5 Tips For Writing Your First Fantasy Novel
Writing a novel is no small feat. I’m pretty certain the entire population of the world wants to write a novel at some point in their life; what separates writers from everyone else though, is that they are mad enough to actually sit down and do it.
When writing any book, there’s a whole list of things you need to consider before you get started: plot, characters, setting, style. Some people extensively plot out a summary before they ever put pen to paper, whereas other people write by the seat of their pants. Personally, I sit somewhere in the middle. But ultimately, you have to have some idea before you get started.
Fantasy however... well, that’s a whole other beast. Quite often, with any given fantasy novel, the world in which it is set doesn’t actually exist outside the pages of the book. Towns, cities, countries, and continents might all have been imagined by the author. The very laws of nature which we all take for granted here in the real world might work differently. Magic will almost certainly exist in some capacity, which even in its vaguest form requires a set of rules for how it operates.
So, in order to navigate the mine field that is writing a fantasy novel from scratch, here are a few basic tips to help you get started.
1. Start with the world!
Whilst ultimately the plot is normally the most important part of any novel, with fantasy, world building is key. More often than not, your world should be informing the story, sculpting it, dictating where it goes. The setting is the flavour that distinguishes fantasy from any other genre.
If you are setting your book in a city floating in the sky, the world is going to be drastically different than if the entire novel is set underground. Geography, environment, and climate, all have major influences on how societies and cultures develop, and cultural identities play a huge role in how characters behave, speak, and interact, determining their moral values, their goals, and dreams.
Its not vital that you have every minute detail of your world figured out before you get started on your manuscript, but it pays dividends if you have the major beats and themes sorted ahead of time.
2. Show don’t tell
This rule generally works well with all genres, but with fantasy it goes doubly so. Longwinded expositions get dry pretty fast, and you don’t want your readers to get bored before they get to the meat and potatoes of your book.
With fantasy, exposition is almost inescapable. Whereas the setting for a detective novel in 1920’s New York can be established in a sentence or two, the Stormy Isles in the heart of the Wyrm’s Triangle off the coast of Westverness requires a little more explanation.
Whilst a few lines, or perhaps at most a paragraph or two, might be required to set the stage, lengthy prologues and introductions serving as information dumps should be avoided at all costs.
Even the most hardcore readers don’t want to have to trudge through an encyclopaedia before they get to the story. Sure, you might think the world you’ve created is a fascinating place to learn about, but remember, you are living and breathing it whilst you create your novel; your audience on the other hand are coming in fresh, and probably need easing in before they fall in love with it.
A good trick is to have a character be relatively unversed in the world they are exploring, whether they are a visitor from another plane of existence, or just someone young and naive from a small village in the middle of nowhere. That way, they can discover the world slowly at the same speed as your reader.
3. Consider making a map
You might have little to no artistic flare, and the idea of drawing a map might be an incredibly daunting prospect, but a map of your world can serve as an incredibly useful tool for plotting your novel. If you do create one, it can always be used as an insert to your book, either as front matter or in the appendices. Alternatively, it might be something reserved for your eyes only, never to see the light of day.
Either scenario, having your book’s world planned out, be it an entire map of the globe, or just the street plan of a small city, will allow you to figure out exactly where everything takes place throughout the novel.
Travel times for voyages can be calculated with greater accuracy. And you can gain a better idea for how climates and environments might operate. Neighbouring nations or settlements might have different relationships depending on their proximity or the geography of the surrounding area.
Its not key, but having a map has very often influenced the planning of my books, so it is definitely worth considering. And if drawing truly is your faux pas, there are plenty of tools online to help you generate a map with ease.
4. Develop a naming convention
Chances are, if you are writing fantasy, you’re going to have some interesting names throughout your work. Whether its for your characters, geographical locations, races, cultures, religions, or even everyday items, at some point you are likely going to have to invent a name for something.
You might opt to make up your own words, but if there are a lot of places and people throughout your book, you might find yourself running out of ideas pretty quick. There are a plethora of random name generators available online, but I have found most of these are somewhat limited in scope, often lacking in customisation and sometimes churning out a scant number of options.
A technique I’ve grown fond of is using Google translate. I pick a language that I feel fits culturally with an area, and then translate a few words describing the location, stitching together the results.
Another good one is to scour Wikipedia for historical persons that share traits and characteristics with the character I am looking to name.
There are plenty of other methods and tricks, all as good as each other, but the ultimate key is to stop yourself from staring at the ceiling for half an hour attempting to pluck a made-up word out of the air.
5. Keep a timeline
Every world has history, and every story has backstory. Your novel doesn’t begin on page one, it starts with all the events leading up to the opening chapter. The history of your fantasy setting might stretch back millennia with events that took place hundreds of years ago having a bearing on the main story. Alternatively, the events leading up to the opening of your novel might be measured in mere months and weeks. Regardless, it’s important to record what has happened both prior to your book’s opening pages, and likewise, the dates of events that occur throughout the novel.
Keeping a timeline allows you to keep track of exactly when things have happened in your world, helping you in turn to work out the order of events clearly in your mind. Whether you are recording the dates of important battles, the duration of a dynasty’s reign, or simply the births and ages of your characters, its important to keep these things written down rather than committed solely to memory!