Poetry of Mental Graffiti

Help You Write An Interesting Fantasy Story

Dealing with something new when writing a fantasy story is a real problem.

Many times I have been writing something and realized that I read it in some other stories first. It is may be a disaster for you regardless your kinds of writing. Fantasy is particularly annoying, because, because “acceptable” fantasy is mostly based on Tolkien.

 

 

The few writers that dare step away from those works, typically draw on mythology to inspire them. So the first question you should ask yourself is what direction you want to go in? Tolkien style fantasy, mythologically inspired fantasy, or do you want to try and step outside the box and create something new?

 

The first two are far easier of course. The latter can be the most rewarding. Once you know what you want to write about, the next step is to decide what it will be about. What is the drive of the story? Who are the characters? What are they struggling for? There has to be a struggle, no one wants to read about elves doing the laundry on a perfectly lovely day. Not unless a dragon comes along and eats one of them at any rate.

 

When writing fantasy the key is to allow the sensational to happen, but not too much. Magic is of course present, but it must be used with care. There is nothing wrong with characters who can destroy mountains with a wave of their hand, as long as the enemies can destroy two with the wave of their’s. You should not allow magic; or powers, to take the place of the people. The story is not about what they can do, it is about who they do it to. Never let the fantasy over ride the story.

 

Once you have learned how to keep the fantasy part of the story under control, writing high fantasy is no different than any other kind of story. The real challenge is knowing when to use the fantastic, and when not to. The plot should always be the most important part, not who can throw the bigger fireballs.