by Sandra Fikes

Created on: February 27, 2008

So, you want to write a fantasy novel? Hey, how hard can that be, right? You don't have to worry about reality - or do you? Terry Brooks says that Lester del Ray once gave him a word of advice concerning writing fantasy novels "...it was harder to write good fantasy than any other form of fiction." That might seem like an odd bit of advice, but it's true and in the introduction for The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference, Terry Brooks explains why:

"Fantasy writing must be grounded in both truth and life experience if it is to work. It can be as inventive and creative as the writer can make it, a whirlwind of images and plot twists, but it cannot be built on a foundation of air. The world must be identifiable with our own. must offer us a frame of reference we can recognize."

There are certain factors that a writer must take into account when they are writing a fantasy story. While they can do anything they want to, they can not get away with anything unless it has some basis for being plausible. Fantasy literature is a genre where anything is possible, but everything has to be believable. When someone reads a fantasy story they should have the sense that, within the confines of that particular fantasy world, the things the writer is telling them are possible. Carpets can fly, genies live in seashells instead of bottles or lamps and wyverns are not the only biologically possible species of dragon.

How do you achieve that? How can you welcome your reader into your world and make them feel at home? Where does that sense of "this feels right" come from? From your enjoyment of the novel you are writing.

Lets face it, if you are not enjoying telling the story, how can anyone be expected to enjoy reading it? If you are writing fantasy because it is something you enjoy reading, then write what you enjoy reading. If you are writing it because you think people will read it... pick another genre.

My Seven Keys to writing a successful fantasy novel, as collected from years of study, are:

1) Don't write what you know, write what you want to know. Few of us know how to fight a dragon or ride a magic carpet, but wouldn't it be wonderful to know those things? Study and learn about the things you want your reader to experience, then write with the experience you have gained. You might not be able to go out and fight a dragon, but you can research what it took for prehistoric man to bring down a mastodon, or to fight off a pterodactyl. Maybe you can't ride a carpet, but what about

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