Comments on: Writing Fantasy Fiction

By: Andrew Butterworth

Andrew Butterworth — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:54:06 +0000

The laws and rules associated with magic is something I researched and took a lot of time over when creating my first novel. I had to define the laws of magic in order to prevent someone saying ‘Well if they can do this, this and this why is this obstacle such a great problem. Why can’t they just use magic to solve it?’ In making magic a resource of the land that can be called upon it becomes a limited resource. By also making some people better at calling this power than others it makes for a varied approach to tasks based on which character is confronted with the problem.

By: Fiona Veitch Smith

Fiona Veitch Smith — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:32:57 +0000

I don’t think so Kylie. In my view SF has to do with the technological aspect not the period (past or present).

By: Kylie

Kylie — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 09:11:26 +0000

Wouldn’t future magical realism just be science fiction?

By: The Crafty Writer finds Scordril « Lothian Dragons: Scordril

The Crafty Writer finds Scordril « Lothian Dragons: Scordril — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:38:12 +0000

[...] just for now, since we’re in the business of dragons over here, have a look at this particular post on TCW, which deals with fantasy fiction from the angle of children’s [...]

By: Fiona

Fiona — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:04:31 +0000

Thanks Willis. This post was based on a class I taught on wrting for children, so that’s why it’s so biased towards children’s literature. But as you say, the points can apply to adult fantasy as well.

By: Willis

Willis — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:47:41 +0000

This is an informative post. I think it has some good ideas, and as said before, has some things to keep in mind when you want to create something different. The idea there is to keep away from the stereotypes.

I have one little thing that bothers me. Parts of your post (mostly towards the beginning) seem to say that most of the fantasy fiction now is still children’s books. I would say that the adult fiction has grown immensely, and is just as big as the children’s fantasy. Sure it gets lumped in with Sci-fi, but the fantasy portion is still large. However, that really is not the main focus on this post. Without thinking of that, the points made here cover both children and adult fantasy.

Thank you for the post.

By: Incurable Disease of Writing | Just Write Blog Carnival August 22, 2008 Edition

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:28:06 +0000

[...] Veitch Smith presents Writing Fantasy Fiction posted at The Crafty Writer, saying, “When writing in a genre you need to know the rules [...]

By: Madison

Madison — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:17:13 +0000

I love articles like this. In a way, they remind me of what NOT to do in fantasy and sci-fi writing. I’m reading Tolkien right now just so that I can see what I have to do to make my work different from his. Of course, some people will look at what I write and automatically think of Tolkien, but most don’t really see that as far as I can tell. I always like to be different and try to be the same with my writing. So thanks for this reminder.

By: Tambra Kendall

Tambra Kendall — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:09:38 +0000

I love fantasy fiction!
I write mostly fantasy/paranormal romance but I would truly love to try my hand at YA or children’s fantasy.

Great article! Thanks so much for posting this.

Hugs,
Tambra Kendal/Keelia Greer

By: AdobeFats

AdobeFats — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 02:54:23 +0000

Writing to me has become a passion to which some find what I write as appalling use of the English language; forget the content of what I write and portray, the wish to entertain those of the same hope as I is enough to keep me going, and alive.