Epic fantasy is a complicated but fun subgenre of fantasy that allows for readers to explore deep, vast and beautiful worlds with many characters, intertwined and intricate plots, and high stakes. Even if you’ve been a fantasy writer for a long time or you’re new to the genre and are interested in epic fantasy, there are a good number of things that you should know. Here are 12 tips that will help you get started with your own epic fantasy books!
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1. Start with a Grand Premise
Epic fantasy is often called epic because of the scale of the stories and the scale of the actual world designed within the story. Before you really start getting any writing and planning down, you want to think about the premise of your story. What is basically going to be the major thing your story will focus on? Think of the premise as the heart or core of your book. Will you focus on a quest? A struggle against evil? The search for identity? What sort of themes are you going to be invoking in this story and why does it matter? Think of these questions and ask yourself how they will impact your premise.
2. Create a Detailed, Intricate World
Another big part of epic fantasy isn’t just the premise, but the world that will serve as the backdrop for your story. The world is also supposed to play an active role in the way a fantasy story plays out and the world is supposed to have a strong presence in the overall book. You want to think about all the things that play a role in your story and all the world building elements you need. If you want information on world building and how to get started, then check out this post! If you want a great world building software solution, then check out World Anvil, which is perfect for keeping track of any world building information and details you’ve got done.
3. Create Great Characters
Epic fantasy is well-known for stories that include a varied cast of many interesting and engaging characters. These characters are pretty vital to the overall structure and progression of the story and the protagonist needs to be well-rounded and have things like strengths, weaknesses, flaws, relationships, etc… Having great characters keeps your readership engaged and allows them to have something to relate to or at least connect with in the story.
If you want to learn how to create a memorable character, then check out this post!
4. Outline the Plot
Epic fantasy books are often long and complicated and can be spread across multiple books for a single series. Of course, the plot is going to be vast and intricate, and it’s important to stay on-plot so that you don’t confuse yourself and get to a point where you aren’t entirely sure what your story is going to be about.
The best way to avoid something like this is to actually plan your plot out before you get started with the actual writing process. You want to show a layered and intricate plot that includes many subplots, high stakes, twists, turns, and a lot of interesting elements. Plots tend to follow the three-act structure and I’ve talked about this on my blog before in a different post.
5. Create a Unique Magic System
At the heart of epic fantasy stories is the idea of magic and how magic impacts the world around the characters. You want to create a magic system that is unique and interesting and will actually play some sort of role in the story. Don’t just include a magic system for the sake of including one, as it will feel out of place for your readers. You want to really show the reader what the magic system is, how it will affect the characters, and how it actually operates.
You want to come up with rules and limitations as well as the mechanics for how the magic system actually works. If you want to learn more about how to create a magic system for fantasy, then check out this post!
6. High Stakes
Another tip I have to say is important to keep in mind when it comes to fantasy is the idea of maintaining high stakes in the story. If you want to write epic fantasy, you need clearly defined high stakes because if the stakes are not high, then the story will not feel as “epic.” The stakes can be things like an ancient evil coming back to wreak havoc, an empire on the verge of falling, a war between two kingdoms that is threatening to spill into other kingdoms, etc… Remember, the idea of epic fantasy is that things should feel epic!
7. Get Inspired and Research
Another big part about epic fantasy that I can say is important to know is the fact that a lot of epic fantasy writers conduct pretty good research into things like history, mythology, religion, and more to craft their own stories. A big part of writing and world building is the research that you do in order to understand how to create your own world.
I always recommend that writers use history and mythology as inspiration because some of the most engaging stories we see today took from things that occurred once upon a time in history. If you want to learn how to conduct research properly, then check out this post for some tips!
8. Plan on Writing Multiple Books
Epic fantasy stories tend to run on the longer side of the spectrum, and there are many like The Way of Kings which end up having 300,000 words or more in a single book. Some epic fantasies are not as large as Sanderson’s books, but most epic fantasies tend to span well above 100,000+ words. I have a full post on how to determine word count for books, so you can go and check that out.
For the most part, since books tend to run on the longer side, you should plan on having multiple books for a single series in your epic fantasy story. You can’t really tell a whole epic fantasy story in just one book, and most people aren’t really going to write 200,000+ word books, so just keep in mind the idea of multiple books. Fantasy readers tend to be very fine with a series that has long books.
9. Be Original but be Familiar
Pretty much every story today that exists in our modern world has been told over and over again throughout history. I don’t really see that there are many original ideas left anymore, but what makes a story original is what you as the author can do to spin it. Epic fantasy readers tend to have certain expectations and are used to certain tropes and themes present in their books. So, you want to draw on those expectations while still putting your own spin and voice into the work. You want to feel familiar but you also want to be original and let readers enjoy your books the way you intended to have them be enjoyed.
10. Keep Pacing in Mind
The problem that some epic fantasy stories have is striking a balance when it comes to pacing the story out. Sometimes, an epic fantasy story is just simply far too slow at the beginning and the pacing just doesn’t work with a lot of readers. Especially if your book is long, a reader might be a bit intimidated if the beginning is very slow. You want to ensure that you are mixing the pacing well and that you can make your readers feel as though they can fly through the story and still appreciate it.
11. Themes, Symbols, and More
Epic fantasy often explores some very specific themes that are pretty frequent across all stories like being a hero or a villain, the idea of sacrifice, destiny and fate, the battle between good and evil, and more interesting concepts. Symbolism is also a really important aspect of most stories but it plays a big role in epic fantasy where there is a recurring symbol or some type of motif that represents something grander in the story. If you want to learn how to establish themes for your story, then check out this post!
12. Make Sure to Get Feedback
The last tip I want to give you is to actually seek feedback for your book. Even if you’ve edited your book a ton of times and you feel like it’s good, you may not have noticed certain glaring issues because you’ve already read the book so many times. It’s important to seek help and ask for feedback. If you know people who are willing to give constructive criticism, start there. But you also want to go outside your own circle and get help from beta readers who are willing to read and give feedback on your book for you. If you want to learn more about how to get beta readers, then check out this post.
Conclusion
Writing epic fantasy can feel a bit complicated and potentially intimidating, but I think that if you take these 12 tips into consideration and you work on all the individual pieces before pulling everything together into a story, then you’ll see that there’s a big benefit to the planning process and your writing will be much easier to accomplish.
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!