A couple weeks ago, I sent out a poll asking folks what they want to learn about for my next newsletter. The verdict was split between two answers: How to make your fantasy stand out in the slush; and a genre series. So I chose the latter, beginning with…you guessed it…fantasy.
But I promise that this one isn’t just for fantasy writers. Some of the concepts I’m talking about today actually apply to multiple genres in some way or another. So stick around and give it a read…especially if you want your fantasy novel to hook agents, editors, or readers.
Personally, I love fantasy. My first full-length completed manuscript was (is?) a middle grade fantasy about mermaids. At my time of writing it—during my MFA program—there wasn’t much out there in the market about mermaids, at least not in the way I was writing it…with a young male lead and vicious clans and underwater magic and a world unlike Disney’s Little Mermaid, which I grew up loving.
Fantasy sweeps us away with the questions of “what if,” and magic, and new worlds. It’s transportive, which has always been one of my driving reasons for loving the genre.
When I was working as an agent—reading slush, talking to editors often—I started to realize, however, that fantasies that felt fresh or new were extremely difficult to find. And now, when I work with writers on their fantasy query letters or novels, my singular question to them is this: how is this different from everything else that’s out there?
I remember talking to an editor in New York circa 2018, and she told me “I’m so sick of blood magic.” As trends ebb and flow, editors and agents start to see the same things in their inboxes over and over again. And, quite honestly, too many of them just feel…derivative.
That’s right, derivative. Like we have seen them over and over again. Like we have read them before and they are so similar to that other thing on our book shelves.
So how do you knock the socks off publishing people and readers, delivering something that’s actually fresh? It’s the question I have been thinking about for the last few weeks. And I think I came up with a couple solutions to try…
1. Mix up your story genre
This exploration wouldn’t be complete without mentioning my deep dive into The Story Grid, and its theories on genre. If you’ve been following me for a while, then you know I have recently been exploring this craft book, which looks at story through a different lens.
Like Save the Cat! Writes and Novel, The Story Grid looks a genre not just through the external lens of where the book will be shelved (what I call marketing genre), but through the story itself and the way it’s told. It theorizes that genre has five clover leaves: Reality, Time, Structure, Style, and Content. The way we usually think about fantasy can be found in the Reality leaf—it’s not set in our realistic world.
But the really interesting piece that maybe some fantasy writers don’t think through is the externalcontent genre they’re writing. Or maybe they do, but they all seem to pick the same one: Action. More specifically, the savior plot (hero is up against someone who wants to destroy society), and/or the rebellion plot (the hero is up against a visible tyrant).
Or, if you follow Jessica Brody’s genre classifications, then you might agree that most fantasy writers are following the “dude with a problem,” “superhero,” or “institutionalized” plots. Lately we’ve been seeing a clear uptick in fantasy with romance as a leading plot and/or subplot.
Hero saves the world. The chosen one. Or the plucky thief must join opposing sides to take down the ultimate baddie. Hero discovers they have magic and must learn to master it so they can save the world. Essentially, the broad strokes, the key moments, the structure and tropes begin to feel tired, overdone.
That doesn’t mean that if you’re writing one of these that you can’t make it stand out. There are plenty of flipping uh-maz-ing books that follow this story structure. The difference is, they have other things also happening that are making it excellent and unique (more on this later).
However, in case you need the reminder: you don’t have to write a fantasy book with one of these story genres. Some of the freshest fantasy I’ve read does something completely different: they use different story genres. Take, for example, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, which is a heist fantasy (and an ensemble cast story to boot). Or, on the subject of Bardugo, we also have her most recent adult fantasy, The Familiar, which is a society genre book about a young woman trying to rise above her station in life. A few years ago I read Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte, a YA fantasy murder mystery—in which the plot was mostly about the murder mystery itself, versus the fantastical world in which the characters lived. And sure, there were elements of political power-grabbing, but it followed the genre constraints of a murder mystery.
So what if you fell in love with a world of your making but instead of writing another chosen-one fantasy, you decided to write a prison crime story (which is all about justice and injustice told from the POV of a prisoner who must solve the riddle of how they were set up)? Or a Performance genre sports fantasy, which is all about respect vs. shame and has a main event of a big game or performance. (Tbh I’m not sure how that would look in the fantasy space, but maybe someone else could come up with something). Or maybe you have a fantasy that’s all about revenge (like Kaz Brekker in Six of Crows). The point is that maybe a place to start as you are looking at your fantasy story, is the story genre itself. Do something different.
Read more about The Story Grid genres here.
2. Strengthen your character and voice
Character and Voice may be hard to convey—or sell as a hook— in a query letter, but I guarantee this is one of the main things that agents and editors are going to be looking at when they open your first chapter. And if you aren’t getting that character and that voice on the page right from the opening page(s), you may be missing one of the essential opportunities to make your fantasy propulsive, and hook-worthy.
I just covered Voice and Interiority in my Revision Confidence workshop and studying it again was a big reminder of just how important they both are for a book to suck readers in. I love voicey protagonists. And when I was talking to editors all the time, I cannot tell you how many of them referenced being a sucker for a good voice. The thing about a strong voice is that it can just totally suck you in, make you feel like an ultimate insider in someone’s life. (Future newsletter and/or training about voice may be coming soon because it’s something I feel so strongly about!)
So then how do you make your fantasy protagonist irresistible? How do you make readers care what happens to them? Well, whether you’re writing fantasy or any other genre, the questions you need to answer are the same: Who is your character? What do they want? What is standing in their way? And what is at stake?
You character—especially in a fantasy setting, must act. They must react to the events of the story, and elicit some kind of transformation (whether in themselves or for their world or both). The fantastical backdrop/world/setting is an excellent, unique tool you can use to bring about this change. Give them world-related obstacles and wounds. Give them world-related stakes, and push them to make decisions that sway the course of the story.
In essence, your character + their obstacles and stakes + their voice is going to make your fantasy stand out from a million others like it. I think this is truly the reason why The Fourth Wing, and its protagonist, Violet Sorrengail, is so addictive. So, I suggest honing that voice into a sharp blade to wield with fervor, and making sure you have a character with a backbone to match.
3. Rethink your world-building approach
As I mentioned above, one of the biggest reason fantasy readers love fantasy is because it’s transportive. We readers get to visit places (and situations!) we don’t find ourselves in in our normal lives. We get to meet creatures that exist in fairy tales or imaginations or nightmares. We get to escape.
Unfortunately, in the majority of fantasy submissions I saw—or see, as I connect with writers—the world only feels different in one or two ways. Often they’re western/medieval-inspired, with a historical feel. Kings and queens. Witches and warriors. And the magic systems aren’t particularly new.
We have begun seeing more diversity in fantasy—cultures, races, neuro-diversities, gender identities, sexual orientations, etc.—which has been a breath of fresh air…but if that’s not something you’re able to write respectfully and confidently about, then what are some other ways you can make your world feel less derivative?
First, your world should be more than just the backdrop of the story. Though it has awesome magic and creatures and architecture…there’s more to worldbuilding than that. In order to make your world work harder you must:
• Tie it to Plot: The world must be a main plot player. Make it affect the external story.
• Tie it to Character: It is the stage for your character’s growth (internal story).
• Character(s) Interact with it: They must actually inhabit the world and actively participate in all of its elements
• Use it as a source of Tension/Conflict: Every world has innate challenges built in for your protagonist. Use them!
• Use all 5 senses
• Make it Varied: Change up the settings from scene to scene
• Make it Specific: Give things, places, plants, etc., specific names. Vagueness leaves the readers to picture their own worlds
• Make it Organic: Avoid info dumps by allowing the character to naturally observe what they would actually observe, and present the world through scene
This is how you create a world that is fully enmeshed with the story. It’s more than just “another character,” it’s a huge piece of what affects the character.
Second, try to imagine ways to make your world deeper, more interesting and unique. When I was writing my middle grade mermaid thesis in grad school, my mentor was a non-fiction picture book writer. I wondered how the heck a non-fiction picture book writer would help me write a middle grade fantasy. But holy smokes did she help me stretch my imagination when it came to my world. I remember her asking me how these characters could see underwater. Like, hello, the ocean is really dark and deep and not much light reaches below the surface. She told me to try to come up with organic ways for my world to be, using the natural constraints of the place. So, for example, she reminded me, too, that characters likely wouldn’t be drinking from a goblet under the sea. (I mean, they could, but then it’d just be copy-pasting our world to the ocean floor, which wouldn’t be realistic, nor fresh.) So I had to come up with a different way to get them to try beverages. And I did! You’d be surprised what you can come up with when you don’t just write down the first thing that comes to mind.
So—as you’re creating your worlds, try to imagine the natural constraints that your world forces upon you, and allow those rules to push your imagination further.
I’m not sure whether I’ll ever revisit my MG mermaid thesis novel, but I know I was really proud of the unique world I built in it, thanks to my mentor asking questions about the logic and rules surrounding the world.
Try to set your sights on things haven’t been done a million times. Explore concepts, cultures, places, theories, people that haven’t been previously explored. Look at tale-as-old-as-time stories through different lenses—like the villain’s POVs, or a gender-swap, culture-swap, time-period swap of another tale. Then build the world to support that POV. And let your character lead you through that world.
[If you want more world-building training, check out this book club presentation I gave about world building in Rebecca Ross’s Divine Rivals (bonus: it also includes a training about crafting a swoony romance).]
Phew! I know that was a lot. But, as you think about your fantasy, the one final piece of advice I have for you is to dig deep. Into character, into story, into the world. Push yourself harder to create something vivid and meaningful and different. That’s what will hook your readers and captivate them forever.
Next week I’ll be talking about a new genre, so stay tuned!
Happy Writing!
Karyn
How to make your fantasy stand out