Browsing all articles in Writers.
Is It Better To Be A Blank Slate Or To Have Some Character?
In a recent blog post, Mark Lawrence commented on the trade offs of creating a blank slate character versus a more defined, idiosyncratic character. In the post (and I highly recommend reading the entire thing), Mark writes that for a number of fantasy readers, plot is of primary importance. For such readers, a vanilla protagonist […]
Worldbuilding: Food For The People
We all need food to live. Even in fiction, food plays a part in most stories, whether it is a simple supper at a boarding house or a grand wedding or coronation feast. In fantasy settings, most of the time it doesn’t matter where the food comes from or how it was prepared. What does […]
Five Reasons To Cast Your Novel
At the heart of every great novel are great characters. Love them or hate them, their escapades propel the narrative forward. Readers empathise with them, cheer them on and cry with them. Writers need to know how to make their characters as real as possible. Therefore, in your own writing it’s essential that you are […]
Worldbuilding: Don’t Neglect The Landscape
You have your story, your plot, your characters, sub-texts and themes. On a piece, or several, of paper you have sketched out a map, worked out the travel distances and know how long it will take the heroes to cover that distance. You’ve spent a bit of time making sure you know the types of […]
Worldbuilding A Religion – Part One: Religion vs. Cult
Those of you who have followed Fantasy-Faction for a couple of years (or pretty much since the beginning) will probably remember the Creating God series of articles by Amy Rose Davis. Creating God is an excellent introduction to creating religions in your worldbuilding, and if you haven’t delved into worldbuilding before, particularly worldbuilding a religion, […]
Is It Time To Rethink Your Bio?
“Jonny Author has been writing since he was a boy. His deep love of the elven language together with a slightly unnerving interest in all things undead saw his High School vote him ‘most likely to become a serial killer’. When not writing, Jonny spends his days practising taxidermy. Jonny likes cats and children. His […]
Different Worlds
One of the many draws of the fantasy genre is the variety of strange and wonderful worlds that the stories take place in. A reader can enter an amazing new setting in every book, but the way they are introduced to this world can alter the nature of the story. It will affect how the […]
Keeping Characters Realistic In A Fantasy Setting
The fantasy genre is about the imagination, so it might seem strange to talk about realism in your work, but hear me out. Your characters are what sell your story, especially in the fantasy genre. When the world is utterly bizarre, it is the characters that ground the story in something the reader can relate […]
In Defence of the Chosen One
One of fantasy’s most commonly mocked tropes is the chosen one. This makes sense; it’s also one of fantasy’s most recurring tropes, and there are a lot of very good reasons why it can feel like a clichéd or even lazy feature. However, I don’t think the chosen one narrative is always negative; in fact, […]
Worldbuilding: Using The Creation Story To Help Design A Belief System
Is a faith system vital to any fantasy story? Definitely. Even in a fictional setting, people need a raison d’être and comforting explanations for the mysteries of life. Religion is an excellent way to enrich a world. It provides it with clerics, shamans, priestesses, temples, oracles and prophesies. Religion is one of five main components […]
Writing Is Like LEGO and It’s Awesome
Somewhere out there, in the aether of time and space, is a scientific report waiting to be written about the links between writers and LEGO. Just about every writer I know loves LEGO, many rewarding themselves for new book deals with those huge expensive sets (I’m looking enviously at you, Adam Christopher, and your Star […]
Winner of the December 2013 Writing Contest
We’ve been getting such good feedback for the short stories our members have submitted in our Monthly Short Story Competition that we have decided to post them on the main site at a rate of about one a fortnight. Today we will be looking at the winner from our December 2013 contest. Your challenge this […]
