Tips for Fantasy Writers

chapter 1

#1) Write what you know

More of a mantra than a tip. You'll have heard it before - but it's not about the mantra, it's about the interpretation. Write what you know? That's great if you happen to be a vampire or a serial killer or an A list celebrity. Those are the stories people want to read. So if you want to write about something you've not experienced first hand what are you going to do? Make it up, of course. The clue is in the title: 'fiction writer.' Okay, so if you've never sucked the blood out of someone's neck - how do you write what you know? You could either read all the vampire fiction you can get your hands on, and suck the blood out of that, or you can draw on your own real experiences to minimise the fictional made up part.

This is what Tolkien did in his work. He actually describes very little of the action in the most dramatic parts of Lord of the Rings. Hours of CGI on the cinema screen were created from a few descriptive sentences from the book. But the book is massive - I hear you say. True, but much of the action is built up by creating atmosphere and setting the scene, so the two sentences have huge impact. Tolkien describes in detail what the forest or landscape is like, the weather, how it feels to be alone in the dark in a strange landscape. As a seasoned hill walker he would have known this stuff. So even though he is the King of Fantasy, he was writing what he knew.