How to Write Fantasy

By Greg Strandberg

This fantasy writing book offers tips to those who want to write fantasy books. It starts out with ideas for your fantasy world. Then it delves into a small example fantasy world. After that we'll look at some marketing and cover ideas that might get your writing jumpstarted. From there it's onto some actual fantasy worlds that appear in print. 

If you've wanted to write fantasy but just can't make it work, this book will give you tips. Stop dreaming of that awesome book and make it happen. Use these ideas to finally write that fantasy novel. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Greg Strandberg
• Release date: Feb 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524234836

Greg Strandberg

Greg Strandberg was born and raised in Helena, Montana. He graduated from the University of Montana in 2008 with a BA in History.When the American economy began to collapse Greg quickly moved to China, where he became a slave for the English language industry. After five years of that nonsense he returned to Montana in June, 2013.When not writing his blogs, novels, or web content for others, Greg enjoys reading, hiking, biking, and spending time with his wife and young son.

Book preview

​Introduction

I’ve written more than 25 novels and novelettes and several of them fall into the fantasy realm. Over the years I’ve written about writing fantasy on my website, and I figured I’d put all of that together in a way that will give you tips for writing your own fantasy novel.

The book is structured into four parts.

– First, we’ve going to look at various fantasy world elements that will help you come up with a cool worldbuilding idea, one that fantasy fans will know and love.

– Next, I want to take you through a step-by-step process of creating a very simple fantasy world and the characters that inhabit it.

– After that, it’s time I show you a bit of my own fantasy books, primarily things that will help you, like cover, map and marketing ideas.

– Finally, I’m going to give you a detailed look at how I created a world for a fantasy trilogy that’s selling on Amazon and other eBook retailers now.

By the time you get to the end of this book you’ll really have some good ideas of what the fantasy genre is capable of, and how you can contribute to it. So stop dreaming of that awesome fantasy book and start making it happen – begin your fantasy writing journey now!

​​Part I

How to Write Fantasy Fiction

Over the next few chapters I want to talk about fantasy fiction.

That’s a big topic, and I want to focus on what it takes to write fantasy. We’ll explore various aspects of world-building as well as developing characters. Here’s a list of some of the topics we’ll discuss over the next two weeks:

– Elements of Your Fantasy World;

– Economy of Your Fantasy World;

– Transportation in Your Fantasy World;

– Class-System in Your Fantasy World;

– Entertainment in Your Fantasy World;

– Education in Your Fantasy World;

– Politics of Your Fantasy World.

What we’re getting at with a lot of these points are motives. You’re learning the motives of your characters. What drives them, what makes them do things, and makes them not do things?

These are important things to consider, and they help with character development. More than that, though, they make a good story. And stories take place in worlds, worlds of your creating, worlds of fantasy.

Let’s get started.

​1: Elements of Your Fantasy World

I like writing fantasy, and you must too if you’re reading this. That’s why I started this book, but I’ll say right now, there’s no way it can ever be complete.

There are quite a few little things that I’ll miss when I do these chapters, and some have already been pointed out to me.

– How about magic? That’s a pretty big part of most worlds.

– Weather is another that can really do some damage to characters and stories. How will it play out in your fantasy realm?

– What about monsters or creatures? You could have a whole menagerie that doesn’t even appear in the D&D Monster Manual!

Mainly with elements you’re thinking of the little things, I think. These are often the big things too.

– What are the physical laws? Do objects stay down with gravity? That’s pretty easy and you don’t think about that – unless you’re writing sci-fi, perhaps – but other laws you might want to consider.

– Do the planets and astrology and things like the moon have any affect on your world? We could be meandering into fantasy world religion here, but it’s something to think about. If I had ships in my book, I’d consider if the world was flat or not.

– How about the environment? Are trees being cut down at an alarming rate to fuel some pre-industrial world, or is it a hard-scrabble lifestyle that doesn’t leave much room for such earthly contemplations?

We can get into money when we talk about economics in a later post, but it’s good to think about these things.

Consequences

Another thing you might want to think about are consequences.

It’s easy to put a group of city watchmen in the path of your heroes, or villains, and mow them down. The same is true for that group of stone giants or trolls.

Those unimportant characters have families too, and if you do manage to get up to a Book 7 or 8, consider having a young waster of life and limb come at your heroes. After all, they killed daddy when he was almost done with his shift, and just before junior’s birthday.

So these are all things to consider when you’re writing fantasy fiction and epic fantasy fiction. After all, what makes those books so epic is their length, and the small print.

Hey, these books get so long because they go off on tangents and explore the peculiarities and complexities of a fantasy world to its fullest.

And that can annoy readers. I have a fine collection of 1-star and 2-star reviews on my epic fantasy perma-free book, and many complain of how boring it is. When you create a detailed world, you’re apt to explore it. And that can sidetrack story and hinder your ability to finish your tale. Many books are lost in that uncharted territory, and would-be authors never attain their dreams.

So discipline is key, and that’s another element to consider in your fantasy world – discipline. What happens when your characters mow down that group of city watchmen or that gaggle of trolls? Surely at least some laws of nature or man are broken...what are the consequences – a half-assed chase or some pats on the back?

What makes a fantasy book epic, perhaps it’s time to ask. It’s tough to figure out, but we’ll try as this series unfolds.

Your Series

Another thing you may want to consider are multiple volumes. Are you doing a trilogy or a series or something so open-ended that it has no name? In that case, these little plot holes or that lack of character development can help you. If that transition between chapter 7 and 8 was a little unclear, maybe that can be explained in Book 2. Or how about the sidekick’s strange habit of scratching himself their while talking about his sister? That could be a cool story for later.

Of course, doing this is kind of skirting responsibility, putting off for tomorrow what should be done today. And God do I love to do that.

How many times have you read through your book and thought, ‘man, that’s just not working’ or ‘I should change that?’ But then you don’t.

I guess that’s what editors are for, but those things you skip over become elements of your fantasy world too. After all, readers read them and they remember them. You told them to come look at your world after all, right when you told them to buy the book...about half a million times.

These are all things to think about, and I hope they can get you through another chapter of that fantasy manuscript. I’ve put out a lot of fantasy books and fantasy-style books, so I know what you’re going through. Just keep doing a little each day and you’ll get there!

​2: Economy of Your Fantasy World

What is the economy of your fantasy world like?

Why does the thing function? Who greases the wheels? Who wins and who loses?

These are all things you need to consider when you’re writing, and you need to consider them early on. After all, they drive your characters and cement your setting.

So what is your fantasy world’s economy like?

– Maybe it’s capitalist, where everyone is scrambling to make a buck and free enterprise and initiative count for all.

– Perhaps you have a socialist system, where everyone gives most of their earnings to the state, and is in turn supplied with

[Red River Jon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is very straight forward in the analysis and method of the author's approach to book writing. The simplicity of the break down of stages of creation and writing and his willingness to share his own methodology using material he has written to illustrate are very generous and honest.