How to be Original and Creative When Writing Fantasy

So you are writing fantasy, the genre of the make believe and fantastical. With the only limitations being your imagination. As fantasy writers, we should be chopping at the bit to create creatures, play with physics, or develop a magic system never before read!

But how exactly does one do this? And more importantly after reading various fantasy novels how does one do something not already done a thousands times in the volumes that came before us?

Don’t freak out. I’ll let you in on a secret: nothing is completely original.

I say this in the best possible way. Creativity stands on other creative enterprises that have come before us. Take these quotes for instance:

If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants – Sir Isaac Newton

Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources – C.E.M. Joad

Basically, what I am trying to say is open yourself up for inspiration by paying attention to creativity around you. Surround yourself with other creative pursuits. Yes, I mean reading, but that is advice you hear left and right. Other forms of media (basically everything that has story) can inspire ideas too – a song lyric, a picture, a quote, a line of dialogue, a character flaw, a children’s movie you saw decades ago. Combine and build from enough of these ideas (some subconscious, mind you) and you will have something new.

Flip a Stereotype

Being fresh and original mostly comes from surprising your audience. The human brain is a categorizer of all things. We are programmed to find patterns, learn from then and utilize them. Want to make something new? Break that pattern. Take a stereotype and flip it.

• Does the hot ex-girlfriend need to be a popular blonde bombshell?
• Does the protagonist have to be a person? Or even alive?
• Does the wizard have to be wise?
• Does the villain have to be murderous?
• Does… okay hopefully you get it.

The thing about these flips is that you might just get an interesting secondary character out of it. Or you could create a big idea that influences your entire book concept.

Twist a Trope

Tropes like stereotypes aren’t all bad. You have your hero’s journey plot trope that is a classic configuration for a reason. You have trends like diversity that will benefit society. But in most cases tropes are overdone, frustrating and boring for a reader.

Because in fantasy we use magical elements that are similar to other books like wizards. The trope of how these wizards act, dress and behave can become a lazy overplayed trope. So twist it into something new.

Take the trope of wizards with a staff or wand. Sounds overdone. Now give it a twist. Why do they need this item?

1. Maybe this culture once used wands and now they don’t because x, y, or z
2. Maybe they do use them to channel they magic like many stories. But for some reason your protagonist needs a rock or has to be a modern day item like a spatula
3. Maybe the wand is connected to the tree or the source material and thus has a geographical limitation to it

In this method ‘what if’ is your best friend. Question everything and your world can slowly be built so all the new pieces and ideas fit into a new puzzle – your novel.

Parting note – Audience and Market

Fantasy novels do not come up with unique concepts all by themselves. We are influenced by everything we experience, including all other creative endeavors before us. And truthfully utilizing other concepts can be beneficial because people like the familiar. But, they also like the unexpected. That’s why people like fairy tale retellings and other such adaptations so much. It combines the familiar with the unexpected. Simply put, people want to re-experience a story in a different way.

That’s also why those comparable titles are so important in a pitch. Agents or readers don’t want a piece of fiction to be so out there that it does not share a single connection or tie to any other piece of literature. And if you can claim your idea holds no commonality to anything else written, you might want to read more.

Keep the brainstorming going by exploring your imagination. Curiosity might have killed the cat, but I don’t think it ever could hurt a writer in pursuit of a fresh idea.

Happy writing!