Fantasy 101
Along with science fiction, fantasy is a staple of speculative fiction. Fantasy has been around for thousands of years, as seen in the works of ancient writers such as Homer and Virgil. Fantasy as we know it in the modern world was cemented in the literary world by the release of the best known fantasy series of all time – The Lord of the Rings. These books by J.R.R. Tolkien brought these fantastical ideas of old into the mainstream. These days, there is a thriving industry devoted the world of fantasy.
What is Fantasy?
According to Wikipedia, “The identifying traits of fantasy are the inclusion of fantastic elements in a self-coherent (internally consistent) setting. Within such a structure, any location of the fantastical element is possible: it may be hidden in, or leak into the apparently real world setting, it may draw the characters into a world with such elements, or it may occur entirely in a fantasy world setting, where such elements are part of the world.”
Contrary to popular belief, fantasy does not need to contain elves, orcs and so on in order to be classed within the genre. There are several sub-genres of fantasy, although all contain an element of magic or similar other-worldly appeals. (See our Fantasy Sub-Genres page for more information).
Write What You Know?
Like with any other literary genre, there is no right or wrong way to approach fantasy. Certainly, to be considered fantasy, your story must contain certain elements, but these are so broad that you are likely to be able to include them without any problems if you are educated about fantasy. You have probably heard the saying around writer’s groups to “write what you know”. This might be more aptly put as “write what you love”. In other words, if you love fantasy, then write fantasy! If you love horror, write horror. The worst thing you can do is to try to cater to what is popular at the moment – trends change, and on top of this you are not likely to be able to write with passion if you don’t really love the subject.
How To Get Started
If you love fantasy and you have decided you want to try your hand at it, you will need to sit down and plan out your story. You will need all of the basics – a setting, a cast of characters and an interesting plot. Some writers will choose to write a very detailed outline, while others like to wing it and just start writing. Whichever way you choose to go, you need to have the basics set out first, or else you will likely find that your story goes around in circles and doesn’t lead anywhere! The most obvious place to start when you are writing a fantasy novel is with world building. To read more about world building, check out this page.
