Tips and Tricks to Writing a Fantasy Story

Plotting the Plot

This chapter is dedicated to making sure your plot runs smoothly and makes sense. Oh, and, also, how to come up with a plot...

So, first thing's first: you have to come up with an idea for what you want to happen, and, usually, once you start writing, you should have some general idea of what you want to happen. If you don't, well, then, you're not ready to start that story yet. 

To have a plot, you need a problem or a goal, and you need a setting. Take my story Opening: The setting is the medieval-style fantasy kingdom of Valoria, and the goal is power. 

And there you go: the beginnings of a story. Then, refering to chapter 1, you need characters and a conflict. What is it? Is it obvious, like in Harry Potter where, all along, the goal is to defeat the badguys? Or is it more implied/internal, like in Game of Thrones, where it seems like there is no one single conflict, and each character's goal is different? Either way works, just make sure you know which it is. 

From there, you have two possible courses of action:

1) You can just start writing, see where that takes you. (If you do this, it's often a good idea to have a particular scene/conversation/event that you're aiming for–not necessarily the end of the book, just a particular, preconceived, point–and work to their). If you want to check out an example of a story that was made this way, go check out my story Magic Promises. (or, if you want an example of sci-fi, Clockwork)

2) You can plot out your entire story (like making an outline for an essay). If you do this, you have to be ok with tweaking your storyline to accomodate for new ideas or just not being able to write a certain passage. It happens. If you want an example of this technique, go check out my story Opening. 

So, as I can prove, having done each one, both these techniques work. Take my story Clockwork. I'm on my seventh re-write, but the plot, and even the protagonists, and thus, the story have changed drastically since I started. My original main character is now my current main character's best friend, and the story has changed from one where the protagonist struggles to prove herself to one where the protagonist is on a chase for revenge. 

After you've started writing you want to make sure you have no glaring plot holes. Like, if your character is on one side of the world, and there's no such thing as teleportation, don't have them on the other side of said world, or even on another planet, half a second later. 

If you've set your story in a world where there's no airplanes or cars, and you have to ride/sail/walk everywhere it would take weeks just to cross one country, let alone the world. Just keep that in mind. Time matters. 

Also, if you've literally stuck a sword through a character and thrown them of a cliff, please don't have them miraculously be alive, unless they're a zombie/other undead being, and even them, if them been torn to pieces and burned in a massive bonfire, they should not be able to come back. Period. 

You might think, oh, it's fantasy. Nothing had to make sense. 

WRONG!

Everything has to make sense even more, because you want to make people believe your character's struggles are real, even if you've completely made all of it up. You WANT them to care about the outcome, about who dies and who live (Valar Morghulis) (sorry, I had to do that), and they won't care about any of that if they can't make sense of anything and nothing is at all realistic. 

People often write fantasy because they think it will be an easy way out of researching things for their stories. IT'S NOT. 

You want things to be accurate, like, if you're having someone get kicked in the eye by a horse you want that eye to be (reasonably) close to what an actual eye would look like if it got bashed by a horse's hoof. (okay, not the world's most pleasant example. My point still stands, gruesome examples or no). 

Plot Motivators:

Plot motivators are objects like the ring in LoTR that move the plot forward by being there. If you introduce a plot motivator into your story, make sure you're calling attention to it. 

Say the entire struggle is about a piece of chocolate that everyone wants, well, you have to emphasize that chocolate being there. Slip descriptions of it in at random times. What makes it so amazing that everyone wants it so badly? Does it give eternal youth? Or cure sickness? Or is it just really good chocolate? Tell us! Otherwise nobody's going to care about the struggle at all. Make us care! Make us want that piece of chocolate as much as your characters do! Make it important enough to have an entire book (or series) written about it!

If you have any questions, leave 'em in the comments! Next chapter: cliches!!