I wanted to write Fantasy novel but I CAN'T

[sm_yesa]

Hello guys. I've been trying to finish a novel for 3 years, my first novel is fantasy, but just from coming up with world and fantasy magic names is already hard for me, so I drop it, then I'vw written a few ones, realistic novels and managed to progress with it, I want to write fantasy and it's been 3 years and I haven't come up with anything, am I hopeless when it comes to magic and fantasy stuff or am I not cut out for it? Any Fantasy novel author out there, any tips please.

 

[Corty]

I consider fantasy my main genre and what I am successful with. If you have main points you want to hear about how I do it, ask; maybe it will help get some ideas down.

Magic names are not really important. I mostly don't even name the spells. Instead, I describe their effects on the battle and how they look. When I do name them, I usually go with something that literally describes their effects or looks or do a translation into Latin and then change the words a little to sound mystical. That's it, really.

 

[Cipiteca396]

Use placeholders for the things you have trouble with, then ask for more specific solutions once you've got the gist of it.

What do you like about fantasy? What parts do you do well? And once you know exactly what you struggle with, there's usually easy solutions. For example, name generators~.

 

[Syringe]

I highly, highly recommend reading or watching fantasy stuff to see how others do it first. Learn from what they do right and take it with you. Do you like how they built their world? Then use it as a template/guide to help you build your own.

For tips: it'll be better if you write down the things you're struggling with specifically or even broadly. A lot of people here will be more than willing to lend you a hand.

 

[RynnTheTired]

Maybe it would help to start with urban fantasy? So you'd write something that's mostly realistic but has just a few fantasy elements added in. Then you could add a little more with each story and eventually work up to a full-on fantasy setting.

 

[Deleted member 1244]

I want to write fantasy

Why?

 

[Kureous]

You can. Believe in yourself.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Hello guys. I've been trying to finish a novel for 3 years, my first novel is fantasy, but just from coming up with world and fantasy magic names is already hard for me, so I drop it, then I'vw written a few ones, realistic novels and managed to progress with it, I want to write fantasy and it's been 3 years and I haven't come up with anything, am I hopeless when it comes to magic and fantasy stuff or am I not cut out for it? Any Fantasy novel author out there, any tips please.

Maybe try Scifi?

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Fantasy is just another word for Alternate Physics.

Do you enjoy power gaming TTRPGs? No? Maybe this ain't for you.
Otherwise, steal someone else's idea and make it your own.

Look, Fantasy is just the backdrop. Take any other story you wrote and swap out phones for Talkie stones, Fire bolts for bullets, and Elves for the Swedish Bikini Team.

add in a healthy amount of rocket tag and then used that as the BACKDROP for whatever your story is about.

Look. Read HKN. It is a Fantasy. However, none of the plot lines have much to do with the fantasy. It's about racism. Intolerance. Being born a hero vrs being evil and having to fight to overcome your nature. Its about loss, and fathers and sons having terrible relationships and the mistakes made when people don't communicate.


Yes, there is magic and a demon lord and a western European ambient setting, but that's just the backdrop. I could have changed the magic into psionics, the demon lord into UltraTyrant, and set it in dystopian nuclear hellscape and out fit the MC with cybernetics instead of magical tattoos carved into his flesh.

The story would be the same.

Fantasy is just the Skin you put over the framework of a story, not a story itself.

 

[Rhaps]

When in doubt, plagiarize dnd, it is always okay.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

When in doubt, plagiarize dnd, it is always okay.

P&P, prisons and pythons.

 

[Jemini]

I consider fantasy my main genre and what I am successful with. If you have main points you want to hear about how I do it, ask; maybe it will help get some ideas down.

Magic names are not really important. I mostly don't even name the spells. Instead, I describe their effects on the battle and how they look. When I do name them, I usually go with something that literally describes their effects or looks or do a translation into Latin and then change the words a little to sound mystical. That's it, really.

All of this advice is good, but another option on the extreme other end is to go full Tolkein and create your own language, then do exactly as Courty just said to do with Latin except with the language you created.

The nice added benefit of this is that you can also use this to come up with character and place names. Most names, if you look back at the name origins, are actually incredibly and often times painfully descriptive in the language it came from. There are still a few names like this in English, primarily as last names that describe a profession. Everyone knows the name "Smith" for example. There's also others like Booker or Hatter.

Same goes for place names. Place names were actually even more painfully descriptive in their native language. They are either named after the person who founded them, or after some prominent geological figure nearby.

There's also an option between the two that cheats and gets the best of both worlds. Just choose a dead language and use that in the same way you'd use a created language. I actually named a town in one of my series "Astalan Recen," which means "Still Water" in Old English. (And I actually do mean Old English, as opposed to the Renaissance English from the Shakespearian era which a lot of people confuse and miss-name as Old English. I'm talking the original English that was spoken by the Angelo Saxons who were the first to arrive in and populate Brittan.)

 

[TheEldritchGod]

P&P, prisons and pythons.

Nah... Go hardcore.
Macho Women With Guns.
Tunnels and Trolls
Battlelords of the 23rd century.

I worked on that last one. I have the record for the most characters killed in playtesting.

 

[LuoirM]

Naruto and One Piece also have a bad world and bad system in the beginning but expand as the story went and author felt like it.
Still bad, but ppl love it.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Naruto and One Piece also have a bad world and bad system in the beginning but expand as the story went and author felt like it.
Still bad, but ppl love it.

 

[Lomyril]

Sometimes, simplicity is best.

https://www.themarysue.com/peanuts-batman-len-wein/

'Nuff said.

 

[Hard_Persimmon]

I have a seperate document that holds the current character level and equipment. Important stuff that needs to be changed or mention semi-regularly should be stored for ease of acces. As for names? just keep it simply and brainstorm a few things. For example, one of the skills my main character made was a crescent slash so I named it ecliptic slash. Another skill that aids in healing and mana recovery is called harmonic breath.

just keep it simple and to the point, that's my advice

 

[HelloHound]

I have a similar issue with sci fi

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Ya know, you could get a co-author.
I've thought about it myself. My weakness is Fluff text. I just suck at fluff. Descriptions of any sort are always barebones for me. I tell myself it's because I picture everything as a generically drawn manga, but the truth is, just don't do fluff. I do meat. Raw, barely-cooked rare and bloody five-pound steak. I do world-building standing on my head. Character development for days. I can make you cry over the destruction of a bottle of lighter fluid. Yet, for some reason, I just suck at character, location, and item descriptions.

I don't like wasting the reader's time and I see fluff as just that. Filler. It would certainly help if I had someone who was good at fluff to soften the hard edges of my stories. Maybe that could help you as well.

 

[Izumi_Kenshu]

Hello guys. I've been trying to finish a novel for 3 years, my first novel is fantasy, but just from coming up with world and fantasy magic names is already hard for me, so I drop it, then I'vw written a few ones, realistic novels and managed to progress with it, I want to write fantasy and it's been 3 years and I haven't come up with anything, am I hopeless when it comes to magic and fantasy stuff or am I not cut out for it? Any Fantasy novel author out there, any tips please.

What makes me delve into writing my Dark Fantasy novel is inspiration from other media and Dedication in the hope it can be completed. In your case, you may be the sparks that ignite your Imagination and vision for your Fantasy world. Try to watch fantasy movies and Anime (ex: Re: Zero, Harry Potter, Rising of the Shield hero, and more.) Harry Potter is a go-to move to introduce yourself to what makes our reality different from Fantasy. You may have thought of it already, maybe try to brainstorm by asking, What is the world about? Was magic legal or illegal? Who is your Protagonist and Antagonist? What is your Fantasy setting?

Sorry if I wasn't of help in your situation, But hey, a fantasy story can be anything. You can go wild with your world and character like Gods and Cults as your antagonist.