Must it be epic?

I write a lot of non-epic fantasy short stories. 3 of the 4 novels I'm working on are of somewhat epic proportions though. I'm working on one slipstream that is far from epic, but then again it's not straight fantasy, just kinda screwy.

All in all I'd say no. It doesn't have to be epic. It just happens to be that the majority are.

Oh, Heck no. *laughs*

Sorry, maybe I'm a bit out of my right to be so hasty with my response but... Well, I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with the style of writing that I like... My preference actually tends more to a 'young adult'/'young reader' fantasy selection. (Often due to the presenece of graphic 'love' scenes in most of the fantasy that I've picked up for adult audiences and/or just not being able to get behind the main characters emotionally at all, but that isn't important for my opinion on this matter, I don't think.)

All the same, my answer does not change. I say "Heck no" to this question. ^_^() I love characters. Plot is a great thing and it has to occur... because otherwise the characters don't develop! But... characters! *heart*

Anyone interested in some suggestions? Vivian Vande Velde does a lot of work where the main characters deal with a great amount of conflict. They develop and learn new things about their worlds and themselves. Saving the world? What's this you speak? No... They're playing a fantasy video game in one. Another is just a wizard for hire who is helping a king and his daughter princess figure out a way in which they can find her a husband-- for she is tall, a bit plain, and stronger than a fair few men, which scares them. One character spends the entire book trying to get revenge for having been wronged only to fail and end up with something better than revenge.

They are intended for teenaged readers, but in my opinion they are some of the best books I've ever read. I absolutely love her work. She's not the only writer I know who doesn't have 'epic' plotlines, but she's the one who immediately comes to mind.

The definitive answer is, hell no. Not even if you are writing about an *epic hero*.

I can't write epic fantasy. I just can't come up with huge universes and a thousand characters and...I don't read it much, either. I write character-driven fantasy, not plot-driven.

In science fiction and fantasy both (and to some degree action/adventure), it seems there is a fallback tendency of many genre writers to employ Great Big Stakes as an artificial way of boosting dramatic tension. Even if you don't really give a rusty heck about the characters, the writer is hoping the cause is just enough to pull you through. Saving the world is a worthy endeavor, right? Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.

The trend seems amplified in scriptwriting, though a lot of productions try to retrofit high character stakes among high world stakes with the hope that you'll see the character's small-scale peril as a reflection of the larger catastrophe. Think of the last actual disaster stories you saw, whether it was about a volcano, an earthquake, mass global weather change, alien attack...

Personally, with the personal-on-public disasters, I usually find it the signature of desperation. The writer can't create a compelling enough story, or don't trust their effects department, to just let go and illustrate the world burning down. Then again, it's no easy task to create empathy for the world. It's not fair, but we've been so desensitized to characters saving the world that we've kinda lost any empathy for the poor, ignorant bastards that have no idea that Joe Hero is battling over their fate.

Now, that said... if you have a character that you can legitimately follow through your chosen schittstorm, and you care about them, it can make for some really compelling reading. Having the world fall down around their ears (or threaten to) can really amp the energy... if it's done right. Otherwise, you get the kind of ho-hum heroism where characters shrug and look at each other: "Oh well, we save the world again."

...And the audience shrugs right along with the characters and says "...oh well..."

I'm still learning how to write epic. My story is not so epic I think. So I guess it's not MUST.

The novel I'm currently shopping around is non-epic fantasy. It is a very good novel - I've had plenty of publishing people say so and it has got close several times. However at least three of my near misses, one at acquisition committee, have been because 'the plot isn't big enough' or 'the story isn't epic enough'.
I deliberately wrote a story that was tightly focused on the goals of my central characters, and not on 'saving the world from the Dark Lord/black wizards/evil penguins', but it is clear that it is easier to sell something that is 'epic'.

I generally dislike epic stories, as do many other readers. There are certainly many other things one can do in sff: adventure, comedy, romance, surrealism, intrigue, psychodrama...

I don't just write it. I sell it. And, people seem to like it so far.

For good examples of "anti-epic" fantasy, check out "Year's Best Fantasy and Horror". Every year, they really do some amazing things. You will discover your new favorite author in this anthology.

I write epic fantasy without shame. Didn't really have a choice because the Asphodel series sends fantasy archetypes off to fight the Trojan War and that's about as epic as it gets.

It's more than possible to have fantasy without it being epic. I think that particularly in urban fantasy the genre is getting away from the epic scale. However, there will always be readers who love to sink their teeth into a good, huge epic. So the epic still has its place in the fantasy world at least for the foreseeable future.

Thank god. *grin*

waylander said:

The novel I'm currently shopping around is non-epic fantasy. It is a very good novel - I've had plenty of publishing people say so and it has got close several times. However at least three of my near misses, one at acquisition committee, have been because 'the plot isn't big enough' or 'the story isn't epic enough'.
I deliberately wrote a story that was tightly focused on the goals of my central characters, and not on 'saving the world from the Dark Lord/black wizards/evil penguins', but it is clear that it is easier to sell something that is 'epic'.

Click to expand...

Wait a minute . . .

What have you got against evil penguins?

Humph! Some people . . .

There's nothing wrong with writing fantasy that isn't epic in scope. But there's nothing wrong with writing fantasy that is epic in scope. Done well is done well. Done poorly is done poorly. Either way.

I think I could consider my stories all epics in the sense that they take matters to extremes.
In none of them do they save the world...just big tasks.
IF for you to have an epic you need to save the world, then my stories are not epics, just really big and extreme.
And two of my main novels have fantasy characteristics but they're really down to earth. Nothing like Lord of the Rings.

I see no problem in whatever story you write.
Who cares if you don't save princesses or sail great distances and fight monsters and meet elves? Make your story unique.
That's what I try to do with mine.

My own fantasy novel isn't really epic, even though it deals with big things. The story's about preventing a wizard from ascending to divinity; if I write the sequels they'll be about taking someone down who ascended and shouldn't. It's a big story, but it doesn't have that "epic" feel. The cast isn't huge, and there's not this sense of the whole world banding together to defeat the evil.