Welcome back to another blog. This year, I’m super excited to be writing my very first fantasy novel. I’d love to share some of what I’ve learned and what I’ve been working on, in case it sparks any inspiration in you. I’ve also got a video on this topic, if you’d prefer that:
My last manuscript, Chasing Ghosts (supernatural), isn’t done yet. I’m in the homestretch, though, and then I’ll start querying. I’ve been working on this for about two years, and I’m definitely back in that headspace of, “Man, this thing sucks.” But I think I’ve just been staring at it for too long.
So, I’m going to push through and see it to completion!
Now, the fantasy novel.
Why the heck am I writing fantasy?
I love reading fantasy but have never even attempted to write it because—I am ashamed to admit this—I didn’t think I was smart enough.
I still don’t think I’m smart enough.
Major imposter syndrome.
So why, after all the books I’ve written, am I trying fantasy—a notoriously difficult genre to tackle?
First, I had this vision that I fell in love with, and I wanted to build on it. I felt a story brewing in me and I thought, “I have to try writing this.” This, in my opinion, is the biggest reason to write a novel.
Second, like I already said, I love reading in that genre. I’ve read fantasy books that changed me very deeply. I feel like as writers, one reason we write is to evoke a response in readers. It’s to trigger feelings. I want to write something as profound as some of the books I’ve read.
Third, I wanted to challenge myself. This is very new territory for me. Writing a book is hard no matter what. I don’t believe it’s meant to be easy. So if it’s going to be challenging anyway, I might as well go big, right?
Finally, I wanted the opportunity to play with magic, think outside the bounds of reality, and create more of my own rules. I learned this is a double-edged sword. (I’ll get to that in a minute.) I feel like magic is something we believe in as children, and then it’s killed. It’s forced out of us. It’s “silly.” It’s not real. Bla bla bla. So, adults usually don’t believe in magic.
For me, the older I get, the more I believe in magic again. There are a few things in my life I describe as magical. For example, my husband and I love hiking. When we’re out in nature, away from work and responsibilities, I describe it as magical.
Magic is real, and I want to write about it.
How my “grand plan” failed
I just took two weeks off for the holidays, and leading up to the vacation, I had two goals: I wanted to finish my previous manuscript, and I wanted to finish the outline for the fantasy novel.
I am proud to report that neither of those things happened. (Yay.)
I actually cried about it one night. I felt like such a failure. But I think this could be helpful for some of us, so I want to share what happened.
My finished manuscript isn’t done… just because it’s not. That’s it. This part didn’t upset me too much because I know I just need a little more time.
Now, the outline for the fantasy book… I totally underestimated how much work this would be. I worked on it almost every day over those two weeks, and I did “finish” it in the sense that it had a beginning, middle, and end.
Then, I shared it with my husband, as I always do with my work. He loves fantasy and is into Dungeons & Dragons, and in general, he provides awesome feedback.
As I was sharing the outline with him, he was like, “Holllllld on. What about this and this and this?” He found so many things completely missing.
I knew this was going to be hard. Again, that’s one of the reasons I started this in the first place. But I had to come to terms with the fact that I was never going to finish a solid outline in two weeks.
That was a tough pill for me personally to swallow. I’m 36, and the older I get, the faster time goes. I constantly feel like I never have enough time.
This stresses me out. I’ve told you before that I’ve been on the querying journey for well over a decade, spanning more than five manuscripts. It’s overwhelming to want something so, so bad, and all these years later, here I am still writing books that no one will ever see.
After those two weeks off, I went back to work, and now I’m back to having only my evenings to squeeze in as much writing as possible. Enter: More sadness.
I have to really remind myself that this can’t be rushed. It’ll happen on the timeline it’s meant to happen. I just need to keep chipping away.
Okay, enough emotional vomit.
Next, I’m going to go through some of what I’ve done to start crafting this story.
The beginning stages of my fantasy book
I mentioned this earlier. This plot actually began with a kernel of inspiration… a mental image I got for one scene. This is usually how my books start.
But again, this is a new genre, and the idea I originally had was more sci-fi. But… I wanted to write fantasy.
So my husband says, “Why don’t you spend a little time writing short stories in both genres? Just play, and see what happens.”
I don’t write short stories but thankfully, I actually listened, and it ended up being tremendously helpful.
I wrote one sci-fi short story using that idea, and another that was fantasy where I didn’t have any inspiration. I just pulled it out of my behind.
The sci-fi story… I had goosebumps writing it.
The fantasy story, I still loved it—it just didn’t come as naturally because I didn’t have the initial inspiration.
So I was already kind of torn, right off the bat, because my brilliant idea was sci-fi, but I wanted to write fantasy.
What I then did was I took the sci-fi idea and tried to cram it into a fantasy novel. I wanted to keep that idea but make it fantasy. Needless to say, it didn’t work. I tried and tried, but something felt so off. That’s not to say you can’t combine the two genres. I know you can. But it wasn’t working for me. It kept going toward sci-fi.
I needed to distance myself from that idea, completely reframe my imagination, and start over. So I did, and I was still able to incorporate that initial vision I had, but now it feels fantasy.
Once I did that, the outline started to flow a lot more smoothly, and I was able to come up with a very high-level vision.
I shared in this video…
… how I outline my novels. I still stand by this, but I learned I need even more structure.
I read Save the Cat! and it has been life-changing. It gives a blueprint that walks you through all of the most pivotal points in a good story—about 15 of them. I needed this guidance because Act II, which takes up about 50% of a book, is a beast to write. I need structure, and this book is giving it to me. Hooray.
I’m following it to a tee and honestly, even though I didn’t finish like I planned, I don’t think I would’ve gotten even as far as I did without this book.
I shared the outline with my husband and he was like, “I think you’re on the right track but there’s a lot missing. What are the various types of creatures? What are their relationships with each other? Where do they live? What are their histories? What do their territories look like?” And a million other questions.
Basically, he was talking about world-building, which is something that, in my race to finish the outline, I neglected. I thought I’d had enough to work with, but I didn’t.
He shared with me some of the work that went into writing The Lord of the Rings. Long story short, it was intense. Now, I’m not trying to write the next LOTR but it did give me some ideas. Here’s what I am working on right now.
I have temporarily paused on the outline, even though I feel salty about it.
Instead, I am focusing on world-building. I created a glossary, and it has turned into this 20-page (and growing!) behemoth. It goes through all of the characters and the history of their races. I need this because, in this story, these different creatures need to come together to defeat the bad guy. Some agree with it, and some don’t. I need to establish the motivation for each race. There have to be reasons for everything.
The glossary also goes into detail on some of the more important characters, the major settings, and the rules and boundaries of their magic.
Next, I drew a map that outlines each race’s territories and what the terrains look like—mountains, bodies of water, etc.
Anyway, both of these things helped me realize what I’m missing. I also came up with some really cool new ideas. I’ve just felt so inspired throughout all of this.
My goal is to leave no stone unturned. I want to have these creatures and their lands so built out that you could ask me anything about them, and I’d have a concrete answer.
If you say to me, “Well if this guy is evil, why don’t these creatures just do XYZ?” I want to be able to say, “They can’t because of ABC.” Using magic as my excuse for everything isn’t enough. What about it? It needs to be specific or I know it will come back to bite me later.
I need to create the world and the creatures living in it before I can write a story about what happens to them and what they decide to do.
So that’s where I’m at. I’m getting to know my characters and the magical world they live in. I’m having so much fun and cannot wait to see how it all unfolds!