|
|
|
|
Researching A Fantasy Novel
You've committed yourself to going forward, and now there's no backtracking: you're going to write a fantasy novel. You've thought of characters, you've thought of spells, you've outlined your basic plot. Now what? Well, if you're going to be smart about this, there's only one thing to do: research the hell out of the genre. Why? Because the most important element to a fantasy novel is that of originality, and therefore the cardinal sin you can commit is not knowing what's already out there. Fantasy Writing Tip: Start With Your Plot What kind of story do you want to tell? What sort of fantasy world do you want to set your story in? If you're going for something completely fantastical and otherworldly, start collecting material that seems similar in concept to your story. If you have a detailed, overarching quest with plenty of scattered details on the way, pick up copies of The Lord of the Rings. Start asking yourself the most important question: what can I do to differentiate my story from this classic? Finding your story compared to LOTR wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen; finding that you're being accused of ripping it off might be. The key to your story, hands down, is to invent something that fantasy readers have never seen before. Fantasy Writing Tip: Create Original Characters   If you want to become a novelist, a good one, and you’re not sure what you must to do to develop the skills you need, Andrea Rains Waggener wants to help you. A novelist who sold her first novel for a nice advance to one of the biggest publishers in the world, Bantam Dell, Andrea Rains Waggener has created a plan that makes it easy to go from novel idea to completed, publishable novel. A good way to kick that off might be to create a strikingly original set of characters. These are your heroes and your villains, and they're likely fighting for the proverbial keys to the kingdom. What's so special about them that we should be compelled to follow their story? What do they offer in terms of emotional depth and background that we haven't yet seen in other stories? On the same token, what is their bond to the fantasy genre? What familiar elements can you spin in their favor to make them appear tried and true and at the same time fresh and exciting? Again, this is a good time to research the literature that's come before you to make sure you're not treading well-worn ground. The real world is a perfect place to find inspiration. With all the pain and strife that surrounds the military conflict in the Middle East, there is a wealth of material out there dealing with various forms of heroism. What could you take away from these real life situations to build a story in your novel? What is it about the "everyday hero" that makes him or her akin to a sword-wielding mage? Story and character are more about imagination than any kind of research you could do by burying your nose in an encyclopedia, but crafting the world in which your story takes place is a whole different animal. While your world might be set in a place that's less Earthlike than anything we've previously seen, we're still going to need to ground it in enough reality that it makes sense to the reader. Research in this area can be simple - maybe you want to study the landscape and topography of the lands around medieval castles or the characteristics of a massive volcano around which you center your penultimate battle. Perhaps your world looks vastly different from ours but the government there functions like the ancient feudal system. The importance here rests on being able to relate a new world to your reader, and to do that you're going to have to make sure that you're original as well as relational. The important thing to remember is that researching a fantasy novel is much more about maintaining a fresh perspective rather than memorizing facts and figures. It's just as important to know what your audience has already read as much as it is to know what they want to read.
|
