Fantasy Writing Exercises To Get You Unstuck
S.R. Beaston
Crafty with words, wit, and wisdom, just add caffeine to make it more interesting.
For all its magic and wonder, fantasy can be a hard genre to navigate. When I was struggling with a scientific magic system for my first novel (now forever a $ trunk novel$ ), my roommate became a wall for me to bounce ideas off of. Frustrated with my indecision and stress, he simply said, "Why can’t you just let magic be magical?" With that little nudge, I realized just how complicated I made the process for myself.
If you need to let your imagination run without holding yourself back, try writing with these tips and prompts!
Writing Tips To Get Unstuck
Here are a few simple tips to get rolling!
1. Write with a journal and pen. The act of writing by hand tends to help with memory and improve creativity. It’s also said to help with focus and critical thinking, which is why I always put my plot holes on paper.
2. Write stream-of-consciousness. You can do this as you, the author, or write from the perspective of a character, but write out what you or they think as you think it, without stopping. This is a narrative technique that can build a stronger internal monologue for your character or simply help you "info dump" any baggage you are mentally carrying to make room for creative ideas.
3. Write in bursts. Try the Pomodoro Method or create your own timer to write with no interruptions, then take a short break before starting again.
Prompts to Create a Fantasy Character
Here are some prompts to help you create characters you are excited to write, fantasy edition.
Favorite colors
It’s all right to start on the superficial level of looks. Colors can play a huge role in how a person is perceived or how they act. Color can also be used to foreshadow or symbolize something.
Pick two to four of your favored colors. Apply these colors to hair, eyes, clothes, nail polish, accessories, or even skin. It’s fantasy, remember?
After colors have been established, ask yourself what fantastical characteristics come with orange skin, black hair, yellow eyes, and red accessories. It gives me a feline vibe, personally.
Is this a creature with feline features (not the most original but still very popular), or a subrace of a more established creature like an Elf? Wood elves tend to have warmer skin tones, or downright the color and texture of wood. Perhaps it’s an elf that’s more in tune with flowers, pollen, a druid perhaps? Maybe it’s a new type of fairy.
All of this came from picking colors. Stare at a few of your favorites and see where they take you!
Make a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) character
You don’t have to have played or watched a game of Dungeons and Dragons to enjoy its process of building a character. This method of character building has helped me develop some of my favorite story characters over the years.
You can use a nerdy friend, the D&D handbook, or Google to search up the races and classes for Dungeons and Dragons. These do not have to be a finalized version of the type of character you want to make, but they are great templates to start with.
It doesn’t matter in what order you choose between race and class. If you know you want your character to be an assassin, look at the rogues first, then see what races are more adhered to that profession. Then you choose to, flip the stereotype on its head and ask yourself why that change might make sense.
From here you are already creating a character and their background. Learning the tropes through something as big and old as D&D is a quick and easy way to subvert them in clever and fun ways for your new fantasy character.
There are a lot more steps you can take to create a background, learn movesets, and take feats, but that’s a more in-depth procedure that you can skip if you are satisfied with the base you’ve created this way.
Build on a flaw
Nothing is more boring than a main character with no flaws, especially in fantasy. In the world of fantasy, morals, conflict, and care are expanded. Exploring them by ways of battles and wars or outcasting and interpersonal relationships knows no boundary.
Pick a flaw (or two, or three) that really speaks to you.
Now put it in your character!
A popular character flaw is the one who cannot trust anyone. This comes with quick and obvious downsides. Write a scene based only on this flaw. Who are they talking to and why? Is it a parent, a sibling, a lover, a villain?
Another, less obvious flaw is that of justice. If your character is one who fights for justice, when is the moment that they overstep? Write a scene with these flaws in mind and experiment with the pitfalls that come with them.
Prompts to Understand Your Fantasy Character
These are some prompts to help you get to know your character a little more. By putting them in situations and settings they wouldn’t be in in your novel, you are opening your character up for questions to answer and breaking down the psyche so you have more to work with.
What is human?
Your main character has never met a human before. They have never dealt with human customs nor seen such a vulnerable creature. How do they react initially? Are they curious, intrigued, scared, defensive? Do they adapt easily or with resistance? Are they stuck with them? Why?
Cursed to be different
The main character is cursed to be another creature, one said to be hated or feared among the masses (think goblins, trolls, banshees, your own creations).
The main character tries to explain themselves, but it doesn’t work, so they do the next best thing, and be themselves. Through their actions, the masses have become more accepting of this "one friendly one". Not only that, a hoard of the very creature your main character became has taken them in and they start to see how much the masses do not understand this manner of creature.
What changes within the main character, within the misunderstood creatures (who may be morally ambiguous) and how does the MC convince their fellow man that they all have it wrong? Does it work?
A warped understanding
Your hero has been cursed by a witch. They are flooded with memories that are not theirs, their mind filled with sights they have not seen. They feel emotions that are someone else's. They belong to the enemy, the big bad of the story, whatever opposing force the main character is against.
What did the character see? What has this character learned about their enemy? Is there any sympathy, understanding? Does the curse work TOO well, leaning your main character into the opposite side? What would happen if they did join forces?
This exercise is a great way to not only understand the morals and emotions of your antagonist, but to learn the resilience and composure of your main character. If you had all the answers, would your state of being change? If so, how?
A hero’s failure
Your hero failed to achieve their goal. They were close, but something stopped them. Take the flaws, the colors, the species, and profession into account. Think of their few loves and many hates. What could have possibly stopped them from achieving their goal.
Did they die? Did someone else die? Were they just not strong enough? Was the environment or fellow man against them?
You can go further with this, into world-building territory. How has the town/city/country/world been affected because they failed?
Prompts to Build a Fantasy World
Here are some ideas you can use to expand and understand your world.
A festival of elements
A ‘Festival of the Elements’ is held in a grand city. What are the elements? Are these elements something mortals can use and cast like magic, or is it a celebration to the pantheons? Are the elements just that and nothing more, but the people who celebrate it are just so in tune with them?
What is held at the festival, and are their opposing forces that would rather this festival never take place? Why?
The unknown creature
Your character has discovered a new type of creature. Even the elders don’t know what it is.
Think of something your character might need or want. (A key, a map, a gardener, a chef, a chest) and make that thing sentient, make it a creature in its own right or make a creature whose sole existence adheres to that thing (like a bearer of keys, a worldly librarian, etc).
Ex: A mimic. This is a monster disguised as a chest to loot. When opened, a mouth is in place of any gold, with razor sharp teeth and a long tongue.
A ceremony to a god
A ceremony is held every X number of years to a specific god of your design. Your character is tasked with running the next ceremony. Reluctantly, they do, and through trials and work, they come face to face with the god, only for it to explain it has no idea why the mortals do what they do.
So where did this odd ceremony come from? What was the ceremony? Who started it and why? Is this being actually a god at all, or have you been lied to?
A hero’s death
Your hero succeeded in their mission, but died because of it. It’s been ten years and the town/city/country/world still celebrates the achievements and sacrifice of your character.
How has the town/city/country/world changed?
Write from one of the characters that knew them. Have they thought about them? How did they feel about the MC’s death?
How do they feel when they suddenly see them alive once more? What happened?
Fantasy Story Ideas and Writing Prompts
Simple ideas with the right characters can pave the way for new and unexpected scenes in your novel, or they can just be here to get the creative juices flowing. These are designed with the hope to help build up the excitement for the task of writing ahead.
The banning of magic
Magic has been banned for years, but your character found out they have magic in their veins when something unexpected happens right in front of their best friend. What happened? How does the friend react, especially when knowingly keeping a magic user a secret is punishable by death?
Write the emotions tied to this conflict from both points of view and their theories on how and why this happened.
Stripping powers
Your character has been stripped of all their powers. They are Superman with a duffel bag of Kryptonite. How do their clan/family/society take this? Do they hide this until it's inevitably tested? Are they cast out? Who helps them? How do they feel about themselves when all of that is stripped away?
A world not your own
Take whatever world you are writing in your fantasy novel and write a scene in the opposite space. Writing a medieval European fantasy? Take your characters to future sci-fantasy underwater cities in the South Pacific ocean.
Have a modern or urban fantasy? Make it a 1700s western high fantasy. You can even make the change part of the plot, where your characters are suddenly very confused about where they are and must adapt fast.
These one-off scenes can help create interesting species, unique magics, and fun characters that can either morph into your current work or put on the shelf for a future project.
Dysfunctional abilities
Your character found out they have an ability that, on paper, sounds great, but doesn’t quite work the way they expected, a monkey paw of magic. How did they get this tease of a power, and what can they finally do with it that’s beneficial?
Example: They obtain the ability to speak with animals, only to find out animals can’t speak or think in any manner that makes sense to the character. The animals may understand, but your character sure doesn’t.
Though these prompts may not be your conventional, vague, one-sentence ideas, I hope the depth and guidance can lead to some truly ground-breaking discoveries for the characters and world of your fantasy novel. If nothing else, you may have a notebook full of fun ideas for novels to come.