“Is not this world an illusion? And yet it fools everybody.” – Angela Carter, author of Nights of the Circus, which I love.
Yesterday I published a new book, The Sea Inside, a fantasy adventure with a young heroine. I started it in 2009, but it was one of those stories that didn’t seem to jell in my head… until 2011 and then 2012, and finally 2013. I love it when a plan finally comes together! I thought hey, this is my first fantasy, but when I look at my other books, they all contain fantasy elements. The Kiwi Series contains a portal to a cat world and magic; Day of the Living Pizza is about people turning into zombies after eating pizza; 3 Heads & a Tail began as a comedy with a touch of romance, but ended up revolving around a wisecracking, swearing dog. So, methinks fantasy is here to stay in my books. And it’s damn fun to write!
So what makes a fantasy novel?
Fantasy usually includes magic and supernatural elements in the plot, themes and setting. Imaginary worlds where magical creatures roam are typical. I wondered how the genre differs from science fiction and horror, and had to google that. Apparently, it’s in the way fantasy avoids scientific and macabre themes, but I think the categories cross. Fantasy can also include time travel, magic portals that take the hero/heroine to another realm where things are different, though similar – variations upon a theme. Fantasy is also written in such a way as to be believable. The reader has to be made to suspend their disbelief and think that everything they are reading is plausible within the boundaries of the novel.
So how do you make the unreal real?
Write it like you mean it; write it in such a way that the reader will believe in it. Many writers spend a lot of time creating the world in which their characters will inhabit. World building is what they call it; painting layer upon layer of detail to create rich backgrounds and credibility. The reader can see the world, feel it, breathe it, touch it, sniff it and so forth. Include details such as clothes, religion, food, language, buildings, history and means of transport – everything – because every little thing builds a layer.
Okay, so this one heroine is four foot six, but can wield an axe to kick arse while being able to ride a unicycle, breathe fire and do battle with dragons on the days that she’s not rustling up the world’s best omelette. Impossible, I hear you say. Not if you write it in such a way that the reader can suspend their disbelief. They need to visualise it, learn about the character and how they managed to learn these things; how is it possible they became adept at such skills? Did someone teach them and what relationship did they have – some plot there already. Steadily build up the background, scenery, the character’s upbringing and desires/needs/motivation, etc. Imagine what a reader would question and have the answer – have it down and explained before they can even think up a question.
The journey/quest
Fantasy books usually contain a journey of some kind. It can be on the physical or mental plane, and even both. One often mirrors the other. Often, the characters are seeking something and set out on a quest. We all know what that was in the Lord of the Rings now, don’t we? Of course, the quest can’t be as easy as jumping on the bus to go to Tesco – there has to be bad weather, bad guys, bad dragons, bad luck… bad everything along the way. But it normally all ends every well with a happy ending and some personal growth.
Personal growth
The hero or heroine will evolve physically, emotionally and mentally. Often they will have to experience some hardship and do battle with something grisly or their own emotions/fears to finally find themselves and their true destiny. Sometimes there’s even a love interest along the way. Ooh la la.
Faithful friends
Ah, the good mates that get to help the hero/heroine succeed in their quest. These can be friends from the beginning or the people they meet on their journey. They’re often quirky and unusual, with their own back stories. And they might even be furry or have scales.
So, some common fantasy elements –
A hero or heroine
A quest
Band of happy fellows to help
A secret/hidden agenda
A portal to another realm
Magical or mythical creatures
One character must make a sacrifice to achieve something
Time travel
Detailed world building
Death or imprisonment of a loved one/family member
Deception by another close character
Coming of age
Personal growth
Protagonist discovers themselves and their true destiny
The impossible seems possible
Here are some of my favourite books in this genre –
Hans Christian Andersen’s stories
Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis
Stardust by Neil Gaima
Momo by Michael Ende
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
And favourite films –
Pan’s Labyrinth
Lord of the Rings (sorry, I admit to only having watched the film, yikes!)
Finally, here are some interesting quotes from fantasy authors on writing…
“You can’t expect another miracle like Watership Down. One’s enough for any lifetime!”
“If I tell a tale there has to be some baddies as well as some goodies, and there are several baddies in Watership Down.”
“I’ve always said that Watership Down is not a book for children. I say it’s a book, and anyone who wants to read it can read it.”
“The route which the rabbits took in the story, it’s all quite real, it’s all there for anyone to see. In fact several people have actually amused themselves by walking the route of the rabbits from south of Newbury up to Watership Down.”
“I had a very happy home, and a nice upbringing. We had a nice house with three acres of garden. I had all that to play in, admittedly I mostly played by myself, not having any brothers or sisters, but I think that really developed my imagination.”
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2007/03/16/richard_adams_interview_feature.shtml
“… to speak of the craft itself, I would not know how to advise a man how to write. It is a matter of talent and interest. I believe he must be strongly moved if he is to become a writer. Writing is like a ‘lust’ or like ‘scratching when you itch’. Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I for one must get it out.”
“The way for a person to develop a style is (a) to know exactly what he wants to say, and (b) to be sure he is saying exactly that. The reader, we must remember, does not start by knowing what we mean. If our words are ambiguous, our meaning will escape him. I sometimes think that writing is like driving sheep down a road. If there is any gate open to the left or the right the readers will most certainly go into it. . . .
Source: Decision magazine, September 1963.
Advice sent in a letter to an American fan named Joan Lancaster in June 1956:
“What really matters is:
1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.
2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.
3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “more people died” don’t say “mortality rose”.
4. In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.”
5. Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.”
For the first fifteen years of his writing career, Dahl concentrated on writing for adults.
He was not, by his own admission, a quick writer and might take six months on a story – “sometimes as much as a month on the first page”. And he refused to write at all unless he could come up with a really good plot.
Roald couldn’t type and always used a pencil to write. For much of his career, his working day began at 9.30am, when his secretary would work through his fan mail. At around 10.30am, he’d fill a thermos with coffee and head off to his writing hut. He’d write until about midday when it was time for lunch, and a gin and tonic. After an afternoon read, at about 4pm, he’d return to the hut for another couple of hours of writing. “I am a disciplined writer,” he once said. “I don’t think any writer works particularly long hours because he can’t – he becomes inefficient.” He wrote several drafts of his work “because I never get anything right first time”.
Source for above: http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/Roald-Dahl/biography.html
What is the secret to keeping your readers entertained?
“My lucky thing is I laugh at exactly the same jokes that children laugh at, and that’s one reason I’m able to do it. I don’t sit out here roaring with laughter, but you have wonderful inside jokes all the time and it’s got to be exciting, it’s got to be fast, it’s got to have a good plot, but it’s got to be funny. And each book I do is a different level of that. The fine line between roaring with laughter and crying because it’s a disaster is a very, very fine line.”
How do you create interesting characters?
“When you’re writing a book, with people in it as opposed to animals, it is no good having people who are ordinary, because they are not going to interest your readers at all. Every writer in the world has to use the characters that have something interesting about them and this is even more true in children’s books. I find that the only way to make my characters really interesting to children is to exaggerate all their good or bad qualities, and so if a person is really nasty or bad or cruel, you make them very nasty, very bad, very cruel. If they are ugly, you make them extremely ugly. That I think is fun and makes an impact.”
Source for interview questions above: http://clubs-kids.scholastic.co.uk/clubs_content/1491
“It is for this child in me, and in all of us, that I tell my stories… for any child between 80 and 8 years.”
Source: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15619.Michael_Ende
“The only mainspring that drives my work is the desire for the free and undirected play of the imagination.”
“If people forget that they have an inner world, then they forget their own values. The inner world must be added to the exterior world; it must be created and discovered. And if we do not, now and then, make a journey through our inner life to discover these values, they will be lost.”
Source: http://www.nytimes.com
“For me, every book, every story, is an unrepeatable, unique adventure, a quest, which I do not know in advance where it will lead me.”
Source: his letters.
“On the whole, anything that gets you writing and keeps you writing is a good thing. Anything that stops you writing is a bad thing. If you find your writers group stopping you from writing, then drop it.”
“Believe in yourself. Keep writing.”
Source: http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/FAQs/Advice_to_Authors
“Most of the people who walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep time with short steps.”
Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/hans_christian_andersen.html
“Everything you look at can become a fairy tale and you can get a story from everything you touch.”
Source: Goodreads
The Sea Inside: 
