I receive a review for Jagged Emerald City the other day that got me thinking about accessible fantasy. (Before you say it, yes I know, reviews are for readers not for authors and I’m courting danger here, but I’m still in that initial stage where my book hasn’t attracted enough notice for the nasty reviewers to get ahold of it and I’m hungry for feedback.)
Anyway, the review goes something like this:
“This is not my usual genre but I decided to try something new. I was pleasantly surprised that I found it difficult to put down. My intention was to read this on a plane, but after I began it never made it to the plane. An interesting story of a strong heroine who is also plagued with the same self doubts and second guessing we all possess, yet she is able to overcome these and forge ahead. Looking forward to Book 2.”
This is not the first time I’ve heard someone say they were surprised how much they liked it, as they’re not usually a fantasy reader.
Now, I’m someone who loves fantasy. The weirder more impossible the better. But I’m also a big believer in the idea that fantasy can give us a lens that helps us better understand the real world. I love writing authentic people and issues into my stories.
(To be fair, I think most writers might say that.)
The point is, I’m going to state (despite my fear of sounding arrogant) that JEC is accessible to the non-fantasy-lover. The world is not so very different from our own, and the characters are struggling with, to quote the reviewer above, “the same self doubts and second guessing we all possess.” At its core the story is about struggling with trauma, grief, and belonging.
Which brings me to our subject: writing accessible fantasy
By no means am I an expert, nor do I think this is the only way to write fantasy that even the non-fantasy-lover can enjoy. But my understanding of what I do (always a hazardous prospect, but alas) boils down to a couple things.
1: Relatability
We might not all relate to being obsessed with hunting down demons. But I think we can all relate to the grief of losing someone, whether that’s a sibling, partner, parent; whether it’s by death, separation, or growing apart.
If someone doesn’t naturally love fantasy, you’re going to want to connect with them with the best tool you have available: emotion.
It’s a little difficult to give an example from Jagged Emerald City since I weave in bits and teases of the backstory (as I apparently wanted to drive my readers nuts by dragging out the answers), but this should give you an idea:
A camera rose out from the crowd, pointed towards me. The shutter flicked. More cameras appeared, more shutters flicking rapidly. I tried not to freeze like a deer startled by a predator. Mari had been so good at this. She’d make fun of everything alongside me, but she couldn’t hide her relish as she worked society politics. She’d flourished in it. A crater existed where she used to be, and I would never be big enough to fill it.
And:
My father didn’t miss a beat, stepping back and placing his hands lightly on my shoulders. “This is my daughter, Ms. Fairian Leynthall.”
The introduction sent a twist through my heart. He’d introduced me how I wanted—Ms. Fairian Leynthall, instead of Ms. Leynthall—but Mari’s absence throbbed like a hole in my being.
Would it ever stop?
But how, you may ask, does this relate to magic?
Well, I hope you got from the these quotes how out-of-place Fairian feels, and its tie to the loss of her sister. In JEC, what Fairian does feel a connection with (for reasons you’ll have to read about to find out) is magic. She spends the first half of the book hunting down any information she can on “demons” and their ilk. This is increasingly juxtaposed with feeling out of place and boxed in by the life her family is pushing her into.
So now there is relatable motivation for Fairian’s obsession with magic: hunting for belonging, trying to escape the grief of a lost sibling.
2: Tie to the familiar; then make it weird
With fantasy being such a popular genre, this is a little easier. Most people know what witches, dragons, and fairies are. Most people clue into pointy ears meaning an elf or fairy situation.
As we get into more obscure magicks (or even invented ones), then it’s a good idea to give the reader a foundation to start from. For example:
Kelpies. In Jagged Emerald City, Fairian encounters a kelpie. Don’t know what it is? That’s a horse that lives in water that wants to drown people and eat them. In the scene, I use horse-related descriptions:
Even though I knew something lay under the water, I jumped when two wide nostrils appeared, flaring wide once it breached water. A grin split my face as more surfaced: an equine nose, face, ears. Their eyes emerged, murky and pale, yet somehow burning. Something hungry and predatory.
And:
The creature’s equine head slowly cocked to one side, farther than anatomy should allow.
And:
The creature slowly circled around me, their long tail dragging across the dock behind them. Snuffling ran across my hair, down my back. It tickled. I giggled, then twisted around and hesitantly put a hand on their furred side.
Bone stood up sharply against my hand under cooler flesh.
See? Make it a horse, then make it weird. In this case, make it creepy.
This can also apply even if you’re “inventing” something new. In JEC, I wrote in a society of creatures that are shadow entities that live in the trees. (In hindsight, I probably got the idea from Doctor Who.)
I did two things.
A) Literally built a translator into this reclusive society.
The [person speaking Latin stopped], and snapping hisses rose in the trees. My whole body shuddered at the sound. It came to a halt, and the other voice spoke again, in English:
“You know what has been happening, or you would not be here. The deaths of our own were not enough to motivate you, but apparently now that it’s anyone else you are here.”
“The depth of your situation was only revealed to me recently,” Daimyn said. “I am here now to provide assistance.”
The voice rose again in Latin. It almost sounded like they were translating Daimyn’s words…
B) Don’t ask me why, but I got snake imagery when devising the situation, so that’s where I started.
A forked tongue flickered out of the shadowy coils next to me. Once. Twice. Three times. Then they slid fully from the tree, pooling on the ground across tree roots even as their head barely moved position, tongue still tasting the air.
And:
A soft croon from the creature, and around their head a ruff flared outwards, framing their face. It was lined with near-glowing veins of pale gold, breaking through the darkness like a glittering, lightning starscape.
Make it a snake, then make it… intimidating but beautiful?
3: Rules
As much as I hate to say it, rules give a reader comfort. A framework to rely on. A sense of groundedness in the world. If you’re writing something contemporary the rules are, for the most part, unconsciously understood. With fantasy, you’ll need to explore and build them for the reader.
It’s also just good storytelling. With a good story, you need stakes; rules can help create those stakes and consequences for the characters. (Sidebar: don’t go making magic rules and then breaking them willy nilly with more magic. It’s disappointing, I don’t care how epic the magic is.)
Also, if you can build magic-rules based off of reality-rules, even better. For example: magical artifacts that do such-and-such-thing need to charge in the moonlight once it’s depleted. I think most of us plug in a cellphone every night, yeah?
(I’ll be honest, this is the one I’m the least good at, I think. I don’t really “craft” my rules so much as “feel out” my rules and then… make it canon? Just make sure you keep track of what you have figured out as a concrete rule!)
In Conclusion
There we have it, my guidelines for writing accessible fantasy. Overall, these ideas might simply just apply to good storytelling, but I think they might be particularly important to the fantasy and science-fiction genres.
What do you think? What draws you in the most about fantasy worlds or characters? And hey, if you’ve read my book, tell me if I know what I’m talking about or not! 😂
And hey… if you’re interested in the book that inspired this post (and that awesome review), you can check out what Jagged Emerald City is all about here.
