I was recently asked how you go about creating a fantasy story that satisfies you, yet resonates with your audience.  After all, how do you know what people “out there” like and dislike?  How can a writer tell?  Especially a new writer still trying to break in and get a novel manuscript published?

Okay, if any of this is something that you’ve been asking, here’s my advice:

1. 1. Read the genre.  If you’re planning to write fantasy, then read as much of it as you can.  Read it until it’s leaking out your ears.  Read the classics and the new stuff.  Read the best the genre has to offer.  Read the mediocre.  Read some of what is less than inspiring but still made it to publication.
3. 2. Be humble.  If you read something you think is drek, don’t sneer.  Be heartened instead.  Yes, you do have a chance to be published, too.  And while you’re at it, take some notes on what not to put in your own manuscript.
5. 3. Network with other fantasy readers.  Sure, talk to your friends, but branch out by attending a few local or regional science fiction/fantasy conventions.  Listen to people’s opinions.  Ask questions of panelists.  Learn.
7. 4. Track the topselling books in fantasy.  And I mean current books, not the dusty old tomes penned by Lord Dunsany.  Read their reviews – both from the critics and from readers on amazon.com.  Discard the saccharine accolades and the sour eviscerations alike, and focus on the reviews that come from middle ground.
9. 5. Balance all this input with your personal likes and dislikes.  You have to listen to your heart, even if it’s giving you a plot idea that seems contrary to everything people are claiming they like.  Writers can follow the market some of the time, but they have to take risks, too. 
11. 6. Eventually it all boils down to the following:
1. Do I like my protagonist?
2. Do I want my protagonist to succeed?
3. Does my villain break me out with goosebumps?
4. Does my story idea scare me a little?
5. Does my story idea excite me a lot?
6. Am I consumed and obsessed by my plot and characters? 

At that point, you have to cling to faith in your idea and simply leap.

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November/December 2008