How to: Build Your Fantasy World

13. Adventure Time!

Woohoo! You've got a whole fantasy world all designed and you're ready to explore!

Or, at least, I hope you have. We are on chapter 13 now.

Now's the time when you get to add to your fantasy world and make your very own fantasy map. Now's the time to think about where you want your characters to go in this world.

Are they going to be travelling from one corner of the kingdom to another? What will be in the other corner once they get there? Most importantly, what will be in the middle of the kingdom that they will need to travel through in order to reach to opposite corner? Remember those five senses I mentioned three chapters ago because you will need to think about how to use those as your characters are travelling to new places.

Perhaps you have to travel to your fantasy world through a portal. How do you get to this portal to open it? Is there only one way in and one way out? Perhaps your main character stumbles upon this portal on accident; imagine what their adventure through this strange world would be like.

Perhaps you have pirates on your fantasy planet or some kind of species resembling pirates. You want to take them on a sea voyage to discover new land. What is the sea like? Is it a calm sea, or an unforgiving storm-ridden sea? Perhaps your pirates' boat doesn't belong on the sea, perhaps it can fly through the air instead.

In your Science Fantasy, your space travellers want to go from one galaxy to another; what planets will they pass on the way? Do they have pit stops to refuel their spacecraft? Are they experienced space travellers, or have they never travelled in space before? What's the experience like for them?

A good adventure is what fantasy readers long for! Just remember that you can't just send your characters on an adventure for the sake of it; you need to understand why your characters are heading where they're headed. You need to know what's going to be waiting for them when they get there. Are they going on the quest of a lifetime? Are they running away from home? Are they about to declare war?

Think about how long it should take them to get to their destination.

Then ask yourself that 'what if' question. What if something went wrong? What if they got lost? What if someone who was searching for them finally caught up with them?

Also, think about how you're going to write this adventure. My second book of Dragon Tales is mostly based on Topaz and Reuben's adventure to the Solar Dynasty; which takes up almost all of the book. I have a very large kingdom. They are travelling by foot, so need to stop when they become too tired. They also have to stop off at various villages and traders in order to stock up on essentials, such as clean clothes and food. I also had a few events happening. For example, they celebrate a birthday and Reuben meets up with an old friend. I also had events that would backtrack their position, such as snowstorms and getting imprisoned in a dungeon for trespassing - which they have to break themselves out of.

Knowing key moments that will happen in your characters' adventure will help you make it exciting. You don't want to spend the entire book with your characters just walking, driving, flying, swimming, or whatever their means of travel may be. You want the adventure to be exciting, you always want something to be happening. Just when your characters think it's safe, just when your readers think your characters are safe, something happens that puts them in danger once again.

Perhaps your demi-god is embarking on a quest to prove himself worthy?

Or a mermaid sells her soul for a chance to live life as a human?

Or, perhaps your story has nothing to do with Disney movies at all. Whatever the adventure; make it EPIC!

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A/N: at the end of all the chapters, I am going to put a little exercise/question for you guys to do in the comments as a way for you to interact and really take something away from reading this guide. I will leave an answer regarding my own fantasy book for you to use as an example. Don't forget to vote and share this guide with whoever may need it!

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Exercise 13:

What is your character's destination and name one obstacle in your world that may slow them down

My answer:

In the second book (because Topaz doesn't leave the palace until then), her destination is the Solar Dynasty. But the dynasty is known to be a neverending winter, with snowstorms and mountains to endure