THE QUICK FANTASY GUIDE!

WORLD BUILDING

Want to be the God of your very own world? World building is, to

many, the most fun part of writing a fantasy novel. To others, it is a

dreaded task. Here’s a guide on how to build a realistic world for your

story.

Start off

First things first, you decide how many countries, kingdoms and

continents you’ll have, then you draw them out. Voila! The structure

is built. What’s next? Decide where it is hot, where they have a lot of

greenery and nature and if there’s a place in between. Think about

Earth in this case, up north we have colder places like Scandinavia,

Iceland, Russia, and so on. Down south we have places like Egypt,

Africa and the middle east.

Hierarchy and races

Once this has been established, decide who rules each place. A brief

history of all the places you’ll use in your novel is important. Do you

have Kings and Queens, Emperors, Lords and Nobles?

Create them and place them around your map.

Do you have elves, dragons, goblins or anything else in your world?

If you for example have a dragon living up in the icy parts of your

map, answer to yourself in your head why this dragon lives there –

and not down in the heat? Maybe he doesn’t like heat, or maybe he

got chased up there back in history – because of a conflict.

Ask the same questions for your elves and all other races. Decide how

their hierarchy works, where they live and establish why they can all

live in this world, is there any conflict?

Conflict brings us to our next subject.

Structure, war and peace

Now comes the most important part, one many writers actually miss

completely. Ask yourself these following questions:

1. Why are there many different countries? Why not 1 or 2 huge

ones?

2. Was there ever a war, what about?

3. How does the trade system work? Why doesn’t kingdom A attack

kingdom B right now?

4. Establish all truces, why is there a truce, and what are the

conditions?

5. What places have access to ships, and why doesn’t others?

These are just a few questions that needs an answer. You don’t need

to have all this information within your story, but you – as the writer –

need to know these things.

If the system of the world doesn’t make sense, the story won’t make

sense.

World building software

Lastly, my favourite place for world building. Go to

https://inkarnate.com/ and start exploring!

RULES OF MAGIC

Magic is fun to write. Who hasn’t at some stage in their lives wished

they had magical powers? Wishes coming true!

Now you have your own fantasy world and want to implement magic

into it, great! There are a few things you need to ask yourself before

you begin, this post is basically just a list of questions you need to ask

yourself before you sprinkle the fairy dust on your well-planned

fantasy world (see previous posts about world building, religion and

creature creation).

Here’s the list:

Who can use magic? Why can’t the others use it?

What are the limitations of the magic? Can a healer heal anything and

everyone? If not, why not?

Has magic always been part of the world? If no, how did it all begin?

Where does the magic come from? Is it in the air, on the ground, all

around you or in a different dimension? If it is in a different

dimension, how do you reach out and use it?

How do you practice the magic? Spells, rituals, weapons,

enchantments or movements? Does it live within the magic user, or is

it external?

These are very important questions to ask yourself. If you have an

answer to all these, you will find yourself with a ‘realistic’ rule of

magic in your world!

More information

I can discuss writing realistic rules of magic all day, but I can’t get it

all into one helpful guide! Feel free to contact me if you have any

questions or need help with creating your magic –

facebook.com/healthywriterslife

CREATURE CREATION

One of the most exciting parts of writing fantasy is the creatures! Of

course, you can write fantasy without them, but this part is dedicated

to all creature lovers out there.

Inspiration

Some great inspiration can be found in video games like Warhammer,

Dragon Age and Divinity Original sin (to name a few). But I say

INSPIRATION for a reason, you do not want to find yourself copying

the creature looks and abilities straight out of other stories, at least not

if you want to publish your story. If you only write for yourself,

and/or friends and family, then by all means, go ahead!

Names

When it comes to naming your creature, some names are available for

use, such as Elves, Orcs, Mermaids, Demons, Angels, Phoenixes,

Tree creatures, and so on. But what you might want to do is rename

them, using your own imagination. Do so, but something that’s

important to remember is: if your creature looks like a human but is a

little shorter (or taller), skinnier, have better looks and long, pointy

ears – for god’s sake, call them Elves, nothing else. There’s a fine line

between creating your own creature and naming it and using

an already established creature and re-naming it. It would frustrate the

reader. To create your own name, you can use generators such as a

great one found on fantasynamegenerators.com

Fitting them into your world

Now we are back to the subject in my previous post about world

building. You need to make your creatures realistic by placing them

in realistic spots on your world map. Ask yourself: What is their

hierarchy? Do they fight with other species? Do they do trades, if so,

with who? Are they evil, if so, why are they evil? Do they like or hate

humans, if so, why? And lastly, what’s the history behind these

creatures? Who were there first, who came next, and what happened

when they did?

Lastly, go wild with your imagination!

Create interesting looks, work out how they mate, what they eat, and

how they live. This is all yours, let your imagination flow and have

fun with it!

VILLAINS

Your villain is the ultimate drive of your story. Without him/her, there

wouldn’t be much left for your hero/heroine to accomplish, would it?

A villain can be portrayed in many ways, and I have some advice up

my sleeve.

Realistic

Again, the subject of realism comes into play. A reader wants to

escape into another world when they read, but if it doesn’t seem at all

realistic, it could result in failure. Is your villain a creature or a

human? Let’s stick with human for this advice. Write a word

document for yourself. What’s his name, age and personality? How

did he grow up? If he was to be put into your own high school, what

type of kid would he be? What you need to remember here is to make

sure you don’t make him all-evil.

Give him reasons for why he now is the way he is. Was he always

picked on? Was he a leader who never got taken seriously? Is he after

revenge?

Make him grey

This is probably my top advice – make your villain grey – as in – he

has a good side as well. Make it so that if you put yourself in his exact

shoes in life, you might have made the same decisions he did! To give

it even more contrast, make your ‘good guys’ grey as well. As long as

they are not hobbits eg. happy, fun and loving people, constantly

helping each other, make your good side just as grey as the villain.

Ask yourself, if I grew up on the good side, would I agree with their

practices completely, or would I consider changing sides? If so, why?

Reasons for power

Lastly, is your villain a leader of some sort? A King? A Sorcerer? A

Magician? If so, what are the reasons for him being in this position?

How did he rise to this role and gain this power? Make it realistic. Did

he slowly rise to power and always had enough men on his side, or

did he kill/defeat the previous leader and created fear in his followers?

If that is your reason, work out how he was even able to get the

chance to defeat the previous leader. Was he nobility, or did he lead a

rebellion of some sort?

I hope this gave you some ideas of creating your villain. Remember,

the world is not black and white, it is grey!

RELIGIONS

Religion can be fun, especially if you create them yourself. Who

haven’t dreamed of a perfect religion, one where you are the God?

You create, you make your characters believe in it, and you let your

imagination flow. But, how can you avoid plot holes in your religion?

Keep reading.

The Gods

First things first, who are the Gods in your religion? One? Many?

What do they look like, and what do they stand for? You could go the

traditional route and have one God for Love, Hate, Fertilization,

Bravery, Healing, and so on. But, something to remember is; don’t

copy paste names of existing Gods, this can cause readers to compare

them, and even get insulted. Come up with your own names, use a

translator and/or name generator.

Hierarchy

You need a hierarchy in your Gods world. There must be conflict

between Gods, otherwise it doesn’t seem realistic. Ask yourself, if

you were to write a whole book, having your Gods as the main

characters in your story, how would it pan out? What is the conflict?

How do they live, and what can they do? How powerful are they?

What are the limits to their powers? This helps to create a realistic

religion for your characters to believe in.

Followers

Now, what race in your world believes in these Gods? Why do they

believe in them, and how do they practice their religion? It could be

anything from sacrifices to simple prayers in a church. Write down

for yourself the origin of the religion, how did people start believing

in these Gods? Think Jesus and how Christianity began.

Lastly, have fun and create more than one!

This is not a ‘must’ but a world with more than one religion is always

more interesting and more realistic. If your story only plays out in one

single country, then obviously everyone there COULD believe in the

same Gods, but it would seem more realistic if the other religions

within the world is at least mentioned. Follow the earlier steps when

you create a second religion, and off you go!

I hope you had fun reading this quick guide to writing fantasy!

See you in the next one!