What does it take to write a good fantasy?

Believable characters that the reader will care about. A well-drawn world that feels real. Prose that involves all the senses.

Read a lot of fantasy.

Ditto Ferret. Also, practice. A lot of practice. Write until your fingers bleed.

And if they do, I know my cousin Sammy this great doctor who can fix that right up.

Blimey you don't want much do you? lol

Same as to write any good book, no matter the genre. A sense of story, an ability to both create 3d characters with faults and flaws, and to be able to see the world from their perspective. The ability to credit yoru reader with the intellignce to understand what you're saying without using a mallet to whack it into their brain

Specifically for fantasy? Personally I'd say the ability to be subtle with your worldbuilding, to realise that just because you know something about your world doesn't mean you have to describe it to your reader. The ability to see all the logical consequences of the fantastic elements you have in your woprld.


And to learn that? Read fantasy, lots of it. See what works and what doesn't. Read and analyse as much as you can. Pul those books to bits. Why did this work, and not that? How could that have been done better? Study the structure, the prose, the detail. Read. learn and inwardly digest. Then read some more. And as said upthread - practise till you bleed.

What they said
A load of research.
To construct a believable society/world for your fantasy, you have to understand how real ones work/have worked

Also, it really helps to love the genre. But you probably wouldn't even be considering it if you didn't.

Anonyouth said:

Though I am only a teenager and know very little of the world.
=]

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Don't sell yourself short. You have a unique perspective on the world around you, just as any person does. Draw and expand from that. You'd be surprised!

Anonyouth said:

Thank you both.
I never thought about having to understand the real world and how it works to write about a fantasy one (in fact that statement took me by surprise,) but now that you've said it, I realize it to be true. It makes sense. Though I am only a teenager and know very little of the world.
=]

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Same boat here. But you learn. In some ways, still being in school has been a major help to me, since I'm always learning new things (AP US History gave me more plot ideas than any other class).

Anonyouth said:

Though I am only a teenager and know very little of the world.
=]

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What the bear said

Plus - you've got a brain right? You can observe how society works around you, how people interact, what taboos there are and how people act when they are broken?

Writing isn't just about writing, it's about observing human behaviour everywhere you see it. Talking to people, finding out all the fascinating little things that make them them.

Don't just write. Watch, listen, learn - about people and about societies. Then think about it. Think, if I were to change this one little thing in society, how would it change the rest? In what way would people think differently, act differently?

The only thing I can think of that might distinguish the fantasy writer from other writers would be a particularly vivid imagination. Unfortunately, you're either born with that or you aren't.

Otherwise, the same advice applies. Read and write as much as you possibly can.

This might not help much, but I'm currently working on a fantasy manuscript and my main tool I use is beauty. It is that vague when I use the word, but someone mentioned vivid imagination. So I try to light the world up with beauty as I write, yes, even when I get to the violence and the sad stuff in life.

I've only just started the story and I've got a long ways to go. It'll take many years to write. This is because I am an extremely slow writer since the summer had finished. I used to be much faster, but I'm learning to take my time and delve deep within the scenes. That's what I enjoy doing now, though.

Beauty, that's what drew me to fantasy when I began writing for the first time. The first story I ever finished tried to capture that imagination. I was 20 or 21 years old, just eight or nine years ago and I sat down at my Aunt's computer one day with no knowledge of how to write or have read any novels since I had been a very young teenager, maybe even last reading anything since middle school really, and then I just began writing a fantasy story. I still remember most things about it. Beauty was the key for me to begin writing.

It might be more of an inspiration to use beauty, but I've learned in the recent years that it can be a real thing. But I love romantic stuff too, go figure, huh?

The closest comparison you want? Think Final Fantasy for the playstation, the one with the character Squall. That was the last game I played, other than trying out WoW. But Final Fantasy seems to have that magic touch of beauty. But I'm a little different with my stuff, so take whatever I have to say as inspiration first before anything else. That's what got me started and I still use it to this day. No publishing credits to show for it yet either, so again, I'm just rambling. Thanks. Cool avatar by the way (Anonyouth).

Anonyouth said:

Other than a vision in mind, knowing basic grammar, and wanting to write, is there any else that one needs to have in mind to write (not just a story, but a good story)?

I'm young and have a lot to learn, but I want at some point in my life to have my MS published.

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You may want to keep in mind that writing good fantasy is not the same as writing fantasy that will sell.

Which is more important to you?

You've mentioned that you are young.

Well depending on how young, I would say one of the best ways to write better is to live your life.

Some of my best writing is drawn from my personal experiences. And just because there are no elves in the world is no excuse. Stories are built on characters and there are plenty in the world. Would you rather describe how to shoot a bow having it on TV? Or pulled the bowstring back, felt the tension in your arms and then nearly nicked off your nose when you let loose?

Observe your surroundings. Talk to people. Go to music concerts, art shows, conventions. Hike, canoe, listen to NPR. From your growing pool of memories and experiences, a maturity will come into your work. New ideas will spring up.

Experience the world around you and being a better writer will only one benefit you'll gain from it.

And yes read fantasy. And write, write, write.

Hi, I've never sold anything. But my two cents:

Write. Lose your mind in the madness of your character's minds. Write. Regain your mind in the study of everything. Allow yourself to write crap over and over again just to keep yourself writing. It's how you improve, hone your skill. Take a martial arts class. Study what you've written and write it again, polish it, make it more true to the characters. Most of your first draft will be you, but you're only the narrator. Lose your mind again in the depth of your world, in it's violence and passion. Write. Read everything to learn, even non-fiction. Develop a passion for landscape, go camping, travel, see wild lands and love them like the wild people that would live there. Write, write, write, lose your mind and step back from your work to regain it, gain some objective perspective, and then fearlessly dive back into it again, once you've recovered sufficiently. It'll never be complete.

Anonyouth -- what's your favorite book?

A sense of wonder and excitment.

The courage to explore that sense of wonder and excitment.

The honesty to record what you find on your explorations.

The tenacity to stick to that sense of wonder and excitment regardless of outside commentary and criticism.

So many people have made great suggestions, that I really can only add one thing: fantasy, especially fantasy that takes place in a completely made-up world, offers tremendous freedom. You want giant smeerps migrating across a landscape of crystal? Sure. You want your character to shoot fireballs from his eyes, or have mind-control powers, or be a sparkly vampire? You got it.

But tremendous freedom requires tremendous responsibility to use it well and believably, which is one of the greatest pitfalls I've seen in amateur fantasy. If you make up the rules, stick to them, and be willing to follow them to their logical conclusions. Shooting fireballs from your eyes can cause vision problems, and why don't the sparkly vampires just put on foundation? That kind of stuff. Even in a fantasy world, people are still people and there had better be a darn good reason why they can lift a 7-foot-long sword without falling over due to plain physics.

Other advice? Read a ton. Not just fantasy, but other genres--see what they do well, and see what they don't do well. And seek out honest criticism, not from people who will tell you "good job!" no matter what, but people who can clearly verbalize what does and doesn't work.

And keep writing!

Anonyouth said:

I have read many good books and enjoyed them differently, but I must say that one of my favorites is The Last Battle from CS Lewis. I loved the ending of that book with every bit of my little black heart.

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So start with that one.

Why did this book reach you so well? What was it that you enjoyed above other books? How did the author achieve it?

I write fantasy and science fiction, and I think what really helps someone writing in this genre isn't just imagination or writing ability, but curiosity. Yes, a greater knowledge of the world around you will help, and read lots and lots of the genre, but you have to be willing to ask questions. What if the sun suddenly exploded, what would happen? What if human beings didn't evolve to sweat but instead panted like dogs? We probably wouldn't have been able to develop speech but would have learned to communicate differently. What if alchemy really worked? In fact, how much do you know about alchemy? If its not much, have a go at it, it's some pretty interesting stuff.
That's what I mean about curiosity, the ability to wonder not just what something is, but how it works, why it works, and what would happen if it didn't work anymore.

Confidence helps too, because in the literary world fantasy as a genre (unless you're Bradbury, Atwood, Le Guin and company) is looked down upon.