Settings are like ocean currents — rough, raw, unhinged — and characters are droplets of water — intricate, refined, polished. Fundamentally speaking, they come from the same thing: the world of fantasy in your mind; however, to put them down on paper, there are no universal formulas. This week, we don’t dive into waters, but instead, we fetch from the ocean and take what we find upon land, where we can study them under the glistering sunlight.
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How often do you wash your hands in a day? According to a study conducted in 2008, the average American washed their hands about 8 times a day.
Now, how often do you take the time to feel the soap against your hands as you wash them? At its core, a story is something interacting with something else — people, animals, personified objects understanding, manipulating, and loving others. Throw easy power dynamics into ruthless battles and debates and power-grabs that impact millions of people at a time, vast changes that can throw any character’s life upside down.
And out of the shadows comes the terrible and brilliant world of politics. It’s time, my friends, to build some conflict. Fantasy and The Senses5/16/2021 Fantasy is a genre that expands the mind. How you as a writer can describe this world is what brings it to life. Here is a short guide on how you can invoke the five senses in your story and bring a new aspect of realism for your readers to enjoy.
Suspension of Disbelief5/15/2021 Some rapid-fire tips for Suspension of Disbelief in writing SFF, or speculative genres in general. You've probably read all of these somewhere else already, but on the off-chance that you haven't, have some I've found to mostly make sense and actually work.
For this article, we’ll use a name to stand in for our main character. Let’s call them Sam. There are many ways for Sam to travel, but that will depend on the technological advancements and worldbuilding of your fantasy world. If your transportation is very advanced in proportion to the rest of your technology, you’ll want reasoning behind it. Good worldbuilding makes the impossible believable. Not every project needs to think deeply about transportation, and in many books, transportation is mundane. If the scope of your fantasy project takes place in a small area, say a city or a palace, then expanded transportation may not be necessary. But if Sam has lands, seas, and the skies to cross, read on.
Maps in Fiction5/13/2021 When I was in grade school, I was obsessed with the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage. It was creative, well-written, and magical — which was really all I needed. I distinctly remember opening up the first book Magyk and being greeted with a map of the castle! It even had little graphics in between some of the chapters of characters or places and I was living for it. The same thing happened when I first started watching Game of Thrones. Having this awesome HBO introduction with this 3D map created immersion like no other show.
Some authors may argue maps take away from the imagination of the reader's world, but I think it does just the opposite. Maps create cohesion between places and in turn makes the reader’s imagination more prominent. It’s just harder to imagine settings when worrying about what direction “east of here” is when I don’t know where “here” is either! Maybe most readers don’t think that way, but I’d say it’s better to add a map for us lowly map enjoyers and let those that don’t care about them simply skip past them. Places to Submit Stories5/12/2021 When it comes to publishing short stories, submitting to literary journals and magazines can be both a frustrating and rewarding part of the process for any writer. The publishing world has expanded to include submissions from writers of all ages. However, it can take just as long researching the aesthetic of a journal as it can to write your story. If you make sure the publication that you’re submitting to fits your writing style, you’re more likely to be accepted. Below is a list of both youth-oriented magazines and longstanding literary journals that specialize in fantasy and sci-fi fiction
Structure in Free Verse5/11/2021 In fairy tales and fantasy, a common theme involves the relationship between “the village” and “the forest”. The village represents societal constraints, and while there may be more rules, those restrictions are designed to keep the villagers safe. In the forest, where rules don’t apply, the fairy tale characters are free to do as they please in whatever chaotic fashion they so desire.
Free verse is the fairy tale forest of poetry. With no rules about meter or regulations regarding rhythm, you can create a poem as long or as short as you please. Form is yours to mold; if you choose to have each word serve as its own stanza, that’s your decision to make. There’s a reason the word “free” is in the name. A few lost sentences into drafting this, I realized I didn’t have the faintest clue what the word culture encompassed. I couldn’t untangle what it meant to me, as an immigrant, or what it would mean to a character like me.
So, of course, I turned to the ever-trusty Google, which defines it as “the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group,” which didn't help at all with my identity crisis, but may help you build situations and relatable and complex values and lives for your characters. Categories
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