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Beginner Tools for Writing Fantasy

Writing fantasy is like writing any other specific genre - you need to know your market.  Study authors, find out what you like and find out what you don’t.  Make sure to record what aspects are inspiring and likeable to you, as well as the opposite.  You’ll want to remember it when you hit the writing stage. 

Of course, the best way to familiarize yourself with the fantasy genre is to read, read, read.  There are other ways as well that will give you answers to your questions and shed light on aspects of the fantasy scene.  My personal favorite is to read writing books specific to fantasy.  Not only are they excellent to hone your skills and keep your technique in check, but also many times they are written by some of the world’s best fantasy authors. 

Another method to acquaint yourself to the genre is one that you’ve probably done many times without realizing it.  If you wish to write fantasy, then you’ve probably watched it too.  Some movies out there are excellent tools and truly awesome for inspiration.  Filled with music, vivid characters and amazing scenery, watching fantasy movies is fun as well as helpful.

Whatever your ideas are, you need to make sure you are familiar with the market or you chance running into several problems - one of them being the dreadful “repetitive” storyline.  This can also sometimes be a blessing in disguise, if your story follows an all-to-familiar path and yet you succeed in your book coming out fresh and unique.

It’s important to know what type of fantasy you want to write.  Are you looking to write romantic fantasy and get picked up by a publisher like Luna?  How about epic fantasy like best-selling authors Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind?  Or are you cooking up a fantastic tale that doesn’t really fall into any specific field within the genre?  You’ll find a lot of the well-known fantasy authors tend to fall into some sort of mainstream.  Despite some people’s views on mainstream genre fiction, the fact is: it sells.  While someone writes a cutting-edge, one-of-a-kind fantasy novel and sells one in each store in a city, Terry Brooks is going to go ahead and sell sixty copies of his newest in one of his series at every store.  Now, I realize it’s unfair to compare a new author to an established best seller, but it does illustrate my point: know what you’re writing - you’ll need to in order to market and sell it.

A very popular theme with a lot of genres, especially fantasy, is series’.  Readers love to find their favorite characters in book after book after book.  What is more comforting than characters you’re already familiar with facing new and testing ordeals?  C’mon, picture your readers in the store, eyes eagerly scanning the shelves when finally they stop upon the newest in your series.  Their minds quickly run a vivid replay of your last works and they promptly snatch the new one off the shelf.  They pay for it and get it home.  They set it down gently and pour a glass of wine.  Cuddling up on the couch in their favorite pajamas, drawing their wine to their lips, anticipation crawls up their spine as they open the cover of their precious new book in the series by you. 

Okay, so maybe this is just my pathetic dream, but I know that’s how it is with the authors I hold most dear.  Point in summary: Readers love a good series, and fantasy is a never-ending well for them.  It’s something to keep in mind.

If the fantasy world is one that you can easily be swept up in, then it’s one to keep in mind as a genre possibility.  Like any book, it requires research and imagination, but if you love it, it helps.  Fantasy is a genre that serves as an escape for some and as an inspiration for others.  It opens doors to unthinkable possibilities and unheard of ideas.  Anything is possible in fantasy, which makes it irresistible to read and ridiculously fun to write.

Kelly Komm is a freelance writer and book reviewer presently completing her first novel, Sacrifice.  It is the first in a fantasy trilogy named The Last Forever. 

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