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Creative Writing: Writing a Fantasy Novel for Beginners

teacher avatar Matthew Dewey, Writer, Artist

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Introduction to Writing Fantasy for Beginners

      1:51

    • 2.

      Fantasy Structure | Writing Fantasy for Beginners

      8:45

    • 3.

      World Building | Writing Fantasy for Beginners

      8:02

    • 4.

      Fantasy Protagonists | Writing Fantasy for Beginners

      7:39

    • 5.

      Fantasy Antagonists | Writing Fantasy for Beginners

      5:27

    • 6.

      Emotion In Fantasy | Writing Fantasy for Beginners

      7:10

    • 7.

      Lore | Writing Fantasy for Beginners

      5:12

    • 8.

      Subplots And Story Development | Writing Fantasy for Beginners

      6:43

    • 9.

      Series Of Not? | Writing Fantasy for Beginners

      8:54

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About This Class

Hello Writer!

Welcome to the course where I show you how to write an in-depth, enjoyable fantasy novel that will keep your readers interested. Don't make the same mistakes that so many novice authors make and create a fantasy novel that can challenge those of successful authors!

My name is Matthew Dewey and I am a writer, writing instructor, and writing coach. I have published several books, including books on writing. I have taught many courses on writing, from thrillers to science fiction. I have coached many writers with their novels, offering them feedback and guidance in creating a novel they could be proud of. I have learned a lot over the years and this course contains much of what I learned when it comes to writing fantasy.

Enough monologue, it is time to tell you what this course is worth to you. First, this course was created with the express intention to teach the fundamentals of writing a fantasy novel. In my rising through the writing world I found that information was handed freely, but not with enough dedication and forethought. The advice lacking and the examples poor. I decided to push through and after several years developed my own toolkit that is simple and multipurpose. The first and most important lesson I learned was how not to write a fantasy novel. From there I experimented and found the positives.

In addition to the research, I also write from experience, having written several fantasy novels, not to mention books and articles on the subject as well.

I will show you how to:

  • Create better fantasy worlds
  • Establish a plot structure
  • Improve protagonists and antagonists
  • Add emotion to your novel
  • Improve side characters with subplots
  • Create Story and Character development
  • Decide on creating a series or not
  • AND many tips and advice to add to your writing arsenal!

Welcome to the Writing a Fantasy Novel for Beginners Course! I will show what you need to know to develop an interesting Fantasy novel and take it from boring to exciting!

"Writing is a powerful form of art, but it is the reader's imagination that is the canvas, not the page."

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Matthew Dewey

Writer, Artist

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Transcripts

1. Introduction to Writing Fantasy for Beginners: Hello and welcome to your fantasy writing course. I am Matthew Dewey and I am a writing instructor. I've been writing books and teaching other routers how to write this for many years now, having taught so many courses and personally coached several rioters. In this course, I'm gonna be talking about the fantasy genre and the various elements that make it up. I'll be talking about the world space. I'll be talking about the protagonists and antagonists are talking about the law and the common cliches that are often associated with fantasy. Along the way, I'm going to be giving you professional writing advice as well as some projects to put that advice into practice. Another important point about this course is that I am an active instructor, which means if you have any questions or you want to submit your projects for review, you'll receive response in very good time. And if you want to take full advantage of this course, I highly recommend that you ask questions in the discussion set you do these projects. That way. By the end of this course, you will have a great understanding of how the fantasy genre works and a head start in writing your own fantasy novel. I should also tell you that I have a writer's workshop on my website. Matthew, do you also.com, This Rogers workshop, you'll be able to access every single one of my courses, past, present, and future. And if you're interested in some more personalized guidance, you can sign up for the coaching program over three months program, you and work together to write a novel you can be proud of. You will be able to submit your writing to me and I'll be able to give you professional feedback and getting your story and the direction you want it to go. I really do hope you enjoyed this course on the fantasy genre. And as always, good day, good and happy writing. 2. Fantasy Structure | Writing Fantasy for Beginners: Hello and welcome to the very first lesson and your fantasy story writing course in case you skip the intro, My name is Matthew Dewey and I'll be your writing instructor. In this lesson, we're going to be talking about the different plots, structures that dominate the fantasy genre. If you're unexperienced fantasy reader, I'm sure you've noticed that there is a common theme when it comes to plot structure in the genre. I'll be talking about the four most popular plot structures in the genre. The pros and cons of each, and how you can use them to help develop your story. Let's get straight into the very first plot structure. The first structure I call the generic or MLU structure as it is often the most successful and in fact, simple structure to use. Generic structure is where the plot is centered around the main character who is thrown into a world much like the reader is. The reason this is often done is because the main character, typically the protagonist, is in the same position as the reader. They are new to the fantasy experience, that is the world space. They are new to the places, the magic of it, all, the characters. So they are learning alongside the reader. And with that said, the main characters, opinions and how they form them are often the same as the reader, as the reader sees it from that main character's perspective. Great examples of generic fantasy plots that did well. Our Harry Potter and pneumonia. Although non-UI followed several main characters, the effect was much the same. Generic plots are successful as most fantasy novels incorporate a sense of wonder, giving the reader the curiosity to learn more about the world. The next structure for a fantasy novel is similar to a generic structure. So I gave it the name semi generic. The main difference between the first and second structure is that semi generic main characters grew up in the world instead of being thrown into them. And as such, it often leaves the reader behind to piece together how the world works. Now that is not to say that the main character understands the world fully. There'll be plenty of opportunity for the main character to learn something new alongside the reader. However, the main character is familiar with a lot of points in the story. Other words, the characters, the different places, or perhaps a different concepts that you are to introduce in your story. Popular examples of this plot structure or the spook series, Game of Thrones series, and even Lord of the Rings. Yes, while many of these characters aren't unfamiliar to concepts in this world space, there are still experiencing terrifying things, are wonderful things for the first term. And for that reason, they experienced still translate well to the other reader. And as Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings and many others have proven. This is a very popular plot structure where you don't need to have a character who's entirely new to the world space. These are books that became big names and the genre. And it's understandable. But they use a plot structure that you can use in your novel as well. One of the benefits of this plot structure is that it allows you to introduce more complex concepts to the reader as having something heard of in a world space, something well-known, allows you to introduce smaller details and elements to the reader before the main characters actually encounter that experience. E.g. if you have a complex creature or perhaps a complex form of magic, you can talk about it earlier in the story before you actually introduce it in the plant. This is a technique that a lot of science fiction writers are familiar with as it allows you to introduce complex technology in your story by introducing it first through a dialogue or through a small bit of narration before you actually included in the story itself. The third structure is the fable structure. The structure of these novels is centered around a moral lesson. In these novels, the character could be thrown into the world, are born into it. But the potent structure are centered on the main character coming to grips with an important lesson. I'm sure we're all familiar with those childhood fables that taught us very simple moral lessons, such as don't lie, don't steal, brush your teeth before bed. Things like that. That makes sense, but it's not exactly deep thinking. The moral lessons that are often taught in fantasy novels today tend to deal with the more emotional, spiritual aspect of a main character. And as such, have a few more levels to it than simple fables we learned in primary school. But it's typical with this plot structure, is that the main character tends to start off truly rotten or thoroughly misguided, or simply just rude. But then they are thrown into or perhaps convinced to go on an adventure and change who they are. Most of the story will include encounters that challenge the values that they began with, if they had any, as the story develops. They will achieve a better perspective on people in the world space that they are in. By the end of the story, they tend to have more morals than they began with. And they'll channel that energy towards more moral acts than immoral ones. I'm sure we all already familiar with many stories where character has developed, that tends to be a common theme in every story, not just fantasy. Another popular example is actually from Tolkien again, being the Hubbard. The main character starts very closed off, a shut in, in their own home. But as the story progresses, by the end of the novel, they are more open to the world space and they'd like to go on more adventures. And yes, the character is still empty social in some respects. But there are a lot better than what they want. Finally, there's the three-act story structure. One of the most common stories structures in fiction, not just the fantasy genre. It is a structure that even applies to some of the examples I mentioned earlier. The three-act story structure is like this. The first act is you introducing elements of your story from the world space to the characters, basically setting the scene. And this act ends when you introduce the conflict that sets the story in motion. Typically, the first act ends very early on in the novel. The second act is the bulk of the story, as it's made up of most of the scenes that transpire, the scenes that developed the main character and the plot. The second act ends when there is the final conflict. That is the third act. In this third act, the final conflict transpires whether it's a battle of good versus evil, whether it's a facing of an emotional trauma, whatever this conflict may be. Once it ends, we are left with for the resolution, whether it'd be the antagonist, winning or losing. We tie up some loose ends. We leave the reader with some final thoughts, and we end the novel. And yes, the three-act story structure is dreadfully broad. And thus it can apply to many novels which have a fundamentally different structure. Personally from these three structures, I would recommend the generic structure to start with. The structure is a great way for the writer to tell this story to the reader. That is because the generic story structure allows you the opportunity to introduce the elements slowly. Because you're trying to have the main character loon, as well as the reader. Because as you teach in the main character, the different elements in your story and you're building up the world space. Reader is learning with them. It's much easier for a reader to get into a story that way than to throw them into the deep end and try to make sense of all the jargon and characters and elements that make up the story. Personally, I'm a big fan of semi generic structures as I like to have an established world space and introduce the elements slowly to the reader. If I find my world space so complex, I like to start off in a very open area, one that has few elements that need to be introduced. And then I'll take the reader along with the main character, two more complex areas in the world as they learn. And that brings us to the end of this lesson. Your project is to decide upon a structure that best fits your story. It can be one of the ones that I mentioned before or can be a combination of them. It helps us well to do an outline of your plot to help figure out where certain scenes would go in the plot structure. This will certainly help with your pacing as well. In the next lesson, we'll be talking about fantasy world building. I'll see you then. Bye for now. 3. World Building | Writing Fantasy for Beginners: Hello and welcome back to your fantasy story writing course. In this lesson, I'm gonna be talking about fantasy world, building, an important part of any fantasy novel creation. We establish the setting in which your story takes place. Now, there are two popular tubs of fantasy world space. I'll be talking about. The first most popular fantasy world top is a fantasy world that is established in the real-world. It could be at any time period, but it is the real-world. The places are the same, the people taught much the same, the culture is very much the same. There are two main reasons that writers use this world space. The first is it opens up a whole new dimension to will that we are familiar with. It's quite wonderful to imagine that beyond a certain forest or through a certain door, we enter a world space that is not too different from ours, but so much more wonderful. Then there is the other reason, which is it allows a lot of the worldbuilding to already be done. A reader can easily imagine the world they live in and just adding some fantastic elements to make it that much more exciting. The second type of world space is the one way. Everything is created from imagination. The places, the people, the culture itself. Everything is created from scratch. Everything is fictional. Even though there are some similarities between that fictional story and perhaps some real-world events. And the reason that many writers use this world space is because it allows them to introduce elements that are entirely their own to create an entire world space for a reader to escape into the radical come up of creatures that are specific, spacial to the story. They can create spells, they can create incredible technology. The list goes on. When it comes to using a more real-world setting. There is some limits that we have to set in order to make sure that it fits in the real-world space. With that explained, Let's talk about fantasy world building. And personally, this is one of my favorite parts of writing a fantasy novel. All it really comes down to is asking herself many questions to help establish important aspects of your story and willed space. One of the first questions is, will you be building a fantasy world set in the Dark Ages when a modern, almost futuristic world. This is the first question, are certainly ask myself when creating an imaginary world. Sometimes my decided we'll doesn't fall exactly into one of the two categories, but it helps when choosing which way it leans towards more. Does it have cars or horses, swords or guns? These questions are quickly answered by setting an error for your story. The second most important question is, does it have magic or not? Because this can decide the various elements and the way things act in your world space. E.g. magic can extend from fantastic creatures to spells, to even technology. When it comes to fantasy world spaces, there are so many ways that magic and influence the elements that make up the world. So you have to decide, do you want something that's more gritty and down to earth? In which case, you'll use magic a lot less or just not use it at all. But if you want to create something that's more fantastical, more dreamlike, the inclusion of magic needs to be apt. E.g. magical be a fundamental part of every person's laugh. Or there can be plenty of figures in your world space that use magic. Now on the subject of magic, your next question is, if you do include it in your story, what are the limits to your magical system? Magical systems are only fun and interesting. If they are limits placed upon them. There could be a variety of spells, but at the same time, they shouldn't be expelled for every situation, making everything a problem that can be easily solved. At the same term, magic shouldn't be so powerful that anybody could use it to takeover world space. There needs to be some limits on your magical system to maintain those stakes, to maintain that suspension of disbelief. Now let's say you have chosen a world space that's based in reality. In which case you might create what is known as an alternative reality with a history is different. Perhaps a monumental decision in the past was influenced by the fantastic elements in your story. If that is the case, you need to consider history and culture. You have to decide who lives and who dies in the past in order to influence this reality. Of course, that only changes a few aspects of the world, noticeable or not. You need then decide how far you are willing to take it. Perhaps there is a cataclysmic event and not the world going through another S-H. Remnants of history can also be found an alternative realities. So choosing how far back the change happens will help. Now that we've talked about the different fantasy worlds that one can create, I'm going to give you some advice when creating your fantasy world that helps you in the writing process as well. First, it cannot simply set with describing how the world looks. It is a common mistake beginners make in building their world. Deciding how place or person looks doesn't properly set the scene. What does set the scene is the way the characters speak and what actions they take in their daily lives. What societal terms fill the world? E.g. if you're going to set your story in a dark fantasy world space, you need to include the elements that make it up. Just the look of the elements. That means bringing your world to laugh or your characters tending to horses and sharpening sold. What are the sounds and smells that make up the world space? All of these elements you want to use in a novel as soon as possible to help build the world space for the reader. The sooner they become immersed, the more attached they will become to the world space. And there are so many more elements to discuss, whether your workspace as a king or a president. What is the ruling system over your society? Finally, language, the way the characters speak really shows the time they live in. More formal language is used in older periods. So if we'd lingo, if that is what you're aiming for. If you have a more modern space, of course, you can have more fun with the language, including more modern slang. Language is one of the most difficult things to master for most writers. Because when you're writing something that's set in a moment of evil period, it's very easy to slip in more modern speech because that's simply what we are used to. It's another reason that a lot of writers like to settle into a world space that set and now Tom period, because we can include sentences and lands that they would use. That's why a lot of writers like to create a world space that is set in our time period. Because we can include speech that we are used to instead of trying to compress speech that best fits that time period. Then there you have it. Your project for this lesson is simply to sit down for a few days and think about the elements that make up your workspace. You don't necessarily have to write things out in your story as you go just yet. But take a moment to really consider what makes up your workspace. What does it look like? How do things operate? What are some of the mundane jobs that characters can take up? Ask yourself what the small elements in your world space are, not just the bigger ones. As you ask these questions and list out these details, you'll have a deeper understanding of your world space than the surface level understanding that you might have now. And while you might not include many of these details in your world space, does help to know them because it can help you establish settings a lot better. Now in the next lesson, we'll be talking about the protagonists in fantasy stories. I'll see you then. Bye for now. 4. Fantasy Protagonists | Writing Fantasy for Beginners: Hello and welcome back to your fantasy story you're writing course. In this lesson, I'll be talking about the protagonists that are popular in the fantasy genre. Now this is main characters and sad characters in the protagonists group. And I'm not gonna go too in depth into this discussion because I understand that your story is your own. There are many elements that you already have in mind when it comes to your main characters, but protagonist and antagonist. For these next two videos, I'm simply going to talk about the combinations of characters, the popular personality types, things like that. You don't have to use any of these elements in your story. But if you are struggling to make a character that fits well in your story, having these ideas can help. I'll also be giving you some writing advice and tips on how to better convey these characters to your reader. So if you do want them to become more attached to your character, understand and better, stick around. First thing to take note of when creating a character in any genre is what their personality will be. Personality is often an influence on the plot or subplot, depending on the role of the character. To better decide to personality for your character, you must decide upon one governing trait. That trait to be what affects most of the characters decisions. And the best way to figure out what this trait will be for your character is to look at the plot you have in store for them. What role are they going to play in the story? What are their experiences? E.g. if your characters in for a tough time and they're going to be encountering many challenges and horrors. Perhaps traits such as courage or perseverance are gonna be there governing trade. With that in mind, you can show off their governing trade in the dialogue that they speak, acts they do. Once you have decided on the trait that will help develop the plot, you need to look at their face value trait and a bad trait. The face value trade is what governs how they talk most of the time, how they act on a daily basis in a more casual manner. The bad trait is their Achilles heel, which in the end is what makes them human. And working with these two traits can actually be a lot of fun when it comes to character design. E.g. a bad trait could be cowardice. Whenever they facing a tough situation, they're always looking for a way to get out of it. Yet their face value trait when there is no threats around, is actually bravery. Now that can lead to a lot of funny encounters might also be a character that's simply is a sad character who comes off as tough and strong, but really is probably the weakest one in the story, the painting on the importance of this character. They can simply learn to abandon their face value trait or overcome their bad trait. That really depends on the scenes that they plan to encounter in your story. But that's just a basic idea. Depending on the importance of this character, they might simply continued to be that way for more comedic relief or just to be an unlikable character because of their hypocrisy. Or it could be that they overcome their bad trait in the end. And this can also develop their face value trade, making them more humble and quiet than talking tough and acting tough. But right now you're probably thinking, well, these two traits seem very two-dimensional, doesn't make the character deeper. Well then we go back to our governing trait and see if we can use that in combination of these two traits to make it something very interesting. So e.g. let's take this brave colleague of ours and make their governing trade an intense desire to protect their family. So you have a character who is cowardly, sneaky, not very likeable because of their hypocrisy. But when it comes to their family, they easily abandon their bad trait and they really become a stand-up character. And suddenly we have a lot more interesting of a character because we have something that's less of a comedic break on a likable character. We have a character that is admirable in some sense, even though most of the time they don't appear So. Now appearance of your character is something I personally don't take too seriously. And rotting the way a character talks and acts as what really gets the interest of the reader. However, appearances important in its own way. Working with appearances, you can decide how this person lives, how they take care of themselves, not just how they look. And at times this does translate well to their personality. For characters who are lot more rough around the edges, they might appear, but more rough around the edges. There have a scruffy beard or may see hey, ragged clothes, things like that. Whereas more refined characters take better care of themselves. It shows in the way they dress and in the way they look. Not just the mannerisms and speech, but of course the looks can't really tell you much about a character. Sometimes the refund character is a good person, sometimes they're a bad person, same with the rough looking character. The next element we need to talk about is the protagonists moral compass. When creating a protagonist, you must decide to what limits they are bad before you make them. So e.g. they might be an anti-hero desktop character without doing bad things for good reasons. But if you push that too far, you might end up with something that's more of an antagonist and a protagonist that has to be something about a protagonist that makes them good. They are never really any truly neutral characters in books. So keep that advice and mind when writing a character. Finally, it comes down to the purpose of the protagonists. Will they help the main character or characters on a journey will be used simply as a tool for world-building and character development. And while side characters don't need to have so much depth to them, the interactions that they do. Can they become golden moments in your story? Sad characters can help develop main characters, create interesting scenes, challenge different values. You could even have a really special moment in your story that's purely between side characters. And I'd like to cap this lesson off with a very important lesson that Ireland and my writing journey. And that's that conflict is the best tool for character and plot development when a character's values are challenged when arguments arise, the most change tends to happen. If you want your character to go down a certain path, you need to challenge them on certain aspects of their lives. Not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. There are so many interactions you can create between characters that can help develop a character in a better direction or this direction. And that all comes down to understanding how conflict works and how you can use it to advantage. Conflict can easily turn a hero into a villain. Villain into a hero. Because conflict allows for lessons to be learned. And sometimes the lessons have a lasting impact on that personality. And of course, a scene with conflict is a lot more fun to write and read than one without your project for this lesson is simply to take your protagonists and list them out and decide on those three traits. Their face value trait, they're bad trait, and their governing trade. Their governing trade obviously being the one that makes them make the decisions they do in the story. In the next lesson, we'll be talking about the antagonists. I'll see you then. Bye for now. 5. Fantasy Antagonists | Writing Fantasy for Beginners: Hello and welcome to your fantasy story writing course. In this lesson, I'm going to be talking about the antagonists that appear in most fantasy novels. Like the previous lesson where I discussed the protagonists. I'll be going through the cerebral elements that can make up a, an antagonist and your story, as well as some popular tops which are used in fantasy novels today. Now the antagonist is a crucial element in any fantasy novel. Especially if you plan to write a fantasy novel that reaches a young adult audience as well. Like most fantasy writers do, the most common type of antagonist used in fantasy stories today is a character or creature that is pure evil. Because that underlines this whole balance between good versus evil. You want to have a protagonist that is captivating and interesting. But at the end of the day, you want them to be on a moral high ground as opposed to the antagonist. So that's typical phone antagonist to be this truly evil character. They look unlikeable, they act unlikeable. It could be that they are even some force of evil rather than a tangible human being or creature. And all of this underlines that good versus evil balanced that often occurs in stories. It's a lot easier to side with the protagonist when they facing off against something that's purely evil rather than something that's morally gray. That's typically in the realm of adult fantasy fiction because those are more complex stories with more complex characters. Popular antagonists you might already be familiar with include Sauron, Voldemort. Any dark lord always makes for an amazing antagonist. But you need and goes so far as to create a villain that is super powerful. Many fantasy novels written today approached the world a lot more realistically. And as such, the villainous, typically a person. Since these villains are more human, it gives the router space to give them more human aspects and evoke empathy and then protagonists and the reader. And the reason that the purely evil antagonist is used so often is because it's a lot more easy to write as well. Was a complex character. You have to look at their human aspects. Not just the reasons they're doing bad things, but also explore their emotional depths through different scenes and conflicts. However, when you just got to purely evil antagonist, they are just fulfilling that role in the story of having something to battle against. And with the complex antagonists, you do have to be a bit more in depth when you explaining their emotional or psychological trauma. That causes them to act the way they do. Writing a villain like that is very difficult, which is why it is common for writers to only really dabble with that near the end of the novel. The best way to create a more realistic human antagonist is to have the reader like them before they even found out they are the antagonist. You can introduce them with lockable quantities as a human and then pull the rug out from beneath the reader. There are a lot of writers you'd like to do this by displaying their antagonist in a good light in certain scenes. That is because not everybody has inherently bad values on every topic or in every encounter. Some people do have good values. You can have an antagonist who is truly horrible person that wants to take over the world. But at the same time they're a family person as well. By introducing a more likable element to antagonist, you make them a lot more interesting and a lot more fun to read. If you think about all the antagonists you have seen in movies, TV series, and novels. You'll find that the most memorable and enjoyable antagonists are the ones that one so completely evil that had this personality quirk to them that made them entertaining. Either you synthesized if their position on some points, you respected some of their values. Or quite simply that a personality that was amusing to read, even though their personality was a little twisted, Nothing makes an ending more generic than a villain you barely know being defeated by the protagonist and the end, you can create some conflict between the reader and the villain, not just the hero and the villain. That being said, if you are new to writing, I do recommend writing your first novel, or at least dabbling with a short story. We write a common villain example. One that is purely evil, one that is two-dimensional. Before we delve into the deeper aspects of what a villain can be. It goes without saying that if you do want to create a more likable, memorable, or impactful antagonist, you have to give them qualities that do counter the negative traits. But of course that does depend on the kind of story that you want to tell, which brings us to the project. For this lesson, it's simply to decide what kind of antagonist you want for your novel. Once you have decided upon that grocery list of traits that you want to consider for your antagonist. It can be anything from their likable qualities to the unlikeable quantities. And that brings us to the end of this lesson. The next video, we'll be discussing the emotional impact that often occurs in fantasy novels and how to evoke it in your reading. I'll see you then. Bye for now. 6. Emotion In Fantasy | Writing Fantasy for Beginners: Hello writers and welcome back to another lecture in your fantasy story writing course. In this lesson, we're gonna be talking about the emotional impacts you can create in your fantasy novel. I'll be talking about some writing methods and examples and how to get the reader more attached to the story and its characters. Now, if you want to create an emotionally impactful seen in your novel of the calf. It takes a lot of practice. In my experience, one or two novels worth of emulating emotions in writing would help you get the general idea of how to convey emotion effectively. The first thing though, you must be in mind when writing emotions is that there is no rushing. Emotions require patients in order to reach the full thing. If you are writing a horror scene, you need to lead up to the scale with proper suspense or shock. You need to allow your reader into a false sense of security or have them on the edge of the seat. But how does one create emotion in a fantasy novel? Well, the most common method and most effective, in my opinion, is to simply place yourself in the character's shoes. Because by getting a deeper perspective on your character, you'll be able to better convey their feelings and also how to better convey other character's feelings towards them. A lot of writers like to do this because when they speak through the character, they speak as that character. They think of the emotions that they would be feeling as that character with that personality. The more stoic tabs in a story will be a lot more quiet and conserved, but that leads to a lot of raging waters beneath the surface. However, was the more open and emotional characters, their reactions are a bit more impactful but more loud. They'll speak more, they will act out more. Things like that. Another great method is to place yourself in like a therapists and let the character speak to you. The way that they narrate an emotion is how you need to narrate it in your story. One of the biggest benefits you have on your side is that the reader wants to feel the emotions that you want to convey. That means if you take your time to write a paragraph Tool three, to better convey the emotions that character is feeling. A reader will begin to sympathize and attach themselves a lot easier to that character. A lot of beginner writers believed that what they tried to do when they evoke emotion is convince the reader of that character's emotion. But the reader understands the emotions that characters feel when you have logical steps that lead up to now. E.g. if one of your characters loses someone who is special to them, a reader can understand the emotions that are going through that character's mind. You don't need to hammer home the reasons. You need only emphasize the fact that they feeling that emotion. It could be in the way they move in the woods. They say the thoughts that are running through them and you need only express them simply. The reader can easily find themselves captivated by that much. And the painting on the buildup you have towards these impactful, emotional scenes. You can have an impactful emotional reaction from the reader. And there are many elements in a scene that you can talk about that can help. Hence, this feeling. In a darker scene, it could be about the negative elements that only add to their negative emotion. From the silence to the terrifying scene itself, to the idea of trait anxiety that's building up things like that. In the more positive scenes you're talking about the more positive elements in order to better convey those emotions from the sides to this smells, to the emotional state that the characters in this is something that is done in writing. It is done movies it has done and TV series. To emphasize the emotional impact, you do sometimes have to sacrifice some other elements in your story in order to stay with that emotion. I think I could talk about one great example of this being the scene that occurs in the first Lord of the Rings movie. Because those who haven't seen it, this is a sort of a spoiler moment, but at the same time, let me get through it so you can understand exactly what I'm talking about. An erotic scenes in a scene and the first movie, Frodo gets injured, P S bar, sort of an evil entity. The longer the wound is untreated, the moist slips into death and darkness to become like the evil entity that stabbed him. The next pages in the novel of intense agony in suspense as the Allies are, Frodo rush him to a safe place in order to have them treated. The sequence is suspenseful and painful to read as Frodo suffers constantly pursued by more antagonists as well, the emotions in this scene are at a high because you are following with the suspense. You're constantly being reminded of a threat. You're told that time is running out. All these elements really add to that feeling. And you can do this with every peak seen in your novel. And the reader will feel these emotions because they're not coming out of nowhere. These are emotions that last for a long period of time. It's not something that you only express in a few paragraphs. It's something that can carry over into several scenes. Yes, the pacing of the emotions in your scene is very important. And that's really in scenes where there's a lot going on and there's a lot of suspense and dread. You can add a lot of fast moments. You will paste it a lot faster. You'll get the words out a lot faster because you want the reader to understand that sense of urgency. Whereas in the happier scenes, the scenes, you will take your time to convey the message to the reader. The emotions of the characters are feeling. And the reader can feel as if they are in a break from all of the darker scenes. The emotional impact of that scene is already greater because there isn't a sense of urgency that's breaking the emotion. There's a sense of safety, of happiness and calm. And to conclude this lesson, I want to give you a writing project. You are to write two scenes. The first scene is your character entering the forest that you're going to paint in a positive light. And two to three paragraphs talk about this character walking through a forest in a positive light. Your second scene is to talk about the character walking through the forest and a negative lab. You can talk about the sounds, the smells, and how they affect the emotions of the character. In a more positive story, you're talking about the more positive elements. Now one of the tips I have for writing it is to take your time. You'll be surprised by the emotional impact. You can create those two to three paragraphs. If you really consider the emotions of the character, the elements that can help emphasize those emotions. In the next lesson, we'll be talking about law in fantasy stories. I'll see you then. Bye for now. 7. Lore | Writing Fantasy for Beginners: Hello writers and welcome to your fantasy story writing course. In this lesson, I'm going to be talking about the law that is often established in fantasy novels. Now, I've previously talked about worldbuilding and briefly mentioned low. But low is something that is so important to the world bullying process, especially if you plan on creating a fantasy will build from scratch. Without a month. Law is the history by hand, a world space. This includes many elements. It refers to the traditions, the beliefs, the history behind the world space. There are so many things that can make a world that much more realistic and investing. Now as I said, this is a lesson that will really apply to you if you plan on creating a fantasy world space from scratch. That means if you plan to have a hidden society and a real-world space, if you plan to have an alternative reality. If you plan to create an entire world from scratch, much like Middle Earth and Lord of the Rings and so many other examples. Then having low by hand your world space will help set the limits and rules that make the world a bit more realistic and thus a lot more interesting to the reader. Now, I usually like to take a deal to create an in-depth law behind my world before I start writing actual novel. Doing so allows me to have characters reference past events or follow certain rules I have sent for my imaginary universe. Of course, there have to be limitations or rules that destroying needs to follow. The world needs to be one dress, but not so unbelievable that it reads as a child's dream journal. And there are many examples of fantasy worlds spaces that have rules sent. Examples such as the Harry Potter series, The Lord of the Rings, once the Game of Thrones, mortal instrument, His Dark Materials, pneumonia, they all have limits and histories behind their world spaces. If you want to create a captivating and vibrant world for your reader, you need to include these elements. You need to think about how the world is structured and lower help you do that because it helps you establish the politics, the creatures, the walls, the societal traditions that are often referenced and employed throughout your story. As I said in that world-building lesson, you don't have to refer to all of these details in your novel. But it certainly helps establish the picture of your world space in your own mind. And thus it helps you better write your novel when you're talking about certain places and things. And the reason I take two days to figure out the law behind my world space is because I don't want some areas of my novels to be more fleshed out than others. This can lead to problems where some areas of your novel lack the quality of other areas, or worse, still, you contradict yourself. The last thing you want to do is find out that there is some element in your story that actually doesn't make sense, that doesn't work with everything else you've established. And that's something you don't want to encounter, especially late in the writing process as you grow a fanbase who will enjoy reading your next novel. They will also love to learn more about the world and how it works. Nothing will destroy it faster than some contradictions on your part. On top of that, know your limits when it comes to low because you can have way too much information the reader couldn't care less about, especially if it's not integral to your plant. So yes, having a lot of history behind your characters and the elements in your world space will make it that much more interesting. It'll feel like the world is lifting, that the reader will feel more immersed in the story as you introduce these elements. And that is a great feeling to have in any fantasy novel. And I'm sure you can think of a few fantasy novels you read that have created this feeling. By the same token, when you are creating law for your story, you shouldn't take it too far. Which is why I say you're only really talk about the elements that are integral to your plant. But if you do take it further than that and you create poorly written law that can lead to boring the retail or creating contradictions further down the line. It's better than to have no law at all than have one that confuses or noise the reader. The project for this lesson is purely optional as I do understand that some writers don't wish to create low for the world space and they already have an established setting. However, if you do want to partake in this project, it is to create a two to three paragraphs segment of writing describing the world space and its history. Now, if your ad short paragraphs, 2 to three paragraphs is not much at all. Which is why this project is also about focusing on a particular element in your world space and the law behind it, rather than the law by hand, the entire world space as a whole. And that brings us to the end of this lesson. In the next video, we'll be talking about subplots and story development. I'll see you then. Bye for now. 8. Subplots And Story Development | Writing Fantasy for Beginners: Hello and welcome to your fantasy story writing course. In this lesson, I'll be talking about subplots and story development. To begin. Subplots, in essence, are small stories told in the background of the main story. These subplots are usually related to other characters or every character if your novel doesn't have a specific main character, these shorter stories or subplots are meant to give a deeper perspective into a character that the reader has encountered. Typically, a sad character. Subplots can range in size depending on how important the main plot is. Often in most stories there is little to no subplots, instead following the main character and their overall plot. Sometimes the novel is made up of subplots and the main plot is kind of a backdrop. If the main plot is the focus of the novel, and that is where the reader's attention is centered inside characters and the readers are much in the same boat as in they are tagging along and they kind of watching from the sidelines. But when it comes to stories that includes subplots, the side characters have a more prevalent role in the story. There's subplots are also interesting. It could be about them pursuing a personal goal, about exploring their own emotional depths, are encountering another character that's truly important to them. Subplots make for very interesting stories and some readers can attest that some subplots are better than the main story itself. At the end of the day, though, it is not as important to the novel as a whole, as the main plot. As for story development, it is much like character development. With character development, we create interactions and events that grow a character, change them, and define them as the story progresses. Steroid development is the same, but in the context of progressing towards the end goal. Usually these steps to take the story further are the events and interactions that push the characters towards the end of their story. And usually a writer has a focus on one or the other when it comes to character development and Android development, a reader might notice that a character develops better and their own growth as a lot more interesting than the main plot and other stories, the character development is lacking, but the main plot is interesting. Of course, you want to apply as much attention to one as to the other. Because you want to feel that the characters make for an interesting element that grows with the story. And at the same time, you want the story to be captivating in its own way as well. Which is why this lesson is all about including both subplots and story development into the process. Subplots can help develop your main character and your main plot, making both very interesting. But subplots of course, require some certain level of attention to sad characters as well, not just the main characters that make up the story. And this can be incredibly overwhelming, especially if you're a beginner writer. Because now you not only have to manage your main characters, but other characters as well, and tell a convincing and investing story in addition to the main plot you are focusing on? Yes, what is a Paint balance giving you a sad characters, ambitions and then later tying them into the main story is a great way to get the reader more invested into a character. Like in real life. Everyone is the main character in their own story. And much like a play, it can benefit the story if there isn't one character in the spotlight. And this is something that a lot of fantasy writers understand, which is why a lot of fantasy novels, especially the grant, the ones today that are being released, tend to focus on many different characters, switching perspectives to these characters, even though they are in different places with their own stories. Because later on they are all tying together. In this world space. This way you can create a variety of interactions and characters all working together to, towards an end goal that you have devised or your novel. And when you look at it like that, what you're essentially doing is taking a full novel and breaking it down into smaller short stories that all work together towards the final short story where all the elements come together. My goal for this lesson is to help beginners realize that you don't need to focus purely on the main plot and the central character. You can easily create a book that gives the reader a break from the overall story, peaking their interest in another character. The only challenge is making subplots interesting. Adults subplot is simply padding if it adds nothing to the story or value to a side character. So for this beginner writers who feel that they've reached a point in a novel way they stuck and unsure where to go. Perhaps switching perspective and giving yourself a bigger picture will help you better explain certain aspects of your story. At the same time, creating interesting chapters and scenes for your reader to enjoy. This also helps with some writers who find their attention to the novel dwindling. They're losing interest by switching perspective to another character, by introducing a smallest story that they find interesting, they can re-ignite their passion for the normal and the base story one can tell in fantasy is one way. Every character's important. They have their time to shine. So when the story comes to its end, there are many emotions for the reader to feel that this lesson has come to an end of hope of expressed how important story development is in a novel and how subplots can be a very useful tool. It creates interests inside characters. It helps you introduce more elements to your world space. It helps you tell smaller, interesting stories to help give the world a bigger, more diverse feeling than it initially has when you only focus on the main characters. I feel that way too many beginner writers find the idea of managing subplots to be too complex, too difficult. But really it can be a useful tool that helps you tell your main story was that this lesson has come to an end. In the final lesson, I'm going to be talking about whether you should turn your novel into a series or have it remained a standalone. Because they are pros and cons to each and after that, I'll be giving you your final project as well as what comes next and how to take full advantage of this course. Once you have completed it. I'll see you then. Bye for now. 9. Series Of Not? | Writing Fantasy for Beginners: Hello and welcome to your fantasy story writing course. In this lesson, I'm going to be talking you through the pros and cons of creating a series from your fantasy novel or sticking with a standalone novel. In addition to that, I'll be giving you your final project and wait to go from yet. Now there's often a debate about whether one should turn their novel into a series of novels or have it remained a stand alone? And this is because it calls into question the amount of dedication required to that story, erotic, and dedicate themselves to creating a marvelous standalone novel. But the fact still remains that the most successful fantasy novels out there or part of an entire series rather than a single book. I've personally noticed that in the writing Market that a series of novels will sell better than a stand alone. Now this is not because a standalone is a single novel as opposed to several novels being sold. Because I have found as well that the fanbase behind a series dwindles drastically over a period of time. This means that with each novel release in a series, there's a lot less people reading those novels. A series does well because it gains more reader attention. So the first novel in a series would tend to do a lot better than a standalone novel. But at the same time, the amount of people supporting a standalone novel will be greater than that in a subsequent novels that follow the initial Navona series. Now this does depend of course, on the series and the standalone novel. But you get the idea. Interest dwindles over a series. And yes, you will gain more sales and more attention. But at the same time, you will have to do a lot more work and you'll lose more of your fan base as the series goes on. Another reason that series seem to do very well is because readers enjoy the world space the writer might grade. So if you are truly proud of the world space that you have built or the characters that you've included in your story. You might be in a good place to start a series instead of sticking with a standalone. Another reason writers like to create a series is they have the same feeling or reader feels once that novel is finished, that they wish the story could continue. If you are truly proud of your work, that is a feeling that is very powerful. And I would recommend that you see if you can write a second novel or even a third, if that energy is so strong. Another great reason to start a series than leave it as a standalone, is to consider the feeling that you feel when you finish writing your novel. If you feel that you want to continue the story, then it's obvious that you would like to start writing a series. And if a reader really enjoys your novel, they would like to read more of it. Most readers do. In fact, when it comes to a lot of standalone novels, one of the things that is reported by readers once finishing is that they would like the story to continue. They'd like to see more of the characters, see more of the world space. And this is especially prevalent in shorter novels. As opposed to thicken novels were a lot of story is being told. The reader often feels that they have been satisfied with the story and they can leave it as is. But it was short and novels, they feel that there's a lot more that can be told if only the writer were to create a second novel. Now of course, there are drawbacks to creating a series. You as a writer will be working with the same characters, again, with the same world space for another period of time. Creating several books is not easy, especially if you are trying to maintain the same quality, not jeopardizing what you have created. It is also creatively stifling to only work in the same arc. I know I don't speak only for myself when I say there are plenty of writers out there, we have more than one idea. And as I said earlier, this tends to be prevalent in shorter novels. So another factor to consider is the length of the novel that you plan to write. So if you plan to create a novel that is hundreds of thousands of words long, you'll be in for a lot of writing if you plan to turn it into a series, the next thing you need to consider is the kind of writer you want to be. It is very easy for a writer who has Tom variety. But a majority of writers will most likely have a job and other responsibilities. In which case, it may be a good decision to create shorter books and develop them into series rather than create a standalone novels that is larger. It also depends on your tastes as a writer. Some writers preferred to have standalone novels and be a standalone novel writer. And to create a series or read a series. And the final question is if you can actually turn your stand-alone novel into a series or not. There are two ways that you can check this. The first way is to consider the finality of your ending. If the Indian was truly funnel and there is no room for the story to progress than it does become a bit more difficult if you story leaves a lot in the air and introduces a lot of elements that can be further explored. The possibility of view creating a sequel is very high because there's a lot of room for you to create something new. But if you create something that is truly in depth and you cover all the elements, it does become very difficult to create a second story because you have to explore something new in a sequel. You don't want to stick with the same characters only to have them do the exact same things. You want them to do something new. You want to introduce new characters. You want to explore a new story. Otherwise, what you're creating is something that is a lot more hollow than your initial creation. My final note to this subject is more of a personal recommendation. But that is when you start writing your novel. Writer with the intention that you might create a SQL after that. If you do feel that you enjoy writing your novel, it's an experience that you long for the end of the day. That it's something that you can see yourself doing for long periods of time, then it might be wise to consider exploring different avenues, different stories that your characters might partaken, in which case, leaves some questions unanswered. Introduce characters that you can explore further in the next novel. It doesn't hurt to lay down this foundation because you never know how you feel at the end of your novel. Whether it is to keep it as a standalone or to explore it in a series that brings us to your final project for this lesson. And it's simply to plan an outline for your novel, as I've said earlier, and just start writing. If there's one piece of advice that I'd like to leave you with when it comes to that final project, is to use your inspiration to push forward with your story. Don't waste to energy going over your novel again and again and again. When you could be finishing it. A lot of writers tend to abandon their projects because they lose interest, because they keep going over the same pieces of writing rather than something new. Which is why I say that let the first draft be that ugly draft. Let it be rough around the edges of spelling, errors and contradictions and problems. Some things that you can fix in a second draft, should you have the energy to do so or through the editing process? And now auto select your module how to take full advantage of this course as I am an active instructor. Which means if you have any questions or you want to submit any of your work, please feel free to do so. As an active instructor, you will receive an answer from me very soon. If you want to take your writing to the next level, I recommend checking out my writer's workshop on Massey do author.com. In the workshop, you'll get access to every single one of my writing courses, past, present, and future. With one single payment, you'll have lifetime access to a wealth of rotting knowledge. And I talk about all sorts of aspects when it comes to writing. Not just the different genres from science fiction to thriller, but also how to write dialogue descriptive writing improved your main characters or plan effectively. And if you are a writer who feels that they need some coaching and help with their work. I recommend the coaching program where you and I worked together over a three-month period to write a novel you can be proud of. You will be able to submit your writing to me to be professionally reviewed. I'll give you feedback and guidance. And once a month, you and I have a video chat discussing your novel. So if that sounds like something you're interested in, I recommend checking out the workshop. And with that, I do look forward to reading some of your writing in the project section. I do hope you enjoyed this course and as always, good day, good and happy writing.