Writing Fantasy: How To Draft Your Novel

1. Lesson #1: Introduction: Hello there. I hope you're doing well. Welcome to how to write fantasy drafting your novel. I am so happy to have you here. My name is Melody Daniel Luna and I am a fantasy writer, and soon I will be able to call myself a fantasy author. My current work in progress is the Sun and Moon Saga, which is going to be a 13 book Hi Fantasy. Siri's. I am currently in the process of finalizing the first broke in the saga, which is titled Aurora and Luna. If you would like to read my work, the prologue of the first book is available to the public on my blawg, www dot melody daniel ona dot com. And if the prologue picture interest, then please join us on Patri on where you can read an early edition of the book. I am currently in the process of finalizing my novel. It has been through several rounds of revisions and edits, and now I'm just putting along those finishing touches, and once I have completed the finishing touches, I will seek publication. The links to my patri on and my website and everything else will be somewhere around here I'm sure this is my first skill share course that I'm making so bear with. But that's enough about me. This course is about you and your fantasy story, the fantasy story that you want to write. But perhaps you're having a little trouble getting started. In this course. I will be going through some of the Khanum blocks aspiring fantasy writers face as they attempt to put words to paper or, more commonly, a word document as they draft their manuscript. If you're ready to get started, then move right along to the next lesson where I will be discussing what the's common blocks are. 2. Lesson #2: Common Writer's Blocks: Hello again. Welcome to lessen to where we will be discussing common writers blocks. Now I need to make a disclaimer here. I don't actually believe in writer's block. I think Writer's block is an excuse. We tell ourselves when we get in the way of her own writing. But more on that later. In another lesson in this lesson, we're going to discuss common things, external things that do get in the way of our writing, particularly in the realm of writing fantasy. Once again, I think the idea of writer's block Ah, plague that hits writers randomly and holds their creative flow. I think that this is made up, and I think we use it to excuse ourselves from writing and creating, probably out of fear and security, laziness or something off the like. That being said, I do believe that our internal struggle with writer's block is often projected onto external things, and the struggle that can arise out of this is very riel. So this isn't to invalidate any struggle you've had with getting into the flow space. One attempting to draft a novel. There are some very real external barriers that get in the way of writing, especially for a first time writer. Thes external barriers are probably limitless, but some common ones are lack of ideas generally AH, lack of time or poor time management, lack of knowledge, skill, expertise, overwhelm of building a fantasy world, the geography, the history, the lore, the magic system and so on struggle with creating a diverse cast of characters, lack of plot or lack of compelling plot perfectionism, which is really just procrastination in disguise, being overly self critical, struggle with focus and struggle with completion. Which of these do you feel trips you up the most. You will likely have a few that you struggle with more than others. For me personally, I struggled with all of these in the early days of writing, except for perhaps character development, because I'm a naturally more empathetic individual. But most of these posed as very real gatekeepers between me and drafting my manuscript. In this course, we will go through every one of these all too common writers blocks, and I will teach you how to overcome them. If you don't leave this course ready to draft your fantasy novel, I'll eat my hat. And they're not even wearing a hat today, which actually isn't too common. I typically wear a hat 3. Lesson #3: Generating The Idea: hello there and welcome to lessen three, which is all about how to come up with ideas for fantasy stories. And also I have put on a hat for you because, I mean, I think it suits the outfit. But more importantly, if this course does not help you get started in drafting your fantasy novel, I will eat this hat. Writers often struggled to generate ideas for stories, and for many, even if they have ideas, they may struggle to choose which one they're going to focus on. As writing a novel takes a long time, it is crucial that we pick an idea that we are genuinely and deeply passionate about. If we're not intrinsically motivated to write our novel, it's not very likely that it's going to get Britain. And even if it does, the process is probably going to be fairly miserable. In this lesson. I will teach you how to generate ideas that you are passionate about, and I will share my golden rule for choosing which ideas to follow through with. So first, how do we generate ideas? Ideas don't usually come out of nowhere. Ideas are built upon other ideas, or maybe they're a combination of two or more ideas. So what I'm saying here is this You can't just sit in front of your word document and wait for a genius idea to come to you. You have tow actively create your genius idea. What I'm going to suggest is that if you don't already have an idea for a story and nothing that you're passionate about seems to be coming to you. The now is likely not the time to get started with your story. Now is the time to live your life. Now a disclaimer here. This isn't to say that you shouldn't be writing, nor is it to say that you shouldn't stop taking this course. Please keep writing. Even if you haven't yet found this story, you'll be better practiced in your craft when the right idea comes along and you may stumble across a genius idea by free writing. If you're not writing because you're struggling to generate ideas, I would recommend writing fan fiction. Pick a phantom you love for me. It would be Harry Potter or Star Wars and write fan fiction. Not only will this be enjoyable and fun, but it will also prove itself is quite useful down the road because you will have practiced the craft of writing. If fan fiction isn't your thing, you could also keep a daily journal. You could either treat this like a diary or you could free right If you struggled a free right, I recommend looking up some writing prompts. There are endless writing prompts on social media sites like Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram. Even if you haven't found the idea yet, there is still so much value in writing for the sake of writing. I just wanted to make that disclaimer here. I'm not dissuading you from practicing your craft or from writing. But if you haven't found the idea yet, then you do need to do a little bit of research and development and this gets us back onto the topic of living your life. The ideas that appeal to us most speak to us on a personal level in some way. So while I do value creativity above all, I also value being a consumer of creativity as well. And I also value I immensely value being a student in the school off life. If you aren't sure what you want to write that. I think it would be wise to do some research and development. And what I mean by this is get curious about what you're curious about. Here are some ways I recommend doing this. Number one read. You're a writer, so you probably read if you don't read well, it's time to start. Read anything that piques your interest. It is likely that you will want to write something similar when you particularly enjoy a book. Write down what it is you enjoyed about it. I recommend you read books in the fantasy genre because that is presumably what you are aspiring to write but don't feel limited to it either. You can take things from any genre, and in fact, being innovative usually leads to better results. I also recommend you re read books that you loved as a child, as they probably spoke to you and impact do you on a very deep level. Once you've read a few books you enjoy. Look at the list of things you enjoyed about these books and ask yourself, How can you write a story that combines these elements together? You may not be able to combine every aspect into one story. But this exercise will certainly help you generate new ideas. For example, in the early days of my writing, people would often ask me about my book on. I would tell them it's a politically charged high fantasy story, so it's kind of like Harry Potter meets Game of Thrones. And this was true. I knew from my love of Game of Thrones and hunger games that I wanted to write something political. But I knew from my love of Harry Potter and my love of old folklore that I wanted the story to be fantastical and magical. I was combining these two elements that both interested me deeply together. You can also apply this practice of looking at what you enjoy to not just books, but film, video games and any other sort of media you enjoy. For example, my love of animated Disney Classics definitely crept into Aurora and Luna. Another example. The Elder scrolls. They inspired much of the world building of my fantasy world, and that, for those of you don't know, is a high fantasy video game, Siri's. While books will probably be your main source of inspiration, you can pull inspiration from anywhere. Which brings me to my next point number two. Learning What subjects fascinate you? Is there some niche interest you've always wanted to learn more about? Or that perhaps you already know a lot about if you're ahead of the game? This interest should likely appear in your novel. For example, long before I drafted Aurora and Luna, I was fascinated by space, which craft and medieval history. The's interests didn't really creep into my book, but rather they formed the premise itself. I also believe that it is no coincidence that I generated my idea for the sun and Moon saga right after my first year of college, where I studied psychology, political philosophy and our theory and literature as thes. Three things had a monumental impact on my story. So if you are curious about something, maybe it's trains. Maybe it's fashion. Maybe it's women in history. I implore you to learn more about this thing. Read books on the subject, washed documentaries. Take a skill share class. Indulge in your obsession. If you do this enough, especially if you combine a few niche interests together, it is guaranteed to lead to an idea worthy of your time and penmanship. Number three experience and finally and probably most importantly, you want to consider your personal life experience. What experiences both the good and the bad have shaped and impacted you the most in life. It is likely that you will want to integrate thes into your story in some way. I'm not saying that you have to write an autobiography here, but certainly you have faced some hardship in life that you can use as fuel for your writing. And as someone that did this themselves, I can say that writing about the hardship that you went through is one of the most therapeutic things you could do. It adds meaning to the pain and struggle. The key is to ensure that you're taking enough creative liberty with it that you feel comfortable. For example, I always felt like an outsider growing up, as did my protagonist over green. But the ways in which we experience this pain, although they allude to each other, are very different. I was excluded and bullied in the mundane world, as many Children are, but I did not copy and paste this experience into my novel. Instead, I channeled the feelings I went through into writing Aurora Greens experience, which was much different, a much more extreme than my own, as she is a princess dealing with so much more pressure than I ever dealt with. And she is living in a magical, high fantasy world. How much you disclose is entirely up to you. But the reason why I think utilizing your personal experience is important is because it makes for a more authentic reading experience, as you have a deep understanding for what the characters are going through. Furthermore, it will make the story more meaningful to you, and you'll be more intrinsically motivated to write. So even though we're writing in fantasy worlds, it's important to make sure that the emotions and experiences of the characters are, well, human. Otherwise, you will struggle to engage in your story, and you can bet that if you are struggling to engage, your readers will to thes air just a few ways to come up with innovative, powerful and meaningful ideas. While I encourage writing for the sake of writing, it is crucial to choose an idea that you were genuinely passionate about otherwise. Drafting the manuscript will be much harder and much less enjoyable. Now I'll share my golden rule for choosing which creative idea to follow through with if you have more than one idea and you were struggling to decide which one act on. And this advice applies to not only writers but creatives of all types. I always advised to pick the one that you are the most passionate about. And maybe that seems a little bit silly or a little bit abstract because, I mean, how do you even define passion? But really, the best way to tell which one you're most passionate about is what is the idea that if no one was gonna pay you any money to write it, no one was ever want to read it? You were literally just going to write it for you, which is the idea that you would still be the most motivated to write. That is the idea you should pick. So if you're thinking about writing one story because you think it will sell better than this other story that you're more excited by, then you definitely want to pick the thing that you're more excited by. It may seem like the less wise decision, but it will be a lot more enjoyable to write. It will be a lot more meaningful to you, so you'll probably do a better job of the writing. And you'll have a lot more fun promoting the book once it's done. And you'll have a much deeper sense of satisfaction. There are just, actually probably infinite amount of reasons as to why you should pick the idea that you're the most passionate about, um, so I'll stop there. But that is my golden rule for choosing which idea I act on as I am, someone that's very creative in a myriad of ways, and I have a lot of creative ideas, and I struggle to know which one I'm going to choose sometimes. So whenever I'm struggling with that, I always just ask myself, Which one would I be happy to do, even if no one was ever going to read it or see it or pay me for it or whatever? And that is the idea I act on, and that's why I'm acting on the sun and moon saga. All right, that's it for this lesson. When you feel ready, please proceed to Lesson number four, where we will discuss the resources required to draft a fantasy novel 4. Lesson #4: Recquired Resources: Hello there. And welcome to lesson number four, which is all about the resources required to draft a fantasy novel and what we can do if we lack certain resources. Fortunately for writers, there isn't a lot of start up costs to drafting your manuscript. You really only need a computer or some kind of digital device to write your book on, Although you could write longhand of Worse came to worse. And typewriters seem to be fairly trendy these days. But in all seriousness, the biggest resource you need to draft your manuscript is time as writing a novel does require a lot of time. You could also argue that one needs certain knowledge and skills and expertise to write a novel, and that this is another resource one might lack. For example, how good are you with your language of choice? How much practice have you had in creative writing? Furthermore, do you have a basic understanding of human psychology for writing character? Have you read enough books to understand what makes a good story? Ultimately, I believe all of this comes down to time as well. While some more privileged folk like myself have been blessed with a good education in today's era, there really isn't any gatekeeper getting in the way from you attaining this knowledge and learning these skills. The only real gatekeeper is time. So how are you budgeting your time? Whether you're in the research and development phase of your novel or you're actually getting started with the first draft of your manuscript, time is your most valuable asset. If you want to be successful with your writing, it is essential that you budget in a way that serves you and your goals honestly. As a Virgo. Time management is something I'm quite skilled with, and I could probably do a whole course just on time management alone. But I'll share a few strategies here to get you started. Most of us are busy working 40 hours a week, which leaves little time for writing. So what strategies can you employ to combat this? Number one work less. The first strategy is simple. Work less hours at your day job. This strategy is simple, but not possible for many people, So take it with a pinch of salt. However, if you can free up a bit more time, even just one extra day a week and dedicate that time to your writing. This is a terrific way to invest in your story. When I was drafting my manuscript, I had a period of about half a year where I was just living off of savings and doing odd jobs to earn extra cash. My focus was 100% on my manuscript during this time, and I got a lot done. Aurora and Luna is my first novel, and I wanted to dedicate my whole undivided attention to it. A manuscript is just shy of 200,000 words, so it would have taken me a lot longer to draft this. Had I not dedicated my time to the project solely. However, I understand that this is impossible for many people on. I would like to acknowledge my privilege and being able to take this route. So if you can't free up more time for writing by working less, what else can you do? Well, this leads me to tip number two, which is to say no more often. Yes, we've all heard this advice time and time again, but it really is good advice. Think about your life as a pie. The more pieces you have to cut of this pie, The smaller the pieces, you have to go around, and the smaller the pieces means the thinner you're being spread. So if your pie consists of writing work, school family, friends, television books, the gym, you can see just how small each piece is getting. It's all about prioritizing what you value, and if you try to prioritize everything than ironically, nothing will be prioritized. To put it simply, you have to say no to some things. This doesn't mean you have to chain yourself to your computer that you can't go to your friend's birthday party. But you may have to come back on television, or you may have to stop going to the bar every week with their friends. There are a lot of things we do out of habit and obligation that rob us of ER most highly valued commodity our time and thus get in the way of a writing. If writing is truly what we value and what we're passionate about, it's worth saying no to a television show or a night at the bar. Once again, this isn't to say that having fun is bad and that you can't have a life outside of writing . But everyone has a limited amount of time, and if you like most people work a day job, you will have even less time available for your writing. So how do you really want to spend it? My own time sucks that I have been forced to say no to in pursuit of my writing, our social obligations, mindless entertainment and my addiction to the Internet. But perhaps most threatening Lee was other creative projects, and this doesn't seem threatening. It seems like having other creative projects would only lead to Mawr inspiration and creativity. But in actuality, creating takes up so much time and energy that I can really only dedicate myself to a few special projects. And even then, one of them has to be the top priority for me to see progress on, have a sense of mental clarity. Now I'm not saying that I don't allow myself to see friends and family, enjoy entertainment or browse the Internet. Nor am I saying that I strictly focus on the sun and moon saga and nothing else. Obviously not as I'm making this skill share class, but what I'm saying is this? The cinnamon saga is my top priority. And if my other commitments are getting in the way of the writing of MacBook and no longer supporting this journey, I forced myself to cut them down Once again. This is not about chaining yourself to your laptop and never seeing your friends again. It's about moderation and knowing what sacrifices you need under willing to make in order to make things work. And this brings me to the third point I want to make, which is short term versus long term. There is also benefit and understanding the difference between short term practices on long term habits. If something is done in the short term, it can be done and more of a sprint, whereas if we expect something to carry out into the long term, we may need to be more prudent about our pursuits. For example, when I was taking time off to draft my novel, I was going off of savings and writing for about 10 hours a day. This was an unsustainable pace, for eventually my savings would run out, and even if I had an endless supply of money, a 10 hour work day, every day will lead to burnout eventually, even if you're doing something you love. I knew it was a short term game. My goal was to write as much as possible as fast as possible. Now let's contrast this with a current goal that I have, which is to integrate writing into my daily routine because this is a habit I want to maintain, whether I'm writing full time, working full time on medical leave, traveling through Europe, visiting the moon. All right now I'm being silly. But my point is this is a habit that I want to maintain for the rest of my life, so my expectations have to be reasonable. At a minimum. I write for 15 minutes because even if my schedule is packed, I definitely have 15 minutes to spare. Maybe 15 minutes seems a bit measly, but the key with this kind of goal is consistency and long term success. Also, I'll just clarify that when I'm speaking about writing, I'm speaking about writing something new, a Z in the drafting of my second book or working on another project, whereas I'm still doing a lot of work on the sun and moon saga every day. But it's more revision and editing XYZ that I can finalize the first book and put it out to the public. If my main writing goal right now was to draft the second book, I would probably set my goal for daily writing a little bit higher at at least an hour. But this school of writing daily is something that I want to be doing, whether my primary writing goal is drafting or revising or something entirely different. I hope that makes sense. I just wanted to clarify this specific example and why my writing goal is only 15 minutes a day. Um, it's not because I'm not working on the Sun and Moon saga all the time. It's just because right now my main goal is revision and editing and finalizing the first book. So once the main goal becomes drafting the second book, I will probably up the time. And then when it becomes revising the second book, I will lower the time, so I hope that makes sense. So back to you identify whether or not you were sprinting or running a marathon. If you were wanting to finish your manuscript in a short timeframe. Let your family and friends know that you will be busy focusing on your writing and communicate with them how they can best help you if you are wanting to live a more balanced lifestyle. But take Ah little longer to draft your manuscript. Then you can budget for a wider variety of activities outside of writing. The method you choose is up to you. There is no right or wrong. It is simply up to personal preference. I personally prefer a sprint, whether I'd be writing or doing anything else in life. I always do my best work when I can dedicate myself fully and completely to a small variety of things for a shorter period of time. What about you? Which method do you think you prefer? But that's it for this lesson. When you feel ready to proceed, join me. In the next lesson, we will discuss fantasy world building on the blocks that can come with it