What are the rules of the fantasy genre?
S.R. Beaston
Crafty with words, wit, and wisdom, just add caffeine to make it more interesting.
With every genre, there are certain expectations readers come to expect. Romances have their happily ever after. Mysteries have red herrings and twists. Horror has...well, horror.
Sometimes these expectations can be subverted, and the book is better for it, but you have to know the rules to break them. Fantasy is a big genre with a lot of "rules". With such never-ending possibilities, it can be overwhelming without a little guidance.
The Rules of Writing Fantasy
These rules range from reader expectations to how to better write the fantasy genre, in no particular order.
Magic Systems
Magic is the most expected thing in fantasy. Your magic system does not have to be complex to be good—it just has to be consistent and make sense within the world. With great story and character, the magic you built will fall in line.
Magic systems can be "hard" or "soft", with elements that play in things like environment, items, and culture. A well-developed magic system will include consequences and limitations. Check out $ Magic Systems in Fantasy Novels 101$ for some more insight into magic systems in fantasy.
World Building
Whether high fantasy or urban fantasy, world building is important. No matter what you are creating, the readers expect to learn something new about the world they are immersing themselves in. World building ties your characters, your magic system, and your setting together and puts them all in a box to give to your reader. Without the stepping stones of world building, we miss reader immersion.
Make the World Fantastical
Nothing brings in the world of fantasy quite like things we humans have never seen. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is so popular because he created creatures and settings we had never seen, languages no one knew, and an entirely new world.
Of course I’m not suggesting you write like Tolkien, but keep in mind that the world should not be limited to the human experience. Movies and their book counterparts like The Dark Crystal and Pan’s Labyrinth lean heavily on the fantastical, giving experience even us fantasy lovers haven’t witnessed. The Discworld series is a wild time, where the earth is not only flat, but held up by four elephants riding a massive turtle.
In fantasy, your mind can and should wander into the weird and unbelievable, so let it.
Something Must Be Different
Playing off my earlier point, this is more for those who wish to write Urban fantasy, where the world is set in our human setting in more recent times, but the fantastical bleeds into it. The Spiderwick Chronicles, Wicked Lovely, and The Immortal Instrument series are popular urban fantasies.
The point of Urban/modern fantasy is that you are not building a new world with new rules. You are convincing the reader that our world may have something more behind the curtain. You have to bring something different to the table, the unexpected in a sea of expectation. Take something that should be, and make it not so.
Political Intrigue
This is common in high fantasy, but hard to master. The expectations for political world building are immediate for readers, so if you do not plan on implementing it, make that known from the start in your writing and world building.
If you plan on building political intrigue, you must be consistent and understand the rules of your world. Don’t be afraid to carve out a little time in your writing to workshop characters, power, and landmarks, as well as to decide how big this part of your story is.
Character Complexity
The fantasy genre lends itself to amazing and unique characters. Often, these characters can be a tool to help drive home the very human theme of your story. The writer must remember, your characters do not have to be human, but they should be complex.
Characters do not have to be all good or all bad to be right or wrong. The inner workings of your fantasy world can be told through the morally gray with questionable actions and decisions. It’s how a character learns and grows through this world you built that the reader will attach to.
Keep Your Secrets
As much as you might want to divulge everything about your fantasy world, I promise you, no one cares as much as you do. This is a pretty common trap that fantasy writers fall in. They’ve built an amazing world with so many buildings, side characters, magic systems, cities, provinces, countries. Characters absolutely can and should explore it all in the span of your book! Right?
Wrong.
Writing is a tricky balance of giving interesting information while also letting readers come to their own conclusions about some things. Fantasy is so vast and exciting, writers may overshare things they shouldn’t. The villains backstory is exposited in full by chapter five. There’s a little too much detail on one of the buildings that was just slightly taller and more ominous than the others. There’s an old woman in a different province who brewed a potion and is never mentioned again.
As writers of any genre, you have to accept that you will know more and care more than the reader, and you should. Sharing it all weighs down the story with things that don’t apply directly to the plot, which, if it’s fantasy, is already a pretty big weight. Think of the backstory as your story's shadow—it's there, but mostly hidden behind the story.
Have Lore
Lore is very entertaining for readers. The expectations may waver, but lore expertly weaved into the story can make for an enticing read that will beg your audience to read it again.
This is why you don’t want to overshare. Having people discuss the meaning behind symbols, figuring out the pantheon and time frame, and further building on your foundation keeps the word of your story in people's mouths and images of it in their heads.
Escapism
With almost any genre, the main goal of any reader is to escape. Despite the real-world themes and messages you can tie into your story, people use it to rid themselves of their own world for a couple of hours. Luckily, fantasy can be one of the easier genres to provide that need.
With the other rules in place, the world you built will teleport a reader front and center. Write with the intent to keep a reader living there for as long as they can spare the time.
Understand Your Subgenre and Target Audience
Fantasy itself is a broad genre, but implementing subgenres will tighten the free-reign you have.
Picking a subgenre is relatively easy if you know the kind of story you want to tell. Does this fantasy world have a big mystery to solve? There’s your subgenre. Is there a love interest whose romance will bloom throughout the story? There’s another one.
Look into$ the most popular fantasy subgenres$ and see if any of them fit your narrative well enough to explore. How you tie in your subgenre will further dictate your audience's reach.
Fantasy can fit in any corner, so your target audience should be kept in mind when choosing your subgenre. Found family in fantasy can be for a middle schooler, while thriller and grimdark are written more for adults.
With some wiggle room and a few twists and turns, the expectations can be surpassed and the rules can be broken, but everything should be done with intent. Fantasy is a big undertaking and this only barely scrapes the surface.
But that’s the beauty of writing fantasy. Your world, your rules. Now check out $ the best tools for fantasy authors$ to help you out!
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