Flavor of the Month: Fascinating Fantasy

Posted 14 Years Ago

1)Some people do best when they write every day; others do best when they write in short, intense bursts with plenty of "down time" to recharge both halves of the brain in between.

2) I don't think it's necessary to actually write short stories about a setting first (my own short stories came after the novel in which I first used that setting), but it is definitely a good idea to do something to become comfortable, as you say, with the world you're writing about. That probably does a lot to prevent over-description of setting, too.

3) "Normal" and "relatable" are relative terms. What is normal for me is possibly not normal for you, or for the next person who reads this lesson. If the author can relate to the characters, though, that is sure to make the writing better - makes it easier to get inside the characters' heads and thus easier to describe their emotions and motivations as well as their actions.

4) If you like fantasy novels that talk about food, you should read Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos novels. He always talks about what the characters ate; one novel in that series even begins each chapter with a detailed description of a meal - almost detailed enough to serve as recipes for those foods.

5) What if a warm style with conversational diction isn't appropriate for the story that is being told? It absolutely would NOT have worked for any of the stories that H. P. Lovecraft wrote, just as one example. And while I generally like medium-to-long complex sentences myself (I was once accused of writing like Faulkner, even though I'd never read anything by him), sometimes that isn't appropriate, either. Occasionally, the most basic noun-verb-object sentences - or even just noun-verb - convey the scene better.