r/fantasywriters

Seems a simple question. One (you’d think) a fantasy author ought to be able to answer quickly. And sometimes the answer comes naturally, over beers with friends and neighbors or facing down a few bemused strangers in a bar. 

But when it’s just me, asking the question of the stillness in my office or the darkness before sleep, I find it’s not so simple.

Why did I write a fantasy novel? 

Partly, I am what I ate. I’ve read fantasy for most of my life. From Animorphs to Arabian Nights, Goosebumps to Green Angel Tower, my blood has always stirred at the fantastic: Brian Jacques, Carol Berg, RA Salvatore, Jim Butcher, Patrick Rothfuss, Scott Lynch, Tad Williams, Robin Hobb, Ursula K. Le Guin – these names are electrodes on a battery that powered me through life. 

Partly, I thought it would be easy: I’d knock out a simple story about pirates, secret treasures, and leviathans before moving on to more challenging fiction. One page a day for a year, and I’d have a 365-page banger I could toss up for a sail and let it carry me to greater things. 

Fifteen years and five books later, I have a 488-page banger that burned every preconceived notion of ease on a pyre of humility. 

But to take the question through its heart and pin it to the board…I write fantasy because it fits. It was our first voice – our earliest forebears crowded in the dirt around a fire, telling stories to help them understand the world through which they passed. They called the sun an eye because they couldn’t comprehend the atom. The wind was a sigh and the sea a fickle mistress. There was no veil between fact and fantasy—and who’s to say they were wrong? Take a good look at the proton and tell me you understand exactly how it works. Lie beneath the stars, stare into the infinite space between them, and explain the concept of forever. Walk the old forests at night, and see if you take comfort from that textbook explaining there are no gods or monsters. 

There’s a common stigma attached to fantasy literature, that it is all escapism and foolishness. I’ve often found it to be the opposite; that in stories outlandish, whimsical, or impossible can be found some of the brightest and most imperishable truths. 

During World War II, Tolkein and Lewis lectured regularly at Oxford on their works; an attendee named Helen Terrel Wheeler said of one afterward, “What happened in the great books was of equal significance to what happened in life. Indeed, that they were the same.” 

Stories are lives, distilled.

And a life without imagination is no life at all. 

So why did I write a fantasy novel? Today, the answer is simple. 

Because it was fun.

Comment your answer below!

The story starts with me leaving my hometown to go to kota(a study hub for children for government exams). Many Children go their to study some go because they want thrill in life and some go because of their parents expectations. I fall in the third category I go there because my parents expect me to study engineering to get a well and stable job so i can earn and help my father amd take some of his responsibilities because he didn't earned so much that i would have options.So i joined a coaching centre and i have gone their for atleast 3 years.

But destiny has some other plans for me. Their was a news on tv that scientist has found traces of some living species in space. They said that maybe theirs a possibility that aliens are their in space or between us. Most of the people ignored it because its not the first time someone said something like that(But this was different). I was just coming from my institute like any other normal day(I am a boring person so i dont have friends here), went to my room and studing,watching anime like usual. At around 12 in the midnight i go to the balcony (not like the balcony you have in the room, balcony which are at the end of hallway that balcony)to get some free air and because i was tired of studing. I was just listening to music and watching the sky thinking that when i was a child sky was filled with stars but not now you rarely see stars.

Tommorow is sunday so i dont have to wake up early, so i stood in the balcony for sometime enjoying the cold breeze then i went to my room studied for some time and then went to sleep.

I had a very weird dream that night the dream was a giant man standing infront of me telling that 5000 years have passed and now the lock of the chains of that entity is starting to fade away and you should be careful.

I asked him who he is and he said 'We are watching you and when time comes i will help you' and he also told me that it is not a dream. And then i woke up it was still 3 am(which is a bad time as it is the time when dark supernatural force are at the peak of the power) but i could not sleep again. Then i again went to the balcony thinking about what happened and laughing at myself that it is just a nuisance dream. (I never denied that there are evil spirits as if there is good there will be evil they go side by side) but this was just unbelievable that something like that is true. But i felt something changed about me after that.

So i just stood there for few minutes trying to forget what happened but i cannot so for guys like me the best way to forget something is to watch sad reels and it works more when you are at a cold temperature alone and mostly dark so yeah after half an hour of watching reels(just for comedy it is not true FOR EVERYONE) i then go back to sleep and it worked.

Nothing happened for few days everything was normal and i almost forgot about that but few days later the same thing happened that giant came to my dream and said me 'What are you doing you should train yourself to awaken your powers' and i said who are you and what do you mean by awaken my powers but i woke up again was frustrated what does he mean to say.

And I thought this cant be a dream but i was confused what should i do, so i started doing home workout like pushups,situps and planks and 5km runnimg because i already have many things to do. At first i feel like it was a headache i cant get enough sleep or rest but after few weeks i started adapting it and i feel a little taller than before and my body started to feel light although i haven't lose much weight and then one day he came again in my dreams but this time something was changed he started talking to me before i could even ask him anything. He said that he hasn't ever seen my face he could only hear my voice but he said that i could see you properly and he said that because you have much potential than me then he proceed to tell me that he is my ancestors spirit. I asked him that if you are my ancestors spirit then how are you so giant, the tallest man in the world is hardly 10 or 15 feet. Then he tell me that he is like the normal population but maybe my unawakened powers are the reason i see him as giant.

And he tells me that he doesn't have as much potential as me and that i should awaken my powers. He tells me that he with his powers have fought someone(he tells the name but i wasn't able to hear it) and they were not able to defeat him so they sealed him and that if he can contact me that means the chains are getting loose and he might be able to break them and come back again. He tells me that he like to enjoy fights before killing his enemies we have lost to him many times but he let us live and then we attack him again lose and the cycle repeats until we were able to seal him.

I asks him so how did you finally sealed him to which he replies because he got bored. I was shocked and said what to which he replied that he has eliminated all the powerful warriors of the past and he wanted to enjoy more so by help of some dark magic(which no one knows how he gained) stored all his powers to someplace because of which he was just using 9% of his power because of which we were able to seal him. We even tried to find the places and destroy his powers which were near impossible to find because they are shattered in 20 different forms which change their form according to their environment. Which normal people cant find that only those who served the king as his gems in his court (like raja krishnadevraya has his 9 gems who are especially chosen by the king)only their bloodline can find those pieces.

He with the help of dark magic hide his powers in such a way that no matter how strong or magical lock we put in his chains after 5000 years they will go back to him and we were never that strong to defeat him but we have found strong weapons and mantras which could help you defeat him.

I asked why is that he specifically wants to comeback after 5000 years to which he said that because in every 5000 a special krishnakamal(a flower which looks very beautiful) blossom but its nectar is not just an ordinary nectar which requires somethings to do and after doing those things that nectar will turn into amrit(elixir) because of which he will be immortal. He added "HE is already so powerful and if he gets amrit then he cannot be killed". I asked him who is HE you are referring and he said because he is terrified to name him. And he said that's the reason we needed you peoples help because he has seen that person massacre which is why he said that if you fail to kill him then everyone will be tortured to death. I am a chosen one, I asked, to which he replied "Yeah but not only you there are few others which are chosen which you will need to defeat him.

I asked him why are their only few people who will fight "HE" if he is so strong and how can only few people defeat him to which he replied that its simply because when that fight occurred 4 of the 9 people who were kings gems died and the rest 5 survived and their legacy passes on to their descendant but their was one problem powers can be given only to their descendants and if their whole family tree is killed their power is gone so the rest 4 people powers are gone but if only one person is killed the power will automatically go to the next chosen one and their can be one power holder at a time like if you awakened your power no one from your relation can achieve that it will only be possible only if you die. I asked him why are you trying to scare me and he said i am just telling you the truth so you could be ready and he also added that people before you haven't achieved that power because they didn't need to so he said me to be ready

I asked him if i was the first one and how will i find others who will help me to which he replied its simple. Then he said that i will contact you again after which you will able to meet them but before that i will unlock some of your powers so train yourself until i make contact with you again, You will not able to fully master these powers now but in the future you will surely master them i see potential in you. He gave me superhuman reflexes and strength and i learned to control it because i dont want to show off my powers as it is a drag. I started to think about what happened and that giant has scared me so much that i recorded a video which i will see if i survived the fight and if i didn't then i hope so my friend Rudra will show this to my parents "i came here to study for a good and settled future but what am i doing now, training to save the world, This world where people doesn't think twice before killing someone, raping someone's daughter, making them slave. I mean yeah there are good people in the world but there are bad people too but i learned that everyone deserves a second chance so let them have it if we manage to save them i would like the world to be atleast a good and safe place to live. I know all this is too cleashe but the world will be better like this wouldn't it and plus if we cannot defeat him we all will die so someone has to try so why not me". I recorded this but haven't send because i dont know how will he react and if will believe it at all because if i were in his place i too wouldn't have believe him.

After sometimes passed again like 3 months have passed since the first time i met the giant(i always forget to ask his name so i call him giant or mr giant) and i had fully learned to control my strength and i knew in somedays he will call me again. But this time it was more interesting because instead of appearing in my dreams he connected all of the 5 peoples including me through our soul(I couldn't see their face but by their physical appearance 2 were boys and 2 were girls). I knew this isn't real but this isn't fake too so i asked the giant what is it and he said as we discussed now is the time you meet your subordinates. There were giants behind their back too and i asked him about that and he said they are those people guardian spirits(more like showing them right ways because they cant help us physically). So i asked him their names and he said "Their names are...

tl;dr: Not a "is this worth doing" post. I'm doing it.

I have this idea and I'm going to push forward with it. The frame is in a series of letters (of increasing distress over months or years as the situation reveals itself.)

Besides I write a lot but in terms of fiction I have trouble with longer form and I think this might help.

Any weird gotchas or Meta concerns that come to mind?

I've never seen that frame (not that I'm fool enough to think that means anything.) And I'd love some such well-regarded examples if they're out there.

I'm toying with the idea of just dumping it on the internet as a serial. But that's presuming a lot of confidence of future me.

What say y'all?

In my pseudo-medieval setting, one of my characters is taking a sort of feminist self empowerment arc. Sora (17) is the bastard daughter of a Duke and one of the kingdom's traditional enemies (significant features indicate her bloodline). She is a classic tomboy princess type, resistant to court procedures, more interested in learning military history and strategy (though she is an adept weaver), but she is also determined to fulfil her social role for her family. Her father is sickly and her older brother vanished a few years ago, so the king has demanded she travel to the Royal Court and find a suitor.
Since she's such an eligible bachelorette its effectively open season on her, with every young lordling in the court trying to class up by marrying the Duke's daughter. This is openly encouraged by the King, as her Duchy is a key border territory and needs the line secured ASAP.
Sora is snappy towards her suitors and puts every effort to avoid being courted, especially by her cousin, the Prince's, entourage of elitist bullies. Her independent nature is resistant to the whole affair, but she is aware of her station and tries not to draw attention. THe fight starts because one of the less popular, but more likeable lords strikes up a conversation with her, which is ended by one of the Prince's drunken louts getting abusive. His mates join in, another lord gets involved to try and break it up/protect her honour, and it gets noisy, drawing the ire of the King.

Once he's done reprimanding the suitors, his shadow falls over Sora, she is self conscious from the entire court staring at her, and he says in his thunderous, booming voice: "...I don't know...

Sora wasn't seen doing anything 'wrong', but given she is at the centre and her independent nature is widely known, the King sees it necessary to 'encourage' her to accept her role and not cause fights between her suitors. I know this isn't fair, but that's the point. She didn't encourage them, but according to the accepted conventions, her independance and resistance to their attentions is causing problems.

I've tried assigning her a chaperon, but that restricts her movements too much, and everything else I can think of is too directly insulting, not enough subtlety. I'm looking for something patriarchal and condescending, putting her in her 'place,' but not outright insulting, and providing fuel for her to rebel against later.

Any thoughts?

Attached are some concept images of Sora across her life, courtesy of the internet...I never intended to share them, so I'm going to add the artists in the comments.

https://preview.redd.it/l6dbsx5mu4uh1.png?width=1172&format=png&auto=webp&s=60aa1ca24895c39205586aced7d9f417914a0463

Hello fellow writers.

I started writing as a creative hobby as a means to escape the drudgery of my mostly-driving-AI job and since then I managed to finish "book one" of a story at about 50k words and am about 12k words into book two.

I've been posting my work on DeviantArt and while the numbers are large, it seems to be mostly AI crawlers and bots trying to sell turning your story into a comic via an AI tool. I've also posted over on RoyalRoad but getting more than ten people who read a single chapter is hard and I feel like my work doesn't really fit with the stuff that does well over there.

My concern is that I don't want to be the kind of person who spams advertising everywhere to try and garner attention.

I'd like to know how everyone else shares their work and how they have built an audience.

I've written a few NaNoWriMo-sized things over the years, but for most of my adult life, my writing exercises have been as a game master/dungeon master. I've led roleplay in a variety of formats, done tons of worldbuilding on large and small scales, etc. I have to slap myself on the wrist sometimes and remind myself to write stories and not encyclopedias.

My problem is that I face a disconnect with the types of settings I build and the stories that I get inspired to tell. For example, I'll flesh out a world capable of supporting a sweeping epic, with unique magical systems and fantastical geographical features, but the story ideas that grab hold of me wind up being narrowly focused on interpersonal issues and not the world at large. I recently started working on an idea surrounding a girl who wants to leave her tiny hometown and pursue her dream of attending a magic academy on the other side of the world. Sounds like a good start, right? It's got a reason to travel and grow as a person built right it. And the "B Plot" would revolve around her relationship with her childhood best friend and resolving her feelings toward him conflicting with her fear of being tied down and stuck in their hometown for the rest of her life.

I very quickly realized my B Plot summary was 5x longer than my A Plot summary and was absolutely where 99% of the meat of the story was. The obviously solution feels like "well then write a non-fantasy will-they-won't-they", but I hate that solution. I want to write a sweeping fantasy with huge political elements, like the stories I most enjoy reading.

Has anyone else struggled with mismatches between what they want to write and what they naturally gravitate toward writing?

Question for naming my fantasy species!!

I had been struggling with finding a name for this fantasy species for a while. Then I randomly came across the word"faun" from the Roman mythology and I really like the idea and the way it sounds. I just dont want it to look like I'm misrepresenting/watering down Roman mythology?

I mean, this is something plenty of writers have done in the past right? With sirens, elves, titans... I just want to borrow the name for aesthetic purposes. My species doesn't have much resemblance to actual fauns either. What is your opinion on this?

For some context, my whole theme is how both humans and this fantasy species utilize my worlds magic in different ways, and they have been rivals now for some decades. Though it's not that either of those is inherently evil.