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    How to Write Fantasy
    How to Write Fantasy
    How to Write Fantasy
    Ebook146 pages1 hour

    How to Write Fantasy

    By Greg Strandberg

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    About this ebook

    This fantasy writing book offers tips to those who want to write fantasy books. It starts out with ideas for your fantasy world. Then it delves into a small example fantasy world. After that we’ll look at some marketing and cover ideas that might get your writing jumpstarted. From there it’s onto some actual fantasy worlds that appear in print. 

    If you’ve wanted to write fantasy but just can’t make it work, this book will give you tips. Stop dreaming of that awesome book and make it happen. Use these ideas to finally write that fantasy novel. 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGreg Strandberg
    Release dateFeb 16, 2016
    ISBN9781524234836
    How to Write Fantasy
    Author

    Greg Strandberg

    Greg Strandberg was born and raised in Helena, Montana. He graduated from the University of Montana in 2008 with a BA in History.When the American economy began to collapse Greg quickly moved to China, where he became a slave for the English language industry. After five years of that nonsense he returned to Montana in June, 2013.When not writing his blogs, novels, or web content for others, Greg enjoys reading, hiking, biking, and spending time with his wife and young son.

    Read more from Greg Strandberg

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    • 5/5
      This book is very straight forward in the analysis and method of the author's approach to book writing. The simplicity of the break down of stages of creation and writing and his willingness to share his own methodology using material he has written to illustrate are very generous and honest.

    Book preview

    How to Write Fantasy - Greg Strandberg

    HOW TO WRITE FANTASY

    Ideas to Get You Writing the Fantasy Book You’ve Always Wanted to Write

    Greg Strandberg

    Big Sky Words, Missoula

    Copyright © 2015 by Big Sky Words

    D2D Edition, 2016

    Written in the United States of America

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

    Connect with Greg Strandberg

    www.bigskywords.com

    Fiction

    The Jongurian Mission

    Trouble in Jonguria

    The Jongurian Resolution

    The Warring States

    The State of Chu

    The State of Qin

    Tarot Card Killer

    Black Walnut

    Room 223

    The Hirelings

    Wake Up, Detroit

    Ale Quest

    Nine Amusing Tales

    G.I. JOE: The Dreadnoks

    G.I. JOE: JOE Team-13

    G.I. JOE: After Infinity

    G.I. JOE: To Its Knees

    Florida Sinkholes

    Bring Back Our Girls

    Lightning

    Fire

    Dulce Base

    Colter’s Winter

    Flight 370

    Non-Fiction

    Tribes and Trappers: A History of Montana, Volume One

    Write Now! 20 Simple Strategies for Successful Writing

    English Rocks! 101 ESL Games, Activities, and Lesson Plans

    Tarot: The Mystery and the Mystique

    Write to the Top: A How To For Website Content Writing and Increasing Website Traffic

    English Last: True Accounts of Teaching in China

    Ten Minute Tarot

    Priests and Prospectors: A History of Montana, Volume Two

    Sell Your Book: 75 eBook Promotion Sites That Increase Sales

    Design Your Book: 75 eBook Cover Design Sites That Increase Sales

    Visit My Site, Bitch! Unconventional SEO Tactics for 2014

    Please Say Something! 25 Proven Ways to Get Through an Hour of ESL Teaching

    Tour Your Book: 50 eBook Promotion Sites That Increase Sales

    Teaching Abroad: Making the Move To and From ESL Teaching

    Teaching English: 25 ESL PowerPoint Ideas That Get Students Talking

    Teaching English: 10 Proven Ways to Make Shy Students Talk Now

    Bilingual Teaching: Making Your Students Ready for America Fast

    SEO & 80s Movies: An Old School Approach to SEO and Content Marketing

    Bilingual English: 25 More ESL PowerPoint Ideas That Get Students Talking

    Braves and Businessmen: A History of Montana, Volume Three

    Fun English: 10 Fast and Easy ESL Games

    From Heaven to Earth: Ancient Chinese History, 8500 – 1046 BC

    Google+ for Authors and Bloggers

    Hustlers and Homesteaders: A History of Montana, Volume Four

    Keeping Sane: English Teaching Strategies for ESL Teachers

    Stand Out: Your 2015 SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing Guidebook

    Social Media Politics: Using the Internet to Get Elected

    Feds and Farmers: A History of Montana, Volume Five

    Table of Contents

    Introduction

    Part I – How to Write Fantasy Fiction

    1: Elements of Your Fantasy World

    2: Economy of Your Fantasy World

    3: Transportation in Your Fantasy World

    4: Class-System in Your Fantasy World

    5: Entertainment in Your Fantasy World

    6: Education in Your Fantasy World

    7: Politics of Your Fantasy World

    Part II – A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Fantasy Novels

    9: How to Write a Fantasy Novel

    10: The Setting

    11: The Setting (The West)

    12: The Setting (The East)

    13: Main Characters

    14: Supporting Characters

    15: Writing a Fantasy Novel in Installments

    ––––––––

    Part III – Your Fantasy Novel’s Book Cover

    16: New Fantasy eBook Covers

    17: Three New Epic Fantasy eBook Covers

    18: New Jonguria Maps

    ––––––––

    Part IV – Writing a Fantasy Novel That Sells

    19: How to Write a Fantasy Novel That Sells

    20: The Setting

    21: The Protagonists

    22: The Antagonists

    23: The History

    24: The Timeline

    25: The Religion

    26: Characters Ideas

    27: Story Ideas

    28: The Character & Story Outline

    Conclusion

    About the Author

    Introduction

    I’ve written more than 25 novels and novelettes and several of them fall into the fantasy realm. Over the years I’ve written about writing fantasy on my website, and I figured I’d put all of that together in a way that will give you tips for writing your own fantasy novel.

    The book is structured into four parts.

    – First, we’ve going to look at various fantasy world elements that will help you come up with a cool worldbuilding idea, one that fantasy fans will know and love.

    – Next, I want to take you through a step-by-step process of creating a very simple fantasy world and the characters that inhabit it.

    – After that, it’s time I show you a bit of my own fantasy books, primarily things that will help you, like cover, map and marketing ideas.

    – Finally, I’m going to give you a detailed look at how I created a world for a fantasy trilogy that’s selling on Amazon and other eBook retailers now.

    By the time you get to the end of this book you’ll really have some good ideas of what the fantasy genre is capable of, and how you can contribute to it. So stop dreaming of that awesome fantasy book and start making it happen – begin your fantasy writing journey now!

    Part I

    How to Write Fantasy Fiction

    Over the next few chapters I want to talk about fantasy fiction.

    That’s a big topic, and I want to focus on what it takes to write fantasy. We’ll explore various aspects of world-building as well as developing characters. Here’s a list of some of the topics we’ll discuss over the next two weeks:

    – Elements of Your Fantasy World;

    – Economy of Your Fantasy World;

    – Transportation in Your Fantasy World;

    – Class-System in Your Fantasy World;

    – Entertainment in Your Fantasy World;

    – Education in Your Fantasy World;

    – Politics of Your Fantasy World.

    What we’re getting at with a lot of these points are motives. You’re learning the motives of your characters. What drives them, what makes them do things, and makes them not do things?

    These are important things to consider, and they help with character development. More than that, though, they make a good story. And stories take place in worlds, worlds of your creating, worlds of fantasy.

    Let’s get started.

    1: Elements of Your Fantasy World

    I like writing fantasy, and you must too if you’re reading this. That’s why I started this book, but I’ll say right now, there’s no way it can ever be complete.

    There are quite a few little things that I’ll miss when I do these chapters, and some have already been pointed out to me.

    – How about magic? That’s a pretty big part of most worlds.

    – Weather is another that can really do some damage to characters and stories. How will it play out in your fantasy realm?

    – What about monsters or creatures? You could have a whole menagerie that doesn’t even appear in the D&D Monster Manual!

    Mainly with elements you’re thinking of the little things, I think. These are often the big things too.

    – What are the physical laws? Do objects stay down with gravity? That’s pretty easy and you don’t think about that – unless you’re writing sci-fi, perhaps – but other laws you might want to consider.

    – Do the planets and astrology and things like the moon have any affect on your world? We could be meandering into fantasy world religion here, but it’s something to think about. If I had ships in my book, I’d consider if the world was flat or not.

    – How about the environment? Are trees being cut down at an alarming rate to fuel some pre-industrial world, or is it a hard-scrabble lifestyle that doesn’t leave much room for such earthly contemplations?

    We can get into money when we talk about economics in a later post, but it’s good to think about these things.

    Consequences

    Another thing you might want to think about are consequences.

    It’s easy to put a group of city watchmen in the path of your heroes, or villains, and mow them down. The same is true for that group of stone giants or trolls.

    Those unimportant characters have families too, and if you do manage to get

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