5 Things I've Learned About Writing Reading Fantasy
I love fantasy. Okay. Wait. Let me qualify that. I love some fantasy. I have certainly read some fantasy stories that make me want to throw the book at the wall. But then I have discovered fantasy stories that make me want to dive in and stay (if you want recommendations, drop it in the comments). A wonderful fantasy story is like a gorgeous dance between author, story, and reader. I have learned a lot about writing by reading both fantasies I love and hate. For the sake of this blog, I wanted to concentrate on what I’ve learned reading fantasy that is applicable to writing stories across genre. These five lessons in writing, regardless of the genre, are critical to a wonderful story.
We don’t exist in a white room. Neither do characters. They are alive in a world where other people, languages, cultures, traditions exist. Fantasy stories require that the character’s world plays a part in the overall story. For me, the best worlds are those that the author unfolds the world like a blanket, immersing me (as a reader) into the world as a member of it. This means that the author never info dumps, but rather assumes I already know the details. The details unfurl around me like a dream. Fantasy writers (SciFi and Dystopian writers, too) spend a lot of time creating the world where the story takes place fleshing out details to make the world come alive. These rich details add so much to the overall effect of the story but a huge mistake a writer can make is dumping mass amounts of information all at once (this is a major pet peeve for me as a reader).
While I have spent more time writing contemporary, understanding how important it is to develop the space—the reality if you will—of the world where my characters are walking is so critical. In The Stories Stars Tell, I never once named the town. I did this on purpose (if you want to know why, ask me in the comments), but I don’t think the story is less because of it. Rather than focusing on the “names” of a place, I focused on the atmosphere, the mood, the kind of ways Tanner might take Emma on a date. These details of world, ultimately, should enhance the reader's overall experience.
Main characters (protagonists) or the hero (though I use the term loosely because I want it to encompass whoever we’re on the journey with which might be an amazing anti-hero) in a fantasy story often embodies the desire of the common human. Think of it this way, Frodo was just an everyday hobbit thrust into extraordinary circumstances that required him to step up. The conflict he faced (besides that huge massive evil creature bent on destroying the world) was finding his own inner strength to do what needed to be done with the ring - to carry the burden for all and destroy it. While the hero is important, so is the conflict between their wants and needs in which they find themselves. Those drivers are the ways we connect as readers.
Here’s an example: we wouldn’t read Griffin’s story In the Echo of this Ghost Town if all we had to go on was The Stories Stars Tell. He’s not a great “hero” and as an everyday reader he’s not very likable either. But his wants, the conflict driving him, is his need for love, which all of us can relate to.
Which brings us to the journey. A good fantasy story always has a journey. This doesn’t always mean walking from point A to point Z (even if many do. I mean…Lord of the Rings) but there should always be the internal journey from who is this hero at the beginning of the story (what do they want?) to who they become by the end (what have they learned they need?). This journey is created (using that world building and the conflict) to develop a necessity for the reader to go along with the character.
And then there are those helpers—the secondary characters—who make the hero better. I mean look, if we are the hero of our own stories, we are surrounded by secondary characters, who are the hero of their own journeys. Fantasy stories (the good ones) develop these secondary characters so they become as essential to the overall story as the main character.
And last but not least, is the way in which fantasy authors flesh out a series (when done well). I have often wondered if they knew from the beginning how it would go. A good series (and I don’t mean the kind of series with stand alone stories with common characters, but rather the series in which one book feeds into the whole of the next one with an endgame in play. Look at Sabaa Tahir’s Ember in the Ashes series if you want a great example of this) unfolds the conflict over time, building into each of the stories as a part of the overall three act structure. So while each book adheres to that structure, so does the series, and it is a beautiful thing.
I tried to do this with the Cantos Chronicles. When you think about three books as a singular work, Swimming Sideways, The Ugly Truth, and The Bones of Who We Are and examine them from the lens of the three act structure, Swimming Sideways is the first act, setting up the ordinary world, the inciting incident, and crossing the threshold into the “new world” of the second act which is Seth’s story, The Ugly Truth. His story leads us through the road of trials to the dark night of the cave moment when we cross into the third act and the final battle of Gabe’s story, The Bones of Who We Are (because the Cantos Chronicles were always about Gabe from the moment they began).
This certainly is NOT an exhaustive list of all that can be learned by reading fantasy. As a category, I find it supremely complex and am in awe when writers slay a fantasy. It isn’t an easy feat, but it’s freaking magic when they do!
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As always, you put out amazing content. Thank you. Thank you.
