If you want to write a fantasy novel you've picked a great time to do it! Fantasy has gone mainstream with best-sellers becoming common-place, six-figure novel advances becoming common-place as well. Follow these ten tips for writing a fantasy novel and you'll have a completed fantasy novel ready to put in the mail to an editor or agent in about six months. Who knows, you could be the next J. K. Rowling!

Seven Tips for Writing a Fantasy Novel

1. Work on your novel every day. This tip is adapted from the science fiction writer Robert Heinlein's Rules for Writing, as are the next four tips. It seems simple - but it's the rule that trips up more wannabe novelists than any other! I'd suggest that you write for an hour every day, which should amount to about 600 words or so. You'll be amazed at how the word totals add up if you do, and how fast your novel progresses.

2. Finish your novel. Again, it seems simple, but many would-be writers wind up with many abandoned beginnings. If you don't finish your novel you have nothing; if you do finish it, you'll have a complete novel, which you might someday sell, plus you'll have the experience of having written a complete novel.

3. Don't rewrite except to editorial direction. In other words, don't endlessly rework your novel. Many novice writers revise endlessly. They think that they're polishing their work, but really they're just sapping it of originality and vitality. Your best writing comes from your subconscious; don't let your conscious mind dumb it down - or keep you safe from rejection by endlessly re-working it.

4. Send your novel to someone who might buy it, like an editor, or sell it, like an agent. Don't worry about rejection. The mafia have a saying, and while I don't generally advise modeling your life after wise guys in this case it will serve you well; if you can't lose, you can't win. If you don't send your novel out there it will never be published.

5. Keep sending your novel out until it's sold. Publishing is full of stories of novels that became best-sellers after many, many rejections - including the first Harry Potter book! Don't try to judge your novel yourself - writers are notoriously poor judges of their own work - just send it out to market, and keep sending it remembering that many famous best-sellers would have never been published if their authors had given up on them.

6. Start writing another novel right after you've finished the first. This tip is courtesy of science fiction writer Robert Sawyer. He points out that you have to produce a body of work in order to count yourself as a real working pro. Plus, starting another novel right away will keep you in the habit of writing every day.

7. Join a critique group or writer's circle. Writing can be lonely and, especially with novels, feedback can be sparse. If there's no writing group near you there are online options like The Online Writer's Workshop (sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com) which will let you submit one chapter of your novel at a time for critique. Some writers, in order to follow tip 3 and the rule laid down by Heinlein, submit their work to critique groups but don't rewrite it; instead they use what they learn from the critique groups comments on their next projects.

If you follow these seven tips you'll have a finished fantasy novel out to market, and be hard at work on your second novel, in about six months. Who knows, you could be the next fantasy novelist to achieve best-seller status, if you start your novel, finish it, and get it out there to a publisher or agent.

Learn more about this author, David Riel.
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