Fantasy fiction is a literary genre that attracts people of all kinds. If you are going to write about it, here are some things you should know.
Steps
Method 1 of 1: Writing Your Fantasy Narration
Step 1. Choose what genre of fantasy you are going to write
Decide if the setting will be medieval, futuristic or from some other era.
Step 2. Think about the characters
Determine what they will look like and how they think and behave. Give them oodles of details and write them down so you can refer to them often, because you will need them.
Step 3. Understand that the most important part of the narrative is the plot
What does your protagonist want? Will he try to get it? How will he do it? What problems will it face?
Step 4. Gather all the elements of the story and start writing
Write however you like, but keep the same style throughout the book. Nobody likes a novel that, halfway through, completely changes.
Step 5. Enrich the narrative with lots of detail
Provide accurate descriptions of places and events, but do not overdo it: in this case, the narrative would become too slow and the fluidity would be compromised.
Step 6. Throughout the book, draw the profile you created earlier for the characters
For example, you don't have to explicitly say that someone fights for their friends, but you can insert a scene where they do.
Step 7. Think about the twists
They are not necessary in themselves, but they will help keep the reader's interest awake.
- Plan ahead! For all you know, your little novel could turn into a very long series. Draw a mind map to be able to manage all possible developments.
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The following are some of the more traditional twists:
- The acknowledgment: it is the sudden and unexpected recognition by the protagonist of the true nature or identity of a person or of the meaning of an event. For example, a girl discovers that her best friend is nothing more than a product of her imagination and that she has never lived in reality.
- The flashback: it is an evocative revelation of past events. In books, fashbacks are usually written in italics, conjugated to the past tense and told from the point of view of the narrator, at a time when he was younger. In addition to the flashback, a premonition can be used.
- The Unreliable Narrator: Eventually it is revealed that the narrator has falsified, made up, or grossly exaggerated the story you have read up to this point.
- Peripeteia: it is the reverse, logical or realistic, of the protagonist's fate, in a positive or negative sense. For example, the protagonist of a story, when on the verge of giving up after encountering numerous difficulties in solving a difficult murder case, randomly stumbles upon the missing piece he needed to complete the puzzle.
- Deus ex machina ("divinity coming down from the machine"): it is a character, a device or an event with an unexpected, artificial or improbable character that is introduced into the story to resolve a conflict in history, whether it is the main one or a marginal one.
- Poetic justice: it is an ironic reversal, thanks to which the character is rewarded or punished for his actions (for example, he receives compensation or dies suddenly).
- Chekhov's Gun: A character or plot element is introduced at the beginning of the narrative, but its importance is not recognized until much later. This is an element that seems unimportant at the moment but, later on, turns out to be fundamental.
- The red herring, or false premonition: it is a false clue that serves to mislead the investigator and lead him to a wrong solution. If the protagonist is misled, by extension the reader will be too.
- In medias res, or "in the middle of things": the story begins in the course of the story, rather than at the beginning, which is revealed through flashbacks. Eventually, it all will lead to an important revelation.
- Non-linear narration: the plot and the characters are revealed in non-conological order; instead of a structure that develops from the beginning to the center and then to the end, it could start at the end, continue with the beginning and end with the center. In this way the reader is forced to place the elements of the narrative in the right order on his own, without fully understanding them until crucial information is revealed during the climax.
- Inverted chronology: it is a form of non-linear storytelling, in which events are shown from the end to the beginning.
Advice
- Be yourself. Don't try to copy famous writers - it never works.
- Read. Reading will provide you with a great foundation and a lot of inspiration, as well as letting you know what has already been done, in case you are looking to accomplish something new.
- Have fun. If you're the first not to have fun writing, how will the reader do it?
- It is up to the writer to avoid stereotypes. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Edit them to fit what you write.
