Fantasy Writing Tips

If you’re into medieval-mayhem, odds are you probably like the fantasy genre. And if you like fantasy, many of you probably enjoy writing fantasy. If you fall into this category, this post is for you.

So many people want to write fantasy it gets daunting when you start thinking about trying to make it as an author. Fortunately, not many of the people who want to write it are actually any good at it. What you need to do is work hard at being one who knows how to write it well. It mostly takes hard work, but there are definitely some tricks you can learn along the way. Below I want to share three tips on writing fantasy that I have found extremely helpful.

1. Don’t Write Prologues!
As much as you love the fact that the god Mornovath created the world your characters live on despite the wishes of the dark god Valosh, nobody else cares. Backstory is needs to be included but you can’t hit us over the heads with a boring history of the world once your book starts. Listening to a long explanation about the origin of different races, the outcomes of ancient wars, and the formation of different countries isn’t edge of your seat writing. It won’t grab anyone. It won’t pull readers into the story. You need to start with something interesting. Preferably some action. Get us involved and immersed into the actual story as soon as you can.

2. Write Interesting Characters
Most young fantasy writers usually write about characters who fit the mold of the dungeon and dragons classes from back in the day. Your hero is always a farm boy who is leaving his idealic corner of the world to go become some mage or warrior who can save the world. His friends are always thieves, or archers, or wizards, or druids etc. What you need to do is write characters who come from interesting backgrounds. If you’re main character is a farmer, at least make him farm something unique. But try making your characters come from diverse backgrounds. They can be anything from to tailors to glass blowers, dentists to fisherman. Just anything besides the boring stereotypes we’re so used to. Be creative for crying out loud. These fresh backgrounds help bring unique perspectives into the way your characters see the world.

3. Be Brief
The common temptation with fantasy is to write trilogies or 12-book sagas whose every installment is 300,000 words! If you have the urge to do so, RESIST! Try writing a smaller story first. Get good at writing before going out and trying to write your masterpiece. If you want to get published, you’ll also have to keep your word count down. Fantasy tends to wrong long. Like 200k words or more. If you can write one that takes only 100k, editors will be much more likely to give it a read. Books with fewer words cost less to print and take less effort to read. Save your 300k word epics for when you become more established.

Community’s Dungeons and Dragons Episode

If you watch NBC’s Thursday comedy line up, you probably have seen Community. Recently, they aired an episode I really enjoyed called “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.” The episode takes on a Lord of the Rings motif immediately as it begins with a British woman narrating who sounds a lot like Galadriel. She sets up the premise of the episode in which the cast decides to play Dungeons and Dragons with the school’s loser “Fat Paul” to help get his self-esteem up.

The episode revolves around the novice group of players fumbling through their quest until Pierce, played by Chevy Chase, appears on the scene and decides to be the villain of the game. Through a streak of luck (and a little bit of cheating) Pierce takes the game too far by killing stealing Fat Paul’s imaginary sword and starts ruining the fun for everyone.

Though its not exactly flattering to those who play D&D, the episode was kind to those who do. I myself qualify as a huge nerd who has played his share of role-playing games but I was not offended. Some hardcore players might not appreciate it, thinking the show is taking a cheap shot at them but I don’t think that’s Community’s aim at all. In fact, with the amount of detail that went into the writing, I’m sure some of the writers had to former D&D players themselves. The shows funniest moment was when Ben Chang, played by Ken Jeong, shows up dressed in full black face with a silver wig claiming to be a dark elf.

I have to say that I don’t watch Community, but after seeing this episode, I think I might make more of an effort to catch it when it comes on more often. Unlike many other shows that just get chippy when it comes to poking fun at nerds, this program instead embraced the nerdom in themselves to make a very special episode. I think it helps even us hardcore fantasy nerds know that we can laugh at ourselves too.

Tolkien’s Words

If you’re into medieval craft, swords and armor, knights and damsels, you’re probably into Lord of the Rings. At least a little bit. I was reading the Fellowship again recently and kind of stumbled onto something somewhat interesting. At least I thought it was interesting. But if you check, you’ll find that Tolkien usually uses the Germanic word rather than the Latin word. What I mean by this is that instead of saying a word like “manual,” Tolkien would use “hand book.” Instead of “venison” he’d use “deer.” This goes to show you how much of an influence old English and Anglo Saxon languages had on his world and story. These were the languages of England brought over by the Germanic tribes who invaded during the early 5th century.

For nearly 600 hundred years these tribes dominated and ruled the British Aisles. Their rule however was brought to an end when the Normans invaded in 1066. The Normans were from France and bringing with them a Latin-based language. Soon the French and the old Germanic languages cross-pollinated and became English as we know it today (almost at least). Since the ruling class were the Norman invaders, fancy words were based in Latin while the common words were Germanic. For instance, a peasant slaughtered a swine at home but the King ate pork in his palace. Lowly farmers ate sheep while the royalty at mutton.

Tolkien seems to have design Middle-Earth as if it were what England would have been had the Normans never conquered it or a place at least before the transfer of power. If you review the text you’ll find very few “fancy” words. Tolkien has dropped them in favor of the simpler Germanic ones. With such attention to cultural subtlety like that, it becomes clear how much of a master of language Tolkien really was.

Knight Armor

Armor has been around for a long time. Humans have made it out of everything from bones and leather, to steal and spider silk. During the medieval times, armor was usually worn by the nobility and mercenaries. They were usually the ones that could afford it. Men of lower rank and status had to wear less armor. A suit of full plate though was about 20 days wages for a soldier during the 14th century.

When full plate armor came into its own, the armor made the wearer almost impervious on the battlefield. At the time the sword was the most common hand to hand weapon and most swords edges weren’t heavy or sharp enough to cut through even 1mm of steel plate. It would usually take an arrow at close range to do the damage needed to pierce the armor.

Eventually, this resulted in a transition away from swords when fighting enemies in plate. Instead larger weapons like halberds, hammers, and maces came into popularity due to the blunt force they could put on an enemy without having to penetrate the armor. Weapons like these weren’t used to make people bleed to death. They were meant to shatter bone, deliver shock, cause internal organs to rupture and hemorrhage, and to force head trauma.

However, these types of weapons were not always available. Learning how to take down a knight with a knife, spear, dagger, or sword was about figuring out how to strike at the gaps in his armor. These gaps were usually found in joints like the back of the knee or the eye holes.

Plate armor did not actually go away with the introduction of the firearm. In fact, the development of effective firearms led to the pinnacle of plate technology. For a time, plate armor was thick and robust enough to repel musket fire even from a modest range. Fighting cavalry with strong armor allowed them to storm positions while still taking fire. Plate was so effective that its use continued into about the second decade of the 18th century.

Review: Brandon Sanderson’s “The Way of Kings”

Since reading Mystborn a year or so ago, Brandon Sanderson has become one of my favorite authors around. I was excited when I heard he was coming out with a new series. But at the same time I felt daunted. Brandon’s “Stormlight Archive” is supposed to be ten volumes long and the first installment alone was just over 1,000 pages. Though it took some time for me to make my way through it, I was glad I finished it. Though some parts kind of got bogged down by some exposition, the overall piece holds up.

To sum up, “The Way of Kings” is about lost magics and technologies being rediscovered just before mankind’s final test against the ultimate forces of evil. The story is set in the world of Roshar, a continent plagued by frequent and deadly tempests known as the Highstorms. As always Sanderson crafts a believable and consistent world. The systems of magic, politics, and technology really work and have very logical repercussions in the way the people of this world behave and act. For the most part “The Way of Kings” focuses on three principal characters, Kaladin, Dalinar, and Shallan. Through Shallan we learn about the magic system known as soulcasting, a process by which where wizard-like engineers can change the molecular structures of objects. For instance, some can change stone into bread, glass into blood, and dirt into gold. Dalinar on the other hand, introduces us to the shardplate magic system. Shardplate is basically armor that gives its wearer super-human abilities. The shardbearers also use giant six-foot swords called Sharblades that can slice through almost anything but other shardblades and shardplate. Finally, Kaladin introduces us to the system known as surge binding, or the ability to manipulate gravity. These systems are all well thought out with appropriate limitations so they don’t make the story boring.

Aside from the magic, the book has a great plot. It moves at a slow pace sometimes, but Sanderson does a good job at showing the characters really grow and change at believable speeds. Sanderson also has an incredible talent for endings. You can tell he has crafted and planned his climaxes with precision. He has a gift for tying everything together without sounding forced. I would say Brandon’s endings are the best the Fantasy genre has seen since Gollum accidentally saved the day in Lord of the Rings. The Way of Kings has some great twists that you just don’t see coming though you should. The way it wraps up is almost providential.

Though I did really like the story, I had my qualms with it as well. For instance, I would have liked to see the main characters’ story arcs intertwine a bit more. Shallan’s character never even meets the two other heroes though I am sure she will in future installments. Another complaint I had was with Sanderson’s names. Though his main character names are great and memorable, some of the minor characters’ sounded like a stretch. Also some of the geographical names, kingdoms, and land areas had some names that just didn’t feel natural. It seemed Brandon was too concerned about constructing palindromes (symmetry being a cultural element of the people of Roshar) than he was with creating believable names.

That aside, I would definitely recommend this book. Brandon Sanderson is distinguishing himself as the next big name in fantasy writing and I suggest you don’t let his work pass you by.