WELCOME, TRAVELLER!
What frustrated me when I first started writing my first novel a few years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic was that I did not understand what ‘writing’ really was.
I had been reading books in my dad’s library ever since I could understand how sentences worked, and the adults in my life during my childhood generally described me as being good with words. Kindly ignore any hint of narcissistic pride that I have of my 8-year-old self.
Despite all that, when I first came up with the idea for my fantasy novel, I rushed to the Notes App on my barely functioning hand-me-down phone (just to clarify, I absolutely adored that little cracked device and still have it lying around in a drawer in my house) and eagerly jotted down ideas about the plot, characters, cities, histories, magic, and, of course, dragons! Go ahead, call me a stereotypical fantasy nerd, but I do have my character development eventually.
When I finally opened up a document on Microsoft Word to start working on the first chapter, I was stumped. My head throbbed as I looked through all the points I had written in my notes.
How was I supposed to turn all this random, disconnected information into a single coherent story?
After a few entire days of sulking over the disappointment that the skill of writing novels does not magically ingrain itself in ‘chosen’ individuals, I remembered that modern society did in fact have a wizard who showed up at the perfect moment every time to save the day (looking at you, Gandalf): the Internet.
I religiously studied YouTube videos and existing blogs on the art of writing, but as is typical of me, I quickly got bored. In my defence, the material was very scattered, and a lot of it felt incomplete. I will very strategically not mention the fact that my phone-addicted 2020 self did not have the attention span to watch hour-long multi-part videos on YouTube.
I stared at the empty Word document on my laptop, said "Screw it!" and just started typing out the words that came to my head. Now, I will admit that this was not the smartest move. I agree that the philosophy of ‘just do it’ is a very important step to express your creativity, but in retrospect, after four years of struggles and triumphs, I have concluded that a 'starter guide’ helps save so much time for new authors and puts them on the right trajectory.
Moreover, this guide may also serve to help authors who are already engaged in the writing process overcome phases of creative block, confusion, and even burnout by providing them with ideas on how to move forward. If nothing else, this guide can always act as a valuable supplement to the knowledge and skills of authors who are already confident in their abilities.
Thus, Quills & Realms is the starting guide—or, in more mediaeval terms, an ‘Apprentice’s Almanack’—for fantasy fiction authors. Whether you are a small-town local author looking to make it big, an enthusiast of fantasy books eager to explore the possibility of writing your own stories, a student looking to pick up a new hobby, or even a world-renowned writer like Brandon Sanderson, you are all welcome in this warm little corner of the World Wide Web.
THE APPRENTICE’S ALMANACK
This blog post is merely an introduction to a much more detailed and thorough course on fantasy-fiction writing. In this section of the blog, I will go over a brief overview of what this course is going to look like.
First and foremost, we must understand how fantasy stories are classified. There are many genres of fantasy books, movies, and games you are probably familiar with, like ‘dark fantasy’, ‘urban fantasy’, etc. However, all these genres fall into one of two main classifications of fantasy: high fantasy and low fantasy.
The distinction between the two is made on the basis of worldbuilding. High fantasy, also known as epic fantasy, involves creating a completely brand new world with its own rules, countries, races, etc. Take, for example, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone.
Low fantasy, on the other hand, involves some aspects of creative worldbuilding but is set in the real world or a world very similar to our own earth. There are fantastical elements involved, but they are more subtle as compared to High Fantasy and are more so the exception rather than the norm. A classic example is J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, but there are also many other world-renowned low fantasy stories like Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson & The Olympians and Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files.
Secondly, we must make a crucial distinction between the terms ‘writing’ and 'worldbuilding', as all future lessons will be divided into these two categories for the sake of coherence and clarity.
I am no Oxford Dictionary, and I’ll be defining the terms in a pretty subjective manner, so please don’t go and tell your English teacher that these are objectively what the words mean. I would prefer not to deal with any angry emails telling me that the true definition of writing is “the activity or skill of writing.”
The definition of ‘worldbuilding’ can help us to better understand what the term ‘writing’ means. In fantasy fiction, worldbuilding refers to the process of creating an imaginary world that serves as the setting for a story, including aspects like history, culture, geography, politics, religion, and the list goes on. It encompasses everything related to the setting of your story.
By contrast, ‘writing’ is everything outside of worldbuilding. It is concerned with weaving the various elements of a story, such as characters, narratives, dialogues, etc., into the unique fantastical setting of the world. Writing seems deceptively easy but has an infinite number of genres and subgenres and is usually the most difficult part of working on a fantasy story.
A NOBLE QUEST
Now that these two preliminaries are out of the way, you are ready to take up the title of ‘Apprentice’. In the coming weeks and months, you will embark on the quest of learning the various intricacies of both writing and worldbuilding and will be rewarded with the ability to craft or improve upon your own fantasy stories.
The next blog will focus on the ‘Realms’ part of Quills & Realms. It will serve as an index to the worldbuilding section of this course, where we will briefly go over the individual aspects that must be taken into consideration when creating your own world, including religion, society, geography, etc.
Until then, I hope all of you have an amazing day! Congratulations on becoming an apprentice in our grand quest, and I hope that by the end of the journey, you will have your own, beautiful world and story to get completely lost in.
PS: Did anyone notice the Nike reference I made somewhere in the middle of the blog?