r/fantasywriting

I personally believe that magic wouldn’t impede the way a society grows technologically, but I want to see other people’s opinions.

Whenever you run into a problem while writing, where do you usually look for inspiration?

Do you turn to real-world history, philosophy, politics, or human psychology? Do you look at how other authors handled similar situations? Or is Reddit your first stop? 😅

Personally, I tend to look at the real world first, especially history and human behaviour. There's so much strange, fascinating, and sometimes downright absurd stuff that actually happened that fiction almost feels tame in comparison.

But I'm curious about how other writers approach this.

When you're stuck on a character, plot, or worldbuilding problem, where does your mind go first?

I'll start: Mine is A Song of Ice and Fire. It's great because it has many complicated characters and the story/content is so good.

I’m trying to figure out which type of hero should kick off the first book and act as the "anchor" character to launch the universe (similar to how Iron Man launched the MCU, but for prose).

I am trying to decide which title would be best for my first novel. It's the first book in a series. The series name is The Flame of Val.

My 2 finalists are:

1. The Flame of Val: Sand and Stone

2. The Flame of Val: Shattered

Here's the rough premise:

Rhivah is the only heir to her father’s throne. But, should he die before she marries, the crown will fall to the rival royal House. Her family has fought for generations against their oppressive influence. She is prepared to do her duty, but she is also determined to marry for love. And those two outcomes are presently at odds. The man she has chosen has distant ties to the rival bloodline.

Elan has a fierce reputation and dubious loyalties. His father died serving Rhivah’s father and trained him to be a weapon in service to the crown. A man of many masks, he is especially adept and gaining trust and remorseless about betraying it when it suits his purposes.

When the king is poisoned, Rhivah has to rely on a man who knows her home, her family and her nation–but that she hardly knows, doesn’t like and most certainly doesn’t trust. But he may be her only chance to save her people.

--

In the world, Val is a mountainous land. There is also the land of Kehl'ai which is a desert landscape. That's part of the appeal of Sand and Stone.

But, I think Shattered fits for Rhivah's expectations for her future.

Which one do you prefer? What book would you be more likely to pick up?

I appreciate hearing your opinions!

I write a pretty long high fantasy novel, but I struggle to assign it to a specific genre and therefore can't really advertise. The main problem is it's relationship to spice and content.

First thought my novel is Dark Romance/Fantasy because:

- relationship between protagonist and antagonist makes up for a great deal of the suspense

- both lovers are dark assholes

- I have explicit spicy scenes

- the Worldbuilding is definitely kinky, I have a very kinky race

But:

- a great deal of the suspense is also about politics

- I have many important characters besides the two lovers, that influence the story

-the typical dark romance trope about the dark daddy Dom who is jealous and possessive doesn't fit at all

- dark romance usually is an extremely narrow defined genre. Both get together, they kinda fall in love on first sight, all this stuff. It's basically soft porn. My book doesn't fit this narrow definition at all

-when I see how other authors advertise their dark romance books or I read dark romance books I just feel like this is very much the opposite of what MY story is about. And I would never read the dark romance I see in the bookshelves, because the stories are not complex and emotionally varying enough for me

So mainly I assigned my book to dark romance because I didn't know what else it could be, but it just feels totally wrong. Is there a different word for the genre that I'm describing? Or do you come up with books that are similar? Is there a more suitable community that I don't know about yet? Plz text me, if you write similar stuff. I don't wanna follow all the J.S. Wondas and H.D. Carlton's on Instagram :(

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...

So as some background, I'm 16, and frankly reading/writing is one of my stronger skills because of my parents own love of books even if I take a fair bit of inspiration from other books I have read, sometimes names or ideas EG: A mental bond between a creature and its rider that allows them to talk without words. But this project is honestly shaping up to be amazing just from the first few hundred words(I can privately DM what I currently have if you ask) I've introduced the two main characters alongside their bonded beasts(Dragon and Wyvern) and am getting them to banter but I'm unsure where to go from here which is why I came here seeking such advice. If you're wondering why I just don't show my parents and ask them, they are religious and my writing more often than not has a curse every dozen words or so, so obviously i'm not showing them because while i may not really be in their religion, I still respect their wishes and avoid cursing around them. I know It's going to be an Enemies to Lovers thing and a general idea of what to do but not as much how to get there

As part of my efforts to detoxification from my use of AI from the past couples years, I've been looking for a cover designer for my book. "Reckoning of Sand & Frost: A Love Forged in Sacrifice" (The title is a bit long I think? But what do you think of it?) and am concerened with differenciating between real, genuine, artists, and ones that just decieve you and use AI. A friend of mine who has the same interest in writing as I do, just in a different genre, was scammed by someone who just gave him an AI Created cover after he paid good money for it. I don't want this to happen to me. So where and how would I PROPERLY find genuine, and skillful artists that don't use AI? Also, how should I brief them? I have a finished 1st Draft of about 80,000 words, and I heard that its good to let them read the whole thing so they can get a sense of how the cover should come across to the reader.

I am shameful for myself because I have AI Generated covers that I'm trying to pull out of the internet since my amatuer ass made the mistake of trying post AI art in the writing community. So I shouldn't give them my images of my fake covers made of AI right? Even though I crafted them using the sense and lore of my own story?

Anyways, I am by no means of the imagination, an artist. I don't think you could put me any lower on how much of "NOT an artists" I am. (That's one of the reasons why I resorted to AI at first. Because it was just easier for me). One of the main concerns and confusions I have about trying to make/comission covers is how to make them unique and stand out compared to everything else. Like, how many differing elements and hidden details should the cover have? How do I make it unique and memorable? Or how should I tell the commissioned artists?

Thanks to anyone that helps!
Please don't be to harsh about my PREVIOUS (But no longer) use of AI. I know its a hot topic rn 😭

I recently came across this phenomenon. “Psychological worldbuilding” is a phenomenon that manifests human imagination. It’s when a person invents a universe and its rules in their mind. They can constantly rehearse dialogues and plots in their head, think through the lore, and become attached to the characters. Most creative work (film, literature, video games) is built around this phenomenon.

My question is to those who engage in “psychological worldbuilding”: could you please tell us about your own universe and its plot?

As a reader of dark fantasy or apocalyptic fiction, what makes a heartbreaking ending feel worthwhile rather than the whole journey seeming pointless? Do you need some hope at the end? And if the characters story was completely finished would you read a second book set in the same world but with a different character?