Fantasy author, R. B. Michaels’ latest book, Knights of the Wind (ISBN 978-1951630546), tells the tale of a gifted knight and a powerful mage allying to fight an evil entity that has returned after centuries and threatens to ruin the peace of their kingdom. Michaels writes about their adventures in a world quite different from ours, where mythical and magical creatures such as elves and dragons hide among the human race. While there is a lot of magic in the book, Michaels’ writing doesn’t lose touch with reality and draws inspiration from different situations in the world around us.
That is what sets apart Michaels’ writing from other fantasy writers. And it is also something most writers struggle with, finding a balance between it all. Yes, fantasy is about building a world where your readers can escape to, but it also needs to be a world that is realistic enough for your readers to believe in. In the following excerpts, Codey Amprim from Mythic Scribes provides a short guide to writing believable fantasy:
· Getting the Facts Straight
Accurate knowledge of what you’re writing about is necessary for achieving a sound, believable fantasy narrative.
If your story is set in a mirror of the middle ages, then researching life in that era is essential. Nothing makes a reader more likely to put a book down than discovering sheer outright falsehoods. If you aren’t sure about any detail, research it further. You can never be too careful with such a crucial thing.
Oh, and as if this wasn’t obvious, don’t get the facts of your fantasy world wrong, either. That would be most… embarrassing.
· The Power of Consistency
Consistency is what maintains the suspension of disbelief throughout the narrative, and keeps your readers comfortable in your fantasy world. It makes it possible for their minds to accept new developments, so long as they do not drastically break from what has already transpired.
How would you feel if you woke up one day and everyone had suddenly turned green? No doubt there would be widespread confusion, but there would be an even greater calling for an answer, a reason.
Now, transfer this idea into your fantasy fiction. While your fantasy story’s inhabitants turning green may not be a great dilemma, the same principle still holds true; a fantasy world should have laws and rules, not the judicial kind, but the kind that pertains to existence – things like gravity and other laws of nature. Everything that transpires in your fantasy story should follow those rules. If something deviates from them, people will call for an explanation.
Your audience needs to believe that what’s happening in your fantasy story is consistent with the world that you have presented. Obeying your fantasy universe’s laws and rules ensures that the story is believable.
· Bending the Rules
While you cannot break your own rules, you can manipulate them.
You may not, for example, establish a rule that “the gods cannot intervene in mortal affairs,” and then have them rescue your hero.
But if you simply reword this as “it is believed that the gods cannot intervene in mortal affairs,” then you have left yourself an opening. Adding “it is believed that” allows for a possibility of the occurrence to happen. At the same time, however, you have the illusion of a rule.
So, if you do intend on breaking any of the “rules” that you set out, make sure to leave yourself a credible way to do so.
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