Writing Fantasy

Unfortunately, this can lead to fantasy that is so archetypical that it seems derivative. Yes, there are some conventions that you violate at your peril, but breaking new ground in writing fantasy is much harder than the novice might believe.

The Cardinal Rule of Writing Fantasy - Get the Magic Right

In writing fantasy, you have the freedom to invent your own system of magic. Is the magic in your world based on the mental powers of a highly trained cadre of specialists? Is it based on magical implements that if possessed can give the bearer certain powers? Or is it a cookbook approach to objects, forces, spoken formula and so on?

Whatever approach to magic you decide on, you must employ it consistently throughout the story. And the cost of magic should not change; if a particular spell depletes a mage's power at a cost of three days of magic-less exhaustion, for instance, having the mage use a special tea to increase his capability so that he can deploy the spell multiple times during a major battle is cheating yourself and your reader.

Passing the Buck

One area where fantasy typically passes the buck is in the origins of their magical systems. Perhaps an ancient sword was imbued with the ability to give the bearer overwhelming strength in battle. Perhaps the story even tells you who forged the sword and gave it its particular powers. But the story is quite likely to ignore how the forger got his power and where it springs from.

One example is the magical system in Dave Duncan's Kings' Blades series. In this series, the Kings of Chivial have a cadre of bodyguards called the King's Blades. They are bound to the king via a magical ceremony in which the king (or another 'ward', if the King allows another to bind a Blade) drives a sword through the Blades' heart; if the Blade survives the ceremony, he is bound magically to total and complete loyalty to his 'ward', and will do anything to protect him/her.

While these novels are fascinating, they have never uncovered the origins of this magical system. Who first discovered that a sword through the heart, over appropriate magical symbols and after appropriate rites and rituals, would not only be survivable, but would result in fantastic and unshakable loyalty?

Fantasy Worlds

Sean Russell's "The Initiate Brother" is set on a unique world

Most modern fantasy today is set in a quasi-Europe at approximately the Middle Ages. Thus, there are hereditary rulers, people travel by wagon or a-horseback, non-magicals defend themselves with swords or bows, etc. While this is familiar enough that it requires no justification, it also can seem a little stale, particularly if your understanding of the period is limited to what you yourself have read in fantasies.

If you find the feudal system boring or hackneyed, why not modify early Dutch capitalism for your world-model? Or the city-states of ancient Greece? Sean Russell, one of the most inventive practitioners in writing fantasy today, created the lush and mannered The Initiate Brother, a story which very clearly evokes medieval Japan, a welcome change to all the castles, keeps and lordlings so common in fantasy today.