What Are The Main Things You Need In A Fantasy Story?
i am currently starting on a fantasy story about a girl with no powers whereas her best friend has the ablilty to fly and has a special rare flying squirrell as a animal thingy, her mum had died when she was about 2/3 and is currently joining her first day of voosca (magic school) even though she is without any powers. i was just wondering what would make it go that little bit further and b published,. What would make it enjoyable, gripping, yet emotional ,
PLEASE HELP!! x
Thanks to the popularity of the HP books, a lot aspiring authors are writing fantasy books (including me). Getting a debut novel published can be very hard especially when the already established fantasy authors (ie. David Clement-Davies, Cornelia Funke, Christopher Paolini, JK Rowling etc…) already appeal to so many people.
Firstly, you have to know WHAT kind of fantasy book you are writing. The fantasy genre has been divided into a number of categories such as:
Urban Fantasy – which are stories taking place on THIS world, rather than an imaginary land. Examples include The Phoenix and the Carpet by E Nesbit
Epic fantasy – envolves a completely new fantasy setting with different “races” and a completely different culture. Epic fantasies also involve a battle between good and evil or a heroic quest. Examples include The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, Harry Potter by JK Rowling and Eragon by Christopher Paolini.
Historical fantasy – stories that are set in the past with some elements of fantasy such as Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver.
Mythological fantasy – Stories directly inspired by myth, folklore, and fairy tales such The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis.
Humorous or “children’s” fantasy – light hearted fantasy stories mainly for young children such as The Magic Faraway Tree and The Wishing Chair both by Enid Blyton.
Science fiction – when elements of science extend to fantasy such as The Host by Stephenie Meyer and books by Ray Bradbury.
Horror fantasy – when fantasy books have themes of horror and are mainly written for adults such as Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles
Romance fantasy – when fantasy books have a romance theme in them such as the Twiligth series by Stephenie Meyer and Elizabeth Kerner’s Song in the Silence.
Out of all these, I guess epic fantasy is really tough to write. You have to invent your own imaginary land and your own mythology. I salute the authors JRR Tolkien and JK Rowling for coming up with books of such details.
When you have finished your novel, get a copy of Writers Market or How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card. And then get yourself an agent first.
Beleive in yourself and you will be successful.
Best of luck.
I want to read it already.
Can she have hidden power? One that no one knows(including the reader) until the right moments. Most likely not the kind to defeat or beat up monsters all at one. May be power to heal with tears or something like that.
The kind of adventure, how you make them go about that, a mix of known and never heard of magics, the feeling of friends and foes, and great touching ending, are the things that make your story success or fail.
Don’t make it too predictable. Elaborate the plot but not too much. Keep writing it. Research old legends and stuff on the internet. Be creative!
xxx
an “animal thingy” is called a familiar and traditionally only witches and warlocks have familiars.
Sounds like you are doing Harry Potter meets the Winx.
imagination