Fantasy novels are set in fantastic worlds, but that doesn't mean those worlds are beyond any connection with reality. Some threads must be realistic; graduated stepping stones to fantasy. Writing a fantasy novel is a delicate balancing act offering reality in fantasy and fantasy in reality.

In terms of reality stepping stones, know your target audience! There is a big difference between child, teenage and adult readers in this genre. The flower fairy for the child won't suit the average teenager. Try a teenage fairy smitten with human hip hop music, much to the disapproval of the conventional fairy world. And for the male teenagers, what about a special kind of fairy imbedded in headphones of his I-pod? Maybe like a voice-over? (Perhaps it may be wise to consider another word for "fairy" on this one!) For the adult, the fantasy could involve a journey back to days when the adult loved and believed in fairies. Why has this journey been taken after so long? These are just some ways of generating some palpable, plausible, inviting, real connection with fantasy.

Map your world, so you know how long it takes for Budding Rose to reach White Charm's house. And you can make consistent reference to it. Are there romantic mountains and a village by the sea? Or is this fantasy world imbedded in some micro landscape- at the bottom of a garden, in some deserted, time-locked alley way or near some sacred site like Uluru? Maps and places generate stories. Even go so far as create a video of it! Easy then to return to the "feel" of this place when you may be absent doing mundane things like going to your regular day job.

Is this a visible world and to whom? What thematic features make this a fantasy world? The character types/elements? The inter-action of character and environment? Features in the environment should have some fantasy variety beyond the fact everything has a voice and can hear.

Create a quest! This is the big "dinner menu", from entree to desert; in simple terms, the plot of the novel. Quest gives the plot power, purpose and direction. Reading time in this fantasy world becomes a nourishing process rather than draining, static time, like staring vacantly at a painting on a wall. Perhaps, for older readers, explore quests within quests.
Create a motley bunch of characters who take an active role in the quest or serve to fringe it with some humorous, relieving or "red herring" diversion. Have a couple of standard fantasy characters but dare

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