The art of writing fantasy
All successful fantasy writers have one thing in common, they create a world into which you can imagine yourself. You are there when the villain strikes, you are there when the hero intervenes and you are there when the hero dies through their self-sacrifice.
The more vivid the imagery you perceive when reading the book, the better a job the the author has done of drawing you into their own fantasy world.
Some obvious points to look out for when creating your own immersive fantasy world are:
- Effective use of detail: Make sure the detail is authentic and accurate. If you can describe the street scene in a historically authentic manner, the reader is far more likely to buy into the subsequent street action.
- Opposite sides of your characters: Give your characters depth and substance by illuminating opposite facets. Show their strengths and their weaknesses, their strong-mind and their wavering will. By contrasting different behaviours, you force the reader to reconcile these opposing traits in their mind, thus making the character real.
- Allow the reader to think ahead: Allow the reader to formulate some idea of what’s about to happen, but keep them in suspense. If the entire book weaves dramatic threads that come together unexpectedly in the climactic scene, you probably have a winner on your hands.
It is worth studying successful fantasy classics for further clues to the art of reader entrapment. The following techniques used by all-time best-sellers, comprise good advice for the up-and-coming writer.
Gradation from familiar to unfamiliar
A common technique used by authors to lead the reader into their fantasy world, is beginning with the stunningly ordinary. Through mundaneness, the author leads the reader slowly but convincingly, into the world of imaginings.
An example of this technique occurs in the opening paragraph of Harry Potter:
The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive. Cars that were usually gleaming stood dusty in their drives and lawns that were once emerald green lay parched and yellowing; the use of hosepipes had been banned due to drought. Deprived of their usual car-washing and lawn-mowing pursuits, the inhabitants of Privet Drive had retreated into the shade of their cool houses, windows thrown wide in the hope of tempting in a nonexistent breeze.
Only once the ordinary world of Harry Potter has been introduced, is the reader then encouraged to imagine battles-to-the-death in a school for budding wizards.
Familiar among the unfamiliar
Another technique used to grip the reader in the world of fantasy, is the addition of familiar detail among the unfamiliar.
In The Two Towers (chapter 7), while Gollum is leading Sam and Frodo up the dangerous pass that provides an entrance to the Land of Mordor, we are presented with the very familiar:
He quickened his pace, and they followed him wearily. Soon they began to climb up on to a great hog-back of land. For the most part it was covered with a thick growth of gorse and whortleberry, and low tough thorns, though here and there clearings opened, the scars of recent fires. The gorse-bushes became more frequent as they got nearer the top; very old and tall they were, gaunt and leggy below but thick above, and already putting out yellow flowers that glimmered in the gloom and gave a faint sweet scent. So tall were the spiny thickets that the hobbits could walk upright under them, passing through long dry aisles carpeted with a deep prickly mould.
By constantly referring to ordinary details, among imagery of high fantasy, Tolkien makes us feel at home in his dichotomous world of light and darkness, bravery and despair.
Unexpected detail
In Moby Dick, Captain Ahab leads his whaling ship, the Pequod, in pursuit of Moby Dick, the White Whale. This mad obsession leads to the death of the captain and his crew, when Moby Dick turns on the ship and sinks it. As the Pequod sinks, it is the drowning of a sea-bird that adds a supernatural dimension to the terror wrought by Captain Ahab’s madness:
A sky-hawk that tauntingly had followed the main-truck downwards from its natural home among the stars, pecking at the flag, and incommoding Tashtego there; this bird now chanced to intercept its broad fluttering wing between the hammer and the wood; and simultaneously feeling that etherial thrill, the submerged savage beneath, in his death-gasp, kept his hammer frozen there; and so the bird of heaven, with archangelic shrieks, and his imperial beak thrust upwards, and his whole captive form folded in the flag of Ahab, went down with his ship, which, like Satan, would not sink to hell till she had dragged a living part of heaven along with her, and helmeted herself with it.
The tragedy of the many sailors brought to a watery grave by Captain Ahab’s madness, is crowned with savage meaning by the tormented death of a single bird.
In summary
As an author, it is your responsibility to drag your readers into the fantasy world that you have animated in your mind. However, you will only be able to do this if your readers agree to come along for the ride.
Allowing your readers to slide gracefully into your universe, together with making them feel comfortable and intrigued once they are there, will bring your fantasy novel to life.
