Fantasy Fiction 101: Why Write Fantasy Fiction?

Jun 2

"Fantasy is escapist and that is its glory."

J.R.R. Tolkien

We started this series by asking the most basic question: “What is fantasy fiction?” The answer, in its simplistic form, is that fantasy fiction is the ultimate “What if?” This is the genre that brings dragons to life, fills forests with fairies and ancient guardians, and creates worlds where magic flourishes and fantastical, mythical creatures occupy the same earth as you or I. The world is not restrained by the limitations of reality, but only by the boundaries you weave into the fiber and construct of the world you create.

Now, you might enjoy reading fantasy fiction for hours on end, but you still find yourself asking whether or not this is the genre for you to play in as an author. Worldbuilding alone can seem intimidating and overwhelming, never mind the cast of characters you have to craft, the magic systems you have to create, and then of course everyone’s favorite part of the process, plotting.

Fret not. Each of the aforementioned will get its own post in this series, so we can break down all the aspects together and you can walk away (hopefully) feeling informed and with a host of resources in your author’s handbook. For this post, we’re going to focus on the ins and outs of playing in the fantasy sandbox as an author. We’ll look at the general appeal of writing fantasy fiction, some of the most prominent challenges you might face as a new fantasy author, and include some helpful tips and tricks from the masters and mistresses of the fantasy fiction realm.

Let’s get started.

Why Write Fantasy Fiction?

Fantasy fiction holds a plethora of appeal to readers and writers alike. Readers get to bask in the lush landscapes that authors spend hours and hours painstakingly crafting, scale the mountains that giants call home, dive into the unexplored ocean depths where mermaids sing songs to the giants of the deep, and travel into uncharted lands where dragons rule the skies. Page after page, magic becomes real, creatures of mythology walk among us, and evil falls defeated beneath the hero’s blade.

Many authors who are new to this genre may know fantasy for its vast worldbuilding, magic systems, and heroic adventures. All of these are absolutely inherent within the genre, but there are a few more to consider:

The thrill of adventure
The escape of visiting imagined worlds
High stakes of revenge/vengeance
The fantastical refraction of reality
The wonder of magic
The hope of heroism
Elements of wish, wonder, and surprise
Timeless, dramatic themes

(List taken from "Writing Fantasy: Telling Spellbinding Stories (a complete guide)")

Fantasy collections such as Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Pullman’s His Dark Materials, and the extensive Oz collection by L. Frank Baum have endured with a devoted fanbase because they encompass most if not all of the above traits. Within these pages are written thrilling adventures, the wonder of magic, timeless themes of selfless bravery, friendship, and resilience against impossible odds, and richly imagined worlds that invite you in and make you sad to leave.

But there are two sides to every coin, and I would be bereft to not address some of the most common struggles that authors encounter when venturing into fantasy fiction. Again, most of these will get covered in forthcoming posts, but let’s make some introductions.

Authors Beware: Tips and Tricks to Successfully Navigate Fantasy Fiction

Worldbuilding: I doubt it will shock many people to know that worldbuilding is one of the most complicated aspects of writing fantasy fiction. While more intricate worldbuilding is commonly reserved for epic and high fantasies, you will encounter worldbuilding across all the fantasy subgenres. Whether you’re writing an epic fantasy, an urban fantasy, or even a saucy erotic fantasy, you will need to account for how magical/mystical/mythical elements work in your story. For example, if your story has a healthy cocktail of mythology, folklore, and magical creatures, you will absolutely need to research the characteristics and different legends behind each one. (Pro Tip: You’ll never get all of the different versions around a specific myth or cryptid, but spend some time online or in your local library getting as much information as you can.)

And of course, there are also cultures, languages, culinary highlights, clothing choices, ethnicities from one region to another… Yes, it seems overwhelming and it absolutely is time-consuming. Unfortunately, there’s not much of a shortcut available to you here. Whether you’re building half of a world (e.g., an underground society of mythical creatures living in a modern city) or you’re starting from scratch, you are building a world and all details must be accounted for. A helpful trick is to start with your own world: look at everything that encompasses your world, take notes, and then take a look at the list with a fantasy author’s eye.

For more helpful tips on worldbuilding, check out The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Fantasy Novel by Authority Pub.

Magic Systems: Where there is fantasy, there is magic. It can be subtle, an underlying element delicately woven through the narrative, or it can be one of, if not the main theme of the story. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has magic at the forefront of the story with an emphasis on one of the most critical aspects of incorporating magic: for all that magic can be used for good, it can be used for evil. By contrast, C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia series utilizes magic as a concept that, under specific circumstances, directly impacts events and characters, but lingers in the background more than it takes center stage.

Whichever approach you choose, you’ll need to know every detail like the back of your hand. You should also be sure that the magic system serves the story you’re writing. A well-crafted, richly detailed magic system is one of a fantasy author’s greatest achievements, but if it drags down the plot, you may want to set it to the side (for the moment) and use a different approach. That beautifully developed magic system will be patiently waiting for the story it rightfully belongs in.

For more tips and tricks on creating magic systems, check out Elements of Fantasy: Writing a More Magical Story by Now Novel.

The Story: Your story is the map for your fantastical road trip, so it goes without saying that you need to have a detailed map before you (and your readers) get lost in the wilderness. When writing fantasy fiction, the story becomes even more important. In a stand-alone novel, there are some things you can get away with not plotting, but if you’re planning to write an epic fantasy series - forget about it. Not only do you need to know the story, you need to be prepared to tell it again and again across multiple novels. Now, to be clear, this doesn’t mean every installment will feature twenty pages on a character’s backstory or an overview of what happened in the previous book, but key elements of a character and poignant plot points will need to be repeated as the series progresses, along with:

The characters’ goal (preferably one goal, to keep it simple);
The storylines transpiring on the sidelines; and
The obstacles that have already been faced (as well as what’s waiting around the corner).

Basically, your readers should be able to pick up book three of your series and understand the general gist of what’s going on while also being inspired to go back to book one and start from the beginning.

Fantasy author Dan Rice highlighted the top five lessons he learned when from writing a fantasy series, especially how to craft a narrative and carry it over a series. You can read about these in his guest blog 5 Things I Learned Writing a Series, featured on C.S. Lakin’s blog.

Characters: You can’t have a play without a cast of characters, and you can’t have a journey without an unlikely band of companions to take it. Whether you’re writing an epic fantasy or a simple tale of sword and sorcery, your characters are the ones who carry the story on their backs and keep readers engaged. While the narrative and the worldbuilding may pique their interest, it won’t necessarily keep it to the last page. Your characters are the element that keeps readers invested and turning the pages. Your heroine will inspire a shy reader to be bold, to try something they never have, and to live in the moment. Your villain will prompt your audience to pause, reflect, and perhaps find a characteristic or two that they see in themselves, and these may be the characteristics that make your villain human - while also being proof of what happens when these characteristics are out of balance with kinder qualities.

Fantasy fiction presents its own unique challenges because they often boast large casts of characters. You will need to give each character a unique characteristic, something that will make them instantly recognizable by the audience. It could be a speech pattern, a physical characteristic, or their specific relation to the protagonist (e.g., family member, childhood friend, lover).

Creating a diverse cast of characters is no small feat, so for some helpful tips, check out author Nick Martell’s tips on giving characters unique designs, personalities, and quirks in his guest post, 5 Tips for Writing a Fantasy Trilogy, with Writer’s Digest.

Learning from Masters of the Craft

Now that we’ve covered the pros and cons of writing fantasy fiction, it’s time to meet some of the most well-known and loved authors who have mastered this elusive genre. If you haven’t previously met some of these writers, I’m delighted to introduce you.

Clive Barker

Clive Barker was born in Liverpool in 1952, but he wouldn’t become a worldwide phenomenon until 1984 with the publication of his Books of Blood. He’s arguably best known for his horror works, namely penning the script for and directing the 1987 film “Hellraiser,” based on his novella The Hellbound Heart, but Barker has also written a number of fantasy novels, including Imajica, The Books of Abarat trilogy, and The Adventures of Mr. Maximillian Bacchus And His Travelling Circus.

On creating mythologies: “One of the things I’m trying to do over and over again in my books is create new mythologies, create new ways to understand the complexity of the world. I think what mythology does is impress upon chaotic experience the patterns, hierarchies and shapes which allow us to interpret the chaos and make fresh sense of it.”

On writing horror fiction: “By and large, horror fiction is the most difficult to domesticate because part of the point is that it’s one step ahead – or behind – everybody else’s taste. And I’m not really convinced I’d like it to change. There’s something very healthy about horror fiction being always a little bit on the outside. It’s the wild-dog genre.”

On characters: “I firmly believe that a story is only as good as the villain.”

L. Frank Baum

Heralded as the creator of the American fairy tale, Lyman Frank Baum was born in a New York village in 1856 and lived a life “as strange and convoluted as any plot he ever devised” (Riley, Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy World of L. Frank Baum, 15). Unable to be boisterous and physically active in childhood, due to a heart defect from birth, Baum’s artistic hobbies, love of the theater, and fascination with printing set the foundation for an illustrious writing career. Baum’s first installment in the world of Oz, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was published in 1900 and the series would be considered canonically complete in 1963, by which time the full collection of Oz tales totaled a staggering forty volumes. With countless adaptations, retellings, and continued publications within Baum’s original lore, he is rightly considered the father of the American fairy tale, giving Americans our own fantastical lore with a yellow brick road and a beautiful emerald city.

On the land of Oz: “Oz being a fairy country, the people were, of course, fairy people; but that does not mean that all of them were very unlike the people of our own world. There were all sorts of queer characters among them, but not a single one who was evil, or who possessed a selfish or violent nature. They were peaceful, kind-hearted, loving and merry, and every inhabitant adored the beautiful girl who ruled them, and delighted to obey her every command.”

On writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written solely to pleasure children today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out.”

To learn more about Baum’s life, check out his biography.

Peter S. Beagle

Born in 1939, Peter S. Beagle is best known for his 1968 novel The Last Unicorn, which earned the title of “All-Time Best Fantasy Novel” in 1987 and was adapted into an animated film in 1982 with Beagle writing the film’s screenplay. Beagle would return to the world of The Last Unicorn with the coda story Two Hearts, along with a series of short stories and novels featuring characters from the original story, namely Schmendrick the magician. In addition to his beloved classic, Beagle has also written fantasy favorites such as A Dance for Emilia, Tamsin, The Innkeeper’s Song, and Lila the Werewolf.

On writing heroes: “Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed.”

On types of characters: “There are people who give, and there are people who take. There are people who create, people who destroy, and people who don’t do anything and drive the other two kinds crazy.”

On being a writer: “We are our own dragons and our own heroes. We must rescue ourselves from ourselves.”

Ray Bradbury

Best known as a fantasy and horror author, Ray Bradbury was born to an Illinois family in 1920. His novel Fahrenheit 451, a tale of a dystopian American future society, is one of his most popular works, along with the 1950 science fiction novel The Martian Chronicles and the 1962 dark fantasy novel Something Wicked This Way Comes. His prolific writing would earn him multiple awards and literary honors and lead to the publication of thirty novels, six-hundred short stories, and countless essays, poems, plays, and screenplays.

On fantasy and science fiction: “I don't write science fiction. Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal.”

On being a writer: “You will have to write and put away or burn a lot of material before you are comfortable in this medium. You might as well start now and get the necessary work done. For I believe that eventually quantity will make for quality. How so? Quantity gives experience. From experience alone can quality come. All arts, big and small, are the elimination of waste motion in favour of the concise declaration. The artist learns what to leave out. His greatest art will often be what he does not say, what he leaves out, his ability to state simply with clear emotion, the way he wants to go. The artist must work so hard, so long, that a brain develops and lives, all of itself, in his fingers.”

For more information on Ray Bradbury’s personal life, check out his biography.

Lewis Carroll

The man who brought Wonderland to life was born in 1832 in the village of Daresbury, England as Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, though he would later be known best by his pseudonym, Lewis Carroll. The firstborn of eleven children, Charles was very skilled at entertaining himself with an active imagination that later gave birth to word-of-mouth tales that he used to entertain young children. Of all his child audiences, his favorite was Alice Liddell, the granddaughter of Henry George Liddell. Enthralled by the fantastical tale he told her during an outing, Alice implored Dodgson to write down the story in its entirety. In abiding by her request, Alice in Wonderland was officially born. The story was published in 1865 and was shortly followed by its sequel in 1871, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.

On imagination: “Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

On reality: “You know what the issue is with this world? Everyone wants some magical solution to their problem and everyone refuses to believe in magic.”

For more information on Charles Dodgson’s life and other passions, visit his biography.

C.S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis was born in late November 1898 to an Irish family living in Belfast. Lewis loved fantasy and heroic tales as a child but would be pulled back into reality by personal tragedy and, later, the state of the world. When he was only ten years old, his mother passed away; this loss would stay with Lewis and later prompt him to live as a surrogate son with the mother of one of his friends who was killed in World War I. Lewis himself suffered a shrapnel wound while serving in the war and was medically discharged from service. During his teaching career at Magdalen College (a subset of Oxford University), Lewis would join The Inklings, a group of writers and intellectuals of which both Lewis’ brother Warren, with whom he shared a close friendship, and J.R.R. Tolkien were also members. While part of this group, Lewis would rediscover and re-embrace his Christian faith after departing from it in his youth. This newfound faith would become a staple of his writings, both nonfiction (Mere Christianity), fiction (The Screwtape Letters), and his renowned fantasy saga The Chronicles of Narnia, which featured a lush fantasy realm and a classic tale of good versus evil.

On writing The Chronicles of Narnia: “I did not say to myself, 'Let us represent Jesus as he really is in our world by a lion in Narnia.' I said, 'Let us suppose that there were a land like Narnia and that the Son of God, as he became a man in our world, became a lion there, and then imagine what would happen.'”

On goals and dreams: “You are never too old to set a new goal, or to dream a new dream.”

On being a writer: “You can make anything by writing.”

George R.R. Martin

George R.R. Martin may not have gained recognition in the fantasy genre until 1996, when the first installment of A Song of Ice and Fire was published, but he’s been writing most of his life. As a youth in New Jersey, Martin was writing as young as elementary school, selling monster stories to other children in the neighborhood. As an adult, he would go on to work in the television industry, including the “Beauty and the Beast” series in the late 1980s. In creating the world of Westeros with A Song of Ice and Fire, Martin introduced a grittier, morally complex fantasy world than authors like C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien and demonstrated a willingness to apply harsh realities of life and war when killing off characters, including popular or well-loved ones.

On writing fiction: “All fiction needs to reflect reality. Fiction is lies. ... But it has to have a truth at the core of it.”

On writing short stories: “Short stories help you learn your craft. They are a good place for you to make the mistakes that every beginning writer is going to make. And they are still the best way for a young writer to break in, since the magazines are always hungry for short SF and fantasy stories. Once you’ve been selling short stories for five years or so, you’ll have built up a name for yourself, and editors will start asking you about that first novel.”

On being an aspiring writer: “The most important thing for any aspiring writer, I think, is to read! And not just the sort of thing you’re trying to write, be that fantasy, SF, comic books, whatever. You need to read everything. Read fiction, non-fiction, magazines, newspapers. Read history, historical fiction, biography. Read mystery novels, fantasy, SF, horror, mainstream, literary classics, erotica, adventure, satire. Every writer has something to teach you, for good or ill. (And yes, you can learn from bad books as well as good ones — what not to do).”

To learn more about the creator of Westeros, check out his biography.

Terry Pratchett

Sir Terence David John Pratchett was born in 1948 in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England. His first story, “The Hades Business,” was published in 1961 in a school magazine when he was fourteen. Best known for his Discworld series, Pratchett’s writing style was more humorous than the dark, gritty fantasy of George R.R. Martin, and he played with elements of both fantasy and science fiction in his works. The first book in the Discworld series, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983. Pratchett would go on to author fifty bestsellers before his death in 2015. Per his deathbed request, Pratchett’s close friend Rob Wilkins honored his request to dispose of the hard drive containing his unfinished works by crushing it under a steamroller. (Pratchett actually gave two options for how to dispose of the hard drive, but Wilkins felt launching it into space via a rocket would be a bit impractical.)

On being a writer: “I have to write because if I don’t get something down then after a while I feel it’s going to bang the side of my head off.”

On punctuation: “Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind.”

On imagination: “I’ve always felt that what I have going for me is not my imagination, because everyone has an imagination. What I have is a relentlessly controlled imagination. What looks like wild invention is actually quite carefully calculated.”

Philip Pullman

Philip Nicholas Pullman was born in England in 1946 to a Royal Air Force officer. The family’s constant travels during Pullman’s youth enticed his imagination, and he would spend considerable time entertaining his younger brother with fantasy tales. Though he was writing and publishing as early as 1972, his name would officially join those of beloved fantasy authors with the publication of His Dark Materials, a fantasy trilogy featuring the adventures of Lyra Belacqua and her devoted daemon Pantalaimon. The series began in 1995 with Northern Lights (known as The Golden Compass to American readers), continued with The Subtle Knife in 1997, and concluded with The Amber Spyglass in 2000. Northern Lights earned Pullman the 1996 Carnegie Medal in Literature and would later be adapted into a motion picture. He has since continued Lyra’s story in the Book of Dust trilogy. The first installment, La Belle Savvage, was published in 2017 with two additional installments planned to follow.

On writing: “Publishers will be very keen to tell you to a write specific type of book, namely something similar to the current literary craze or bestseller. Write what you want to write, be the next big thing and not another iteration of a phase that will pass. People don’t know what they want to read until they actually start.”

On being a writer: “Everyone works differently. Sitting at a desk in silence might be best way for you to write or it might fill with you with dread. If you find that curled up on the sofa with your laptop and music playing motivates you to write, then curl up on that sofa! If a plan clarifies your thoughts, then great, but if it’s more of a hindrance than a help, just start without one. The most important part is the writing; don’t be tied to how you think you should write if it doesn’t produce anything.”

On plot and character: “There are just as many ways to structure a novel as there are to write one. A good steer, however, is to let the actions of the main character drive the plot. It's useful emotional shorthand for getting your readers invested with your lead. Even if the story begins with them committing a murder, by having the protagonist be the instigator, your audience will care about them regardless of their terrible actions.”

More tips, tricks, and personal insight on writing can be found in Philip Pullman’s Daemon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling.

J.K. Rowling

Joanne Rowling was born in 1965 in Yate, England, and enjoyed a love of books throughout her childhood. In 1990, while waiting on a train, Rowling conceived the idea for the seven-book series that would cement her name and reputation in fantasy fiction: Harry Potter. The first installment in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was published in the summer of 1997 under the name J.K. Rowling. (The “K” came from Rowling’s grandmother’s name.) Following the success of Harry Potter, Rowling shifted her focus to the crime fiction genre. She published Cukoo Calling in the spring of 2013, using the pen name Robert Galbraith. She would publish three more novels under the same name between 2014 and 2018.

On reading: “The most important thing is to read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing and it will enlarge your vocabulary.”

On imagination: “Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.”

On writing the narrative: “In a novel you have to resist the urge to tell everything.”

For more information on J.K. Rowling, visit her biographical page on her personal website.

J.R.R. Tolkien

The man who would come to be known as the father of fantasy was born in 1892 in South Africa, but relocated with his widowed mother and brother to Birmingham, England when he was a toddler. Tragically, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien lost his mother in 1904 and both he and his brother were sent to live with a relative. He earned a degree in Anglo-Saxon and Germanic languages, and in classic literature, before enlisting in World War I. He was later discharged due to illness and went on to establish The Inklings, an informal writing group whose members would later include C.S. Lewis. In 1937, Tolkien published the first of a series of books that would earn him the title of father of fantasy, The Hobbit. Over the following years, he crafted his masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which he envisioned as a mythology for Anglo-Saxon Europe. Multiple volumes were later published to expand upon the lore of Middle Earth and the history of the First and Second Ages. The Lord of the Rings remains one of the most popular and enduring fantasy stories of all time and has been adapted several times, including Peter Jackson’s iconic film trilogy between 2001 and 2003.

On writing groups: “The unpayable debt that I owe to him [C.S. Lewis] was not ‘influence’ as it is ordinarily understood, but sheer encouragement. He was for long my only audience. Only from him did I ever get the idea that my ‘stuff’ could be more than a private hobby.”

On plotting: “If you’re going to have a complicated story you must work to a map; otherwise you’ll never make a map of it afterwards.”

On Middle Earth: “If you really want to know what Middle-earth is based on, it's my wonder and delight in the earth as it is, particularly the natural earth.”

For more advice from the father of fantasy, check out “Tolkien’s 10 Tips for Writers.”

In Closing…

"I have always loved fantasy fiction, because of some of the common tropes found in this kind of storytelling, whether it was the magic systems, fantastical creatures, or just a basic good v. evil yarn that had a happy ending after a struggle."

Robert Lee Brewer

Fantasy fiction is a magical genre, filled with incredible possibilities and heroic journeys. It also comes with built-in challenges and growing pains for newcomers to the genre, but don’t let any of these keep you from following through on a desire to become a fantasy author. You’ve read through some sage wisdom from masters (and mistresses) of the fantasy craft, and I’ll finish with a few more:

Read. Read everything. Read all kinds of genres and all different kinds of fantasy novels to get a well-rounded idea of how different authors approach plotting, character design, point of view, and worldbuilding.
Choose the perspective and point of view for your story’s narrator, and be consistent with it.
Get into your characters’ heads. Have real talk with them as often and as many times as it takes until you know each character as well as you know your best friend.
Sketch out a timeline for the story’s main events and key moments. You may also find it helpful to use plotting techniques to fully map out your story.
Whether you’re building a world from scratch or incorporating fantastical elements into the real world, be sure to get acquainted with every detail of the world.
Research any and all folklore and/or mythology related to magical, mystical, and mysterious elements in your story. This includes creatures of myth and legend, otherworldly realms, and folklore that are directly associated with a given region.

I’m so excited to continue this little journey into Fantasy Fiction 101 with you! Now that we’ve covered what fantasy fiction is and why this is a genre worth exploring, the next step is to begin at the beginning! Next month, I’ll be covering the main steps with your first draft, including plotting, basic character sketches, and writing prompts to get words on the page.

Until then, keep writing, WolfPack!

Writer Resources

T.M. Holladay has put together a 4-part series of workbooks that walks authors through how and where to begin writing their fantasy fiction bestsellers. These workbooks are not only helpful for practical use but also provide you with an extensively detailed idea of the different elements you need to consider.

Book I: The Only Character Workbook You’ll Ever Need
Book II: The Only Worldbuilding Workbook You’ll Ever Need
Book III: The Only Fantasy Workbook You’ll Ever Need
Book IV: The Only Plotting Workbook You’ll Ever Need

If you’re ready for the next step and looking for some writing prompts to get the creative juices flowing, you can use any number of fantasy writing prompts. I personally recommend the 1000 Fantasy Writing Prompts collection by Jan Power.

For a more technical approach to crafting a fantasy novel, Adam Stemple has written a 3-volume series on how to write fantasy fiction. These are bite-sized tips and tricks that are beginner friendly and cover everything from generating ideas to sketching the first draft to revising the story into a package that’s ready for an editor’s eye.

Volume I: Getting Started
Volume II: The First Draft
Volume III: Revising

For those aspiring authors who find a go-to handbook helpful, I understand completely. (I collect them and am always on the lookout for new additions.) I’ve found A Fantasy Writer’s Handbook by Richie Billing and A Writer’s Guide to Speculative Fiction: Science Fiction and Fantasy by Crawford Kilian and Silvia Moreno-Garcia very helpful, especially from a beginner’s perspective. These handbooks are very thorough and don’t just cover the basics, but also address editing, formatting, and publishing.