If you are planning to work on your first fantasy book, there are several mistakes that you must avoid at all costs. Without further ado, let us jump straight to the list of mistakes to avoid when writing fantasy. By following the tips, you will see a massive improvement in your writing soon.
Read on to learn more.
Planning Every Single Thing
The first mistake that you should avoid is planning out every single thing before you even start to write. Of course, fantasy requires a lot of planning and structure because – depending on whether you are writing high or low fantasy – you will basically be creating an entire world.
On that note, the structure of your story is actually the skeleton that will give shape to your story. This aspect perfectly exhibits why it is incredibly important to have structure. Of course, you would like to have everything figured out so that you can feel like you have solid ground when you are writing.
But you should know that you don’t need to plan out every single detail before you start the writing project. The thing is that if your story has no breathing room left, it can actually disrupt the book’s natural flow, which can also potentially close you off to opportunities that you might not realize now but you might realize later on.
So, you want to create a rough outline but leave chances of flexibility down the road.
Not Paying Attention to the Cover
It doesn’t matter how amazing your fantasy story is if you don’t pay attention to the cover of your book. Why, you might ask? Well, the reason is as simple as this: your potential readers will judge your book by its cover first before they even click on it or open it.
No matter what the world says – readers judge a book by its cover first. We recommend hiring one of the best fantasy book cover artists to ensure that your book cover is appealing and that your ideal readers will feel attracted to opening and reading your book.
Ideally, the book cover of your fantasy book should address the following aspects:
- It should resonate with your fantasy story
- It should exhibit some of the magical aspects
- It should reflect the mood of your book
- It should reflect the contemporary trend of the genre’s cover design
- I should reflect the right emotional tone
Simply put, your ideal readers should know what they are dealing with by the cover of your book alone. On that note, if you don’t pay attention to the cover, you might set yourself up for failure in this genre.
Having A Slow Start
If you are an aspiring writer who is trying to get into the fantasy genre, the worst thing you can do to your potential reader is to start slow. Here is the thing: you should try to make the beginning of the story as interesting as possible. In fact, the beginning of the story should be intriguing enough to hook your readers where they will want to keep on reading.
The first chapter of your fantasy book will pretty much decide the fate of your book. Your opening should include a ton of tension and unanswered questions in the minds of your readers. In other words, you should jump right into action and supply your readers with a bunch of unanswered questions so that you have your readers hooked on the fantasy book right from the start.
The point is that instead of a slow start, you need to deliver enough intrigue and questions to keep your readers reading and turning the next page. If you start slow with the history of the land or the monologue of some random character, you will be putting your readers to sleep.
Also, avoid long, indulgent paragraphs that are packed with boring descriptions, as these are going to fail to maintain the interest of your ideal readers.
Info Dumping
No matter what you do, you should never dump information. Of course, you might have heard about this advice before, as this is pretty basic advice. But – you might be surprised to know that even the best authors are prone to dumping information on their readers sometimes.
The thing is that you should try to avoid it as much as you can. You might feel the urge to explain the history and give a detailed explanation of the plot and the direction in which things will be going right from the start of the book, but it will make your first chapter sound like a history lesson.
The detailed description of your magical world will never interest your readers until they are well-acquainted with the protagonist and the plot. A great way to build your world is by giving small details that can be unraveled as the plot moves along.
By doing so, you can make everything in your book flow much more naturally. Keep in mind that during the beginning stages of your fantasy book, the readers will have no idea about what you have to offer them as a writer. So, your objective should be to awe your readers with your entire book rather than providing them with a boring history lesson.
Not Setting Limitations
Another mistake to avoid as a newbie fantasy writer is not to set magical limitations. The thing is that you need limitations in place. Many aspiring fantasy writers run into issues when they craft their magic system. The underlying cause is that mainly these aspiring writers do not have any defined repercussions of magical use in their narrative.
Of course, magic will be a mandatory element of your fantasy book, but you must ensure that every magical element has a consequence, too. You also need a way to explain this limitation to your readers because if you don’t, it will look as if magic can fix whatever, and there is no downside to using it.
This aspect eliminates the elements of suspense and danger, which will then take away from the integrity of your story. Also, you should know that overpowering characters are incredibly boring to readers.
