as you can. Try not to make it feel so modern if the story doesn’t take place in modern times.
If you want more help on writing realistic dialogue, check out this post.
8. Play with Tropes and Cliches–But do it Right!
The recent rise of trope marketing has not been my favorite in the book world. I’ve personally found it a bit jarring to see books being advertised solely off of the tropes they have and I feel like that’s not really what makes a book. Including tropes is perfectly fine, but you don’t want to include them for the sake of including them. You actually want to use these tropes as an integrated piece of the story and not just what your story is based off of.
Furthermore, the use of cliches is fine in your story as well. If you want to use classic fantasy species and cultures, you certainly can. I recommend adding your own spins and twists though because that’ll make your story significantly more interesting. You want to add depth and complexity and put your stamp on it as a writer.
Using tropes and story structures that have been used time and time again is fine. I am of the opinion that there are no original ideas left anymore, but what you do with an already used idea is what makes your story interesting.
However, do not force a scene into your story just to fit into the boxed guidelines of some trope that you saw online. Readers can actually tell when it’s forced and it’s hard to read when it’s like that.
9. To Series or Not to Series?
If you’ve finished your first fantasy novel, then you might be thinking about writing a series as well, or at least a duology or trilogy. You see, writing one book can seem like a hard journey if it’s your first time writing fantasy, but a series can get a bit more complicated. A series requires extensive planning and you have to make sure that things remain consistent across the length of a series including your character’s personalities, the magic system, the world building, and more. Things can change, yes, and that’s fine, but you still have elements that need to remain consistent so that readers understand that it’s still the same world that you’re writing about.
Before you write a series, check out these posts:
10. Don’t Skip Editing and Revisions
Writing a first draft is just that–writing a first draft. This first draft is not going to be your best product nor is it going to be your final product. The first draft is only the beginning of the writing process as you may end up rewriting things, revising a lot of scenes, and editing, editing, editing, and maybe a little more editing.
You should edit yourself first and try to get an editor later on in the process. You can also enlist the help of beta readers to give you feedback. If you know people around you that are willing to give you honest feedback on your story, try to ask them to read your manuscript and see what they have to say as well.
Don’t falter at this point in the writing process because you will notice that there are a lot of things that need to be changed and your ideas may ebb and flow as you’re writing, so understand from now that writing a fantasy novel is going to require quite a decent amount of editing and work.
Conclusion
If you’ve never written a fantasy story before, then you may feel like it’s a little bit intimidating. There are so many amazing fantasy books out there that are super worth a read, and it can be hard to figure out how to write a great story as well. However, by ensuring you’ve covered the above ten tips, you’ll be able to write your own fantastic story and do it right!
Before you head on out, be sure to check out my series, The Fallen Age Saga, and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter so you can get updates on all my latest posts, WIPs, book releases and more!