A few weeks ago, I broke down some of the major trends in fantasy that might affect what elements of world-building a writer might want to focus on to ensure they had the details they needed to create an immersive world. (See: The 3 Tiers of Fantasy World-Building.) However, that was a general overview based off … More Fantasy World-Building Fundamentals
To many fantasy readers, there is something alluring about the idea of a magical world hidden from view, the possibility that it could be ours to use if we just know how to pierce that veil of secrecy. You see it in the likes of Harry Potter, Three Dark Crowns (although that is actually high … More Setting Study: Wings of Ebony and Hidden Worlds
I’m not sure when happy endings fell out of fashion, but I do know that present-day narratives generally strive for a distorted concept of realism where the grittier and darker it is, the more “realistic” it is. At the very least, this is the case for fantasy novels, so much so that the concept of … More Let’s Talk Tropes: Happily Ever Afters
The second novel of Brandon Sanderson’s career, The Final Empire, is a high fantasy book taking place in the titular Final Empire, led by the tyrannous, immortal Lord Ruler. Rebellions of the past have always failed, but rebellions of the past never had Kelsier, Vin, or their team of Mistings and Mistborn. As usual, these … More Setting Study: Mistborn’s The Final Empire
Well it’s been over a month since I did one of these. I think we’re due for another while I finish up Rage of Dragons. Today we’re going to inspect the history infused into Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series to see what lessons might be learned. Considering we will be discussing historical figures and … More Making History (WoT Setting Study #4)
Welcome November! Welcome Nanowrimo and those participating in this month of novel writing! All fictional books have a tone, a certain feel to their narrative voice. Most of the time, they are focused on immersing the reader in the story, whether by offering tidbits of setting or by sweeping the reader up in its plot. … More On Narrative Styles: The Use of Whimsy
Recently, I’ve been blown away by some of the casts of the fantasy books I’ve been reading. Two in particular don’t just have a realistic protagonist. Many of the mid-tier characters also seemed capable of just hopping off of the page. I know I don’t do many character-related blog posts, but today we’re going to … More Creating Realistic Characters: A Song of Wraiths & Ruin, a Case Study
When someone first begins writing books, one of the first things they learn is that page count is far, far less important on the writing end of novels than it is for the reading end. Books are rarely the same dimensions, whether that be in length, height, or both. Line spacing, margins, font and font … More Discussing Fantasy Word Counts
Today I wanted to talk about a topic that I brushed upon briefly in my last post about fantastical entities in Wheel of Time, and that has to do with how much the author allows their world to diverge from the real world, most particular in high fantasy. As is the case with most of … More Tiers of Fantasy Setting Development
In continuation of our extensive Wheel of Time setting studies, I would like to turn a piece of world-building we have not touched upon at all, and that is the inclusion of mythical creatures. As with practically every other facet of world-building, Jordan was not content to pull from existing fantastical creatures, and chose instead … More The Making of Mythical Creatures (WoT Setting Study #3)
Katie Bachelder 