10 Easy Steps to Writing a Fantasy Novel | How I Wrote My Debut Novel
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- Опубліковано 28 чер 2024
- Looking at a physical book and thinking, how on earth did you get here, can feel a little overwhelming - even I look at my own and question where it even came from. But I have a super easy way of getting my mind working when creating the world, characters and plot my stories will be based around.
The Authors Handbook, including Plot Timeline templates, Character Profile Prompts, and Chapter Summaries for a smoother writing experience here amzn.to/3J9t4AC
Here's Ten Easy Steps to Write a Fantasy Novel and begin building your story.
Step 1: Determine the Genre and Subgenre
The first step to writing a fantasy novel is to decide what type of fantasy you want to write. There are several subgenres within the fantasy genre, such as high fantasy, urban fantasy, dark fantasy, and more. This step is important because it will set the tone for the rest of your novel.
Prompt: Research different fantasy subgenres and decide which one you want to write.
Step 2: Create a Detailed World
The world your novel takes place in is a vital aspect of your story. Develop a detailed world that your characters will live in. Consider the history, geography, cultures, magic systems, and politics of your world. Your world will serve as a foundation for your story, so make it as unique and imaginative as possible.
Prompt: Create a map of your world and jot down any important details about its history, culture, and magic systems.
Step 3: Develop Your Characters
Your characters are the heart of your story. Develop your characters so that they are well-rounded and relatable. Consider their personalities, goals, strengths, weaknesses, and motivations. You should have a clear understanding of your main characters before you start writing.
Prompt: Create character profiles for your main characters, including their backstories and motivations. (There's some great journals to do this on Amazon too!)
Step 4: Outline Your Plot
Your plot should be carefully crafted and engaging. Outline the events that will occur in your story, including the inciting incident, rising action, climax, and resolution. Consider how your characters will develop throughout the story and how the plot will be resolved.
Prompt: Create an time of your plot, including the key events that will occur in each chapter. (My Authors Handbook has all of these included! amzn.to/3J9t4AC)
Step 5: Establish the Rules of Magic
If your fantasy novel involves magic, it's important to establish the rules of magic early on. Consider how magic works in your world, including its limitations, consequences, and how it affects your characters and their surroundings.
Prompt: Develop a magic system for your world, including the types of magic that exist and how it is used.
Step 6: Create a Unique Villain
A great villain can make or break a story. Create a unique and compelling villain that challenges your protagonist and adds tension to your plot. Consider the motivations, strengths, weaknesses, and backstory of your villain.
Prompt: Create a character profile for your villain, including their backstory and motivations.
Step 7: Write Engaging Dialogue
Dialogue is an essential component of any story. It helps to reveal character and advance the plot. Write dialogue that is engaging and reveals information about your characters and their motivations.
Prompt: Write a scene with dialogue between two of your main characters. Take into account the 'unspoken' words too.
Step 8: Create a Memorable Setting
Setting is an essential component of a story. Create a setting that is unique and memorable. Consider how the setting affects the story and how it is described.
Prompt: Write a scene that describes a key location in your story.
Step 9: Edit and Revise Your Work
Once you have written a draft of your novel, it's important to edit and revise your work. Read through your manuscript multiple times, looking for errors, inconsistencies, and areas where the story can be improved.
Prompt: Read through your manuscript and make a list of areas that need improvement.
Step 10: Publish Your Novel
Once you have completed your revisions, it's time to publish your novel. Consider self-publishing or submitting your manuscript to publishers or literary agents.
Prompt: Research publishing options and submit your manuscript to publishers or literary agents.
By following these ten steps, you can begin to draft a compelling and engaging fantasy novel!
Buy my Authors Handbook here: It has everything you need in order to get starter, including a timeline draft, character profiles, and chapter summaries! I earn a small royalty on these from amazon KDP! amzn.to/3TfqVIn
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0:00 Introduction
0:01 writing a fantasy book
2:02 DETERMINE THE GENRE AND SUBGENRE
3:30 DEVELOP YOUR
4:35 OUTLINE YOUR PLOT
8:19 CREATE A UNIQUE 'VILLAIN'
13:22 EDIT AND REVISE - Навчання та стиль
I struggle the most with make definitive decisions on what my characters are going to do. When and how it will start. There’s so many different ways it could go
Get to know your characters more and they’ll tell you. I’ll do a video on this bc this is something I think comes naturally as someone who studied acting and character development
@@JadeLeannexo Wow, Thank you! I wasn't expecting to inspire a video from you! I'm excited to watch it! I want to try to follow the hearts of my characters!
Going through that right now
I have many book ideas.
And with so many ideas constantly jumping around in my brain, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, exhausted, and burnt out.
So what I did was, I made a file, and I made separate folders in that file.
In each folder, I put one book idea.
Now, I have an organized list of books to write.
I’m currently focused on 3 major ideas.
1. The Mage, book 1 of the Reincarnation series.
A fantasy/action/adventure book about a boy named Yuen Vigil whose life is uprooted as he’s thrust into a dangerous and unforgiving world.
Yuen needs to learn to control his magic and find a way to hunt the antagonist through his activities in the world, and stop him from returning the nature of magic to chaos and destroying the world.
2. Fable of the Hunter.
It’s a horror/action/Mythic Fiction story about a boy named Hunter Storr and his friend Ilma Demaris.
After being attacked on a camping trip by a Pterolycus (a German flying wolf that has ice powers in this version)
They are able to wound the beast, and as it flees, Hunter gets tackled to the ground in the process, getting some Pterolycus blood in an open wound on his arm.
And as a searing pain spreads throughout his body, he loses consciousness.
A direct blood transfusion between Fae, aka Fable, and a human is supposed to be fatal, but Hunter survives for a currently unknown reason.
The rest of the story revolves around hunting the Fae that threaten humanity, eventually leading them to the main Antagonist. A dragon, determined to kill all humans in an attempt at revenge for the near extinction of the Fae.
(Plot twist, the real antagonist is the Pterolycus itself. From obscure legends in German mythology, little information actually being known about it)
3. Shadow Bound. Horror/adventure/fantasy.
Following our dual protagonists Stêrvin (Steve) Accoslan, and Alice Cilla.
I have a lot to say about this one, and it’s probably among my favorite ideas of a story I’ve ever had.
Steve is a member of an ancient race of humans who were transformed into Shadows by the antagonist “the Primordial Shadow”.
When the Primordial Shadow first emerged from the earth, it emitted vast amounts of power that obliterated the Kali’s (Steve’s race) physical forms. They were eventually “reincarnated” and transformed into living shadows by the residual power of the primordial shadow.
And when they are killed, they disappear in a white light that spreads across their bodies.
They are then reborn from the shadows as what they refer to as the Maskless (their version of "soulless"). They remain as Maskless until their masks are returned to them (duh) or any other Maskless shadow. The sigil reactivates when placed on a Maskless vessel and returns the fraction of a soul to their empty husks.
They must then rest and recover as their soul readjusts to their vessel and "regrows" as a wound might heal.
While this happens, they are completely helpless and immobile for 7 days, and are conscious but powerless for 3 weeks as they recover.
And if their masks are broken, so too are their souls, and they die for good.
Alice is linked with the Primordial Shadow in a deep way through the "Shadowmark of the Primordial", also referred to as the "Umbral Sigil".
This is a deep personal mark on the back of her neck.
One that could only have been acquired through a voluntary "union" of sorts, and my other protagonist Stêrvin (Steve) thinks that she made a pact with the Primordial Shadow to gain power, so he tries to kill her. (Steve's goal is to destroy the Primordial Shadow and all who affiliate themselves with it.
The way that she acquired this mark is complicated and not explained at the time of its discovery.
This "union" that she acquired the mark through was an intergenerational contract signed by Alice's ancient ancestor, who belonged to the cult that worshipped the Primordial Shadow.
(The cult members were spared from turning into a shadow, "darkening" as they call it)
Each generation that followed Alice's ancestor inherited the Umbral Sigil, and along with it, the contract that signed over the bearers body to be used as a vessel for the Primordial Shadow.
Due to its premature emergence back when Steve's homeland was destroyed, it still had yet to regain sentience, so the generational legacy of being a vessel was never called upon, and never fulfilled, and therefore, forgotten.
Steve calms down after understanding that Alice was born with the mark, and didn't willingly accept it.
And while I have a lot more to say about this, I’m going to cut it off here so that this comment isn’t any longer than it already is.
Well this sounds absolutely brilliant I’m excited to see where you take it!! And you absolutely must keep me updated!
in my baby stage of writing my fantasy novel and I LOVE your screenwriting background because I originally thought of my book as a show! This video was so helpful ❤ new sub! also might be re entering my fantasy era so added your book to my amazon list 😌
I’m starting a book on fantasy and this video has been pretty helpful
Hope you are writing happily !!
Have a good day❤
How’s the progress?
I know how fun it is to share, and I enjoy listening, so if you want, an update would be great.
you do not know how much helpful this was. thank you soo much.
Publishing video! Editing Stories! Here for it all ❤
Loved this!! Most useful for me was the development of the fantasy world and making a map! So clever!!
🥹love you
This is so informative thanks so much ❤
This is great! I just came back to writing again and am working on my fantasy story! I would compare my writing to others, but after watching this I feel inspired to just write! 😊
this makes me so happy!
this video was extremely helpful, thanks a lot
This is great, thank you!
thank you so much for this video, I'm sure it will help me out a lot, you gained yourself a new sub
Ahh this makes me so happy! Hopefully one of my writing workshopping together videos coming this week will be useful too!
This was so helpful, will def read your novel
thank you so much 🫶🫶🫶
great one, thank you
So Helpful. I want to read your books
Very helpful. 👍
Thanks for sharing your tips. Truly for a long time I was planning to write a book. Just didn't know how to start. Maybe this video will give me a magic kick)))
This is so exciting!! What kind of book are you wanting to write Anna? I have a new video this month on structuring stories in a three act structure! A mini exercise we do together! Xxx
@@JadeLeannexo I don't really know))) First I was thinking about thriller or some fantasy thing. But know I have one strange love story running in my mind.
@@annafoguena the possibilities are endless!
Hey!! I love this video. You have got yourself a new subscriber. Would suggest timestamps, though.
Okay. I see where your coming from when you say “I’m not the best writer out there.” True your not. Your ONE of the BEST. Pretty useful stuff because we can use parts of your methods to make our own methods.
This is super kind and definitely very generous!! Just glad I get to share!
More videos like this pleaseeeeeeeee!!!!
Writing Wednesdays series starting next week!
Yes!
You have no idea what will happen unless you know your characters
I’ve been working on this book for 4 years! I’ve written stories and poems all of my life. But this book keeps me up at night and my characters speak to me, begging to be written. I have my characters written out, and the realms written out. But I struggle with creativity striking and realizing it doesn’t fit with the rest of the book.
I would like to know more about traditional publishing.
Im still writing my first draft and i'm stuck on my middle. Having people read my book feels so far away I just want to finish my draft and get to the editing part but I think im just getting overwhelmed by how many things needs to happen and making sure i'm hitting all my plot beats.
The best tip I got was to just continue. The first draft isn't going to be perfect, and it isn't meant to be perfect. Just continue writing all the way through to the end. And then, after a few days or weeks, read through it and then check whether you hit all your plot beats. If not, you can edit them in.
To be fair, I'm struggling like mad with this too. So if I realise I've forgotten something in a part I've already written, I've prohibited myself on going back, instead making a note in my to do list, adding a line that I need to change this or that part in chapter so and so.
Since I got the above advice though, I went from never getting past chapter 2 to reaching chapter 14 in less then a month. Currently got about 45k words written down.
I love your accent! Where are you from?
thanks! and Yorkshire!
Do you read your followers ideas about their stories
If they’re in the comments yes!
What is your book called? X
A Crown of Cursed Love 💫📚
iCarly?
Might be able to find better info. But not a better accent. So please keep telling me.
Terrible advice!!
Why is no one talking abt how she kinda looks like Madison beer?? 🤭
Who is Madison Beer? 🤔
are you kidding? I love her
I love your accent! Where are you from?
Sheffield!