10 Things Fantasy Readers Love (Writing Advice)
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- čas přidán 15. 05. 2024
- I asked 348 fantasy readers the #1 thing they LOVE to read.
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⏲️ TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Introduction
00:23 - Meaningful consequences & sacrifices
02:45 - Authentic Relationships and Romance
05:35 - Exploration of Themes
08:45 - Morally Grey Characters
11:38 - Diverse and Creative Creatures
14:02 - The Found Family Trope
15:39 - Plots Twists
16:56 - Immersive World-Building
19:49 - Innovative Magic Systems
20:50 - Relatable, Complex Characters Who Grow
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Hey Jed, I was just wondering. What's your opinion on various cartoon TV and anime magic systems? Like Elemental Bending from _Avatar:The Last Airbender,_ or Curses from _Jujutsu Kaisen?_ Do you think you could make a top ten list, or any video really, discussing your own personal favorite fictional magic systems from TV and anime (if you have any :3)? :3.
Hey Boss man have you/will you make a video on giving tips for being a professional editor not just editing your own work. I'm interested in editing as a career so I want to know what it's like.
Hey. Could you tell me what you think of my magic system?
A liquid which are as rare as gold can be consumed by anybody,
It raises the ceiling of strength speed and perception for any body to be almost limitless, but they need to train to be stronger.
It also allows the use of Ki to make your punches stronger, and even let you cast different attacks using different elements.
What do you think and what can I change
Hi there I'm trying to be a pursuing writer, and I been watching videos about writing and writing advice, but I seem to be stuck. I want to ask, if you can make or recommend video about a character leaving, in some fantasy stories I always see a protagonist leaving his home or life to go on a journey but the problem with that is why? Why does the main character leave, I always see in fantasy stories, that the main character just lives a normal life and then something happens, which makes them leave. Usually I see its about there, destiny, learning/education, opportunities, new life, adventure, and mysteries,. But is there other reasons why a main character leaves. Especially in fantasy writing its hard for me to start my protagonist path,
Hey bro will you make another small rating magic system or story please I really wish I could have discovered this earlier I mean a youtuber for writing i am confident I will be selected
Unpopular opinion: morally "black and white" characters can be incredibly good, people just forgot how to write them.
Fr
I agree, morally black and white characters can be absolutely amazing, tho I and many people prefer morally grey char. it also could be the lack of those ones, haven't seen them in a long time :)
Agreed. I'm tired of "morally grey" emo crap.
@@Largo01ukr, I feel that "morally grey characters" will soon become cliché and uninteresting in due time because people would start writing them in an uninteresting way. Same thing is happening with villains. People are wanting less sympathetic villains and more straight up evil ones
Sure! A story with morally white and black characters AND grey ones. 😊
Don't let this distract you from the fact that Seto Kaiba once resisted being disintegrated by magic through sheer ego. Because, "There are no limits when you're as brilliant as Seto Kaiba."
“Nah I’d win”
@@NovaevoSATORU GOJO!!! :3.
reminds me of Tryndamere, a League of Legends champion, that's ultimate ability is not dying because he is TOO ANGRY.
😂😂😂
Screw the rules, I have money.
my favorite thing is when you build someone up and then actually deliver on the build up. don't subvert it, don't downplay it, don't overshadow it with something else. just build up and delivery.
This is a really interesting one, it seems to happen a lot in stories where characters need to find someone/something powerful, and then when they get there, we're given a plot twist; e.g. heroes need to release Bob Goku out of prison, but when they get there Bob is just some loser, or worse, there is no one in the prison and the hero is told 'the real Bob Goku was inside you all along'.
This was fine the first twenty times I saw this twist, but now it's just boring. I'd rather we go there, and the mystical badass actually is a badass like was foreshadowed- that doesn't mean everything will now be smooth sailing, there can still be problems, but I'd like to see the promise delivered upon.
Edit: just to be clear, this structure is often quite loose, e.g. in Kung Fu Panda its a case of 'there is a secret to be the dragon warrior on a scroll that will make you super strong', but the plot twist is (spoilers duh) the scroll is blank. I love Kung Fu Panda and they handle this twist excellently, but this kind of twist is done so much I kind of wish we were just given what we were promised in a lot of stories.
Neo.
@@cheesypoohalo so true...what was once endgy and cool now .......isnt
Nothing is more satisfying than a character who has suffered through consequences and sacrifices, then seeing them overcome their struggle in an epic moment of triumph.
funny, that thing about main character death is actually in my top 10 things I dislike the mot. Unless your main character death manages to make perfect sense both thematically and personality-wise I think it's a waste of time and will make me close a book more often than not. There are consequences other than main character death damn it. Make them live, but make them lose things they never expected to have to live without! I personally find that SO MUCH MORE impactful than 99% of main character deaths I've read.
Same, I'll close the book. I'm a little sad that it's catching on so much, but I guess authors too have to go with the times
Someone is reading jjk
Same.
@@santadipbiswas9266BRUH...
@@santadipbiswas9266"can we PLEASE have just ONE filler episode?"
"Ehh, I'll think about it.. (goes back to writing) and you're dead, and you're dead, and you're dead..."
A few tropes I've enjoyed experimenting with:
1.) Poetic Progression:
-Develop a character (or theme) poetically. If you have a character behave in a certain circumstance at the beginning of the story, give them a similar experience near the end to show how they respond to it differently now that they've grown (or faltered). Have a character's revenge plot echo their friend's killer's own downfall. Have a character's compassion display in a way which reflects how a previous person's lack of compassion hurt them.
2.) Trauma Per Character:
-Rather than just put your main character through tough circumstances to push them to the breaking point, put all your characters through difficult things that challenge them. Particularly, you want to tailor each person's struggles to their personality. Show how some characters overcame their darkest hour, while others were overcome by it. Show how some grew more compassionate, while others grew more nihilistic.
3.) Sympathize the Radical:
-Create a character or political ideology within your world that is radically dangerous and atrocious, then explore why such characters feel this way. Do they have a point? Is there a truth that they're just taking too far? Did their position start out accurately correcting another creed's flaws, yet ended up over-correcting or dramatizing once the original group changed its ways?
4.) Robust Ideologies:
-Rather than creating a 2-party system of good guys VS bad guys, it can be fun to explore multiple angles and not shove everybody into one of two stereotypical boxes. Instead, have multiple factions that disagree on multiple different points of interest, while agreeing on other points of interest. Have Group A and Group B have similar views on religion, yet different views on the economy. Group C might agree with Group A on both of these, but disagree with Group A on national security. Perhaps the historical division of Group A and Group C is worse than Group C and Group B, so even though Group C has more in common with Group A, they actually prefer Group B. Now Group D disagrees with A, B, and C on religion, but agrees with B on economy, and C on national security.
5.) Immersive Lingo:
-Don't just write generic fantasy language "My lady", but explore the culture of how they would communicate. What world-building features have you established which can affect their slang? If bugs are peaceful, harmless, clean, and smell nice, then don't say, "He was bugging her" as a manner of "He was annoying her", as bugs wouldn't be annoying. If droughts are more dangerous than storms, use storm as an analogy for blessing rather than struggle. If the people are cold blooded, find phrases that literally mean "to move to warmer/cooler locations" as metaphoric language of moving to more comfortable social/emotional circumstances.
6.) World-Building Philosophy:
-What philosophical ideas would a culture like this develop? Do they have science? Is science just a sub-category of philosophy? Is religion a subject in philosophy? Is music a philosophy? What's the philosophy on the magic system? What's the philosophy of hunting dragons? How does having nine moons affect the world's philosophy? Is elfin philosophy more prominent than dwarfin philosophy? When your characters go deep enough underground, gravity switches, and eventually they come out the other side to a different world. What's the philosophical understanding of this? "What's down to us is up to them" -they might say about their enemies, showing they're morally inverted. Their planet has two suns: one red, the other blue. The red sun grows bigger in winter, while the blue sun grows bigger in summer. Do they say the Goddess of the Red Sun is winning the war during winter, and the Goddess of the Blue Sun is winning during summer? -They certainly associate red for cold and blue for hot.
This is exactly the kinda shit I read comments for, thank you, absolute banger of a comment 😤🔥🔥🔥
These seem really interesting, thanks for writing this!
I was just writing a story with a blue glowing sword so I’m glad to know readers like that
Oh no, mine glows blue too. Time to make it glow a different color XD
@@jennymunday7913Just go with ‘cerulean’ :P
@@jennymunday7913Time to break out the RGB sword.
Oops I have one as well
This gave me so much confidence in my writing. On every single point I was like "yes, I do that in my book!"
Same though its such a relief
Awesome! I'm so glad you made this discovery. Keep at it!
One of my favorite things to see in a story is when characters are mirrors of each other with one key difference, like Po and Tai Lung, or Gandalf and Saruman. This is why the focal point of my story is two estranged foster brothers, each with their own deep seated loneliness, one because there’s no one around him who cares and the other because he refuses to open up to anybody. And only when the reunite do their true selves shine through.
I hate with an absolute passion, the Same vs Same fights that have crept into every story. Marvel is the worst right now but I find it tedious to read or watch.
@@loupnuit1Same same! 🧒🏻👦 But, _DiFfErEnT!_ But still same! 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏼♂️
What’s your opinion on Shinji and Gendo from Eva then?
According to this list, the most liked fantasy story would be “Berserk”.
Give it a read, it is awe inspiring
To add to this, Berserk is an amalgamation of various world myths and religions and their symbols, philosophies, and psychologies. The video games of the Dark Souls trilogy, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring are all heavily inspired by such integration as well as Berserk itself according to Hidetaka Miyazaki, the president of the studio that made the games, FromSoftware. Highly recommend all these media as well.
Making unique anything is insanely difficult. Whenever I would show my prototypes to my friends turns out I "copied" so much from various animes and games I've never seen or played 😭😭😭
At least I'm not the only one.
The trick to being original isn't in making something nobody's seen. It's about having something only you can bring to the conversation about the stuff you are writing.
What's even more fun then either a hard or soft magic system, is a system that's both. What I mean is: a system with clear rules and limitations implemented, but these being unknown by the characters themselves. It gives the characters (and reader) the awe of endless possibility, while also keeping great internal logic and the creativity that comes from working within limitations. What would be especially fun is a story with different perspectives who each deeply grasp a different aspect of this systems, but the true rules only becoming clear when they meet.
Personally, I prefer soft magic system but with clear rules unknown for the readers.
When it’s a hard one, I tend to consider it as science and not magic. I love some of those books too, but don’t want to write them.
Magic must give you the “Wow” effect then you ask yourself “Oh, he/ she can do that too!”
For me, I love some realism in the power levels. I dont like when the characters are insanely powerful. If a guy casually destroys 100 enemies like nothing I roll my eyes. Even the greatest swordsman would be in trouble when facing even two proficient opponents. Numbers matter.
Yeah. I like a slightlu higher power level than what you are proposing. Protagonist in a 1v6 constant underdog in the fight, but somehow manages to come out victorious against the odds surprising even themself
@@GiantProcrastiNation thats fine, but once they hit what I call Goku level, I'm out. I need to feel that every confrontation has danger, and even a peasant with a spear can stick someone a good one and its GG. The Inn at the Crossroads scene in ASoT illustrates this perfectly. Sandor vs three brigands, but he has a buzz on so he's sloppy and they almost kill him. I dont know if youve read that so I wont spoil anything else.
@@alexandermendez4653 Sorry. I am blanking. What does ASoT stand for, the scene you described sounds super familiar
@@alexandermendez4653 and I remember a book I was reading where the protagonist while still considered relatively weak compared to the people he was hanging with destroyed 2 pirate ships alone without really breaking a sweat. Hated that
@@GiantProcrastiNation Storm of Swords. Book 3 of a Song of Ice and Fire
I think morally grey nihilist characters have their place, but it’s overdone now days. I want to see a little more morally good character who inspire readers to be a better human.
Same that's what im writing
I like mixtures of this. It's interesting to see a full-on morally gray character clash with a tried and true morally good guy. They're both good guys but their methods clash. Maybe the antihero is befriended by both the villain and the good guy. and now he feels like he's being pulled more toward one of their influences and it affects his relationships.
@@jennymunday7913 Yes! I think if you have a morally grey character you must have a completely morally good character at their side to clash with and to keep them on the path. If everyone is morally grey in a story it just becomes depressing.
You would like Trigun.@@jennymunday7913
I think stories should be filled with good, gray, and evil characters. I don’t like seeing characters who are overly good or evil. I want it to feel like a spectrum, and every character has their own lines they draw. Then I love when the author takes the more “good” character and puts them in situations where they have to do questionable things for their goals/greater good.
• Platonic Ride or Die Relationships
• Warrior Bloodlines (like the TV show Grimm)
• The Villain's Romance (evil together, but not evil to each other)
• The villain falls in love with the hero (but the hero may not return those feelings) (Can anyone recommend one of these? )
• Individuals with the same powers growing their powers in different ways
• Following the character who is taking over the world (as Rand takes over several countries in The Wheel of Time)
Yes, to this. Especially the first two. I can't find nearly enough of either.
That last bit of advice about character arcs is something a lot of contemporary writers need to know but unfortunately don't, most especially the writers for streaming services right now.
One of my absolute favourite things is something I call "Scale Shift". When you go through your story having a pretty good idea of where the story is going, what the goals are, who the "bad guys" are and what the stakes are. Then the characters discover something and suddenly the threat is MUCH worse than they ever could have imagined and their WHOLE plan has to go in a completely different direction in order to succeed. It's especially powerful when it's at the end of a book that's part of a series where you were pretty sure it was going to be resolved and the world gets turned upside down! :D Really gets the goosebumps going!!
You just basically described what I did sort of xd and uuuh that's a cool name you got for it, I was just calling it surprise 🤣🤣🤣
12:03 For the one who wrote that, I have to say, that is an inspiring quote that could easily be used in a story. (I promise I won't steal it, but it will probably inspire something)
I love the found family trio of my current wip. It is not only fun to read but also such fun to write.
My main character is the „grumpy“ guy and he gets to know my „sunshine“ character who he finds so annoying at the beginning, because he is too childish (my protagonist had to grow up fast and so missed a lot of fun in the world which my sunshine character still sees and along their journey the sunshine teaches the grumpy character to have fun again and so the protagonist is able to laugh again, healing his inner child)
I get tired of books like game of thrones were characters face random and somewhat predictable deaths for shock value.
I get that "character should face challenges", but it must not be too on the nose. "ah, this is the arc where the mentor will die so that the hero grows..." Those bore me. Making a character lovable (or trying to) just for the sake of sacrificing it as been done so many times...
In my book, every single character, aside from the protagonist, dies a violent death
@@unicorntomboy9736nice
I gotta agree with you...people often copy the game of thrones format where characters need to die for shock value. Little did they consider that these shocking deaths must also have meaning. Ned Stark's death is not just the subversion of the trope where the protagonists survive in the end, it is also the catalyst that set course for his family to be involved in the war. Where each of the characters connected to him will now set course to their own character arcs.
Also, does death have to be the only shocking factor? There are other ways to show really shocking sacrifices. Like 1. Have a person lose something important that represents their identity ( Jamie Lannister losing a hand) or 2. Have people prepare and work hard, like really hard towards a goal only to fail ( ATLA, the eclipse episode or Avengers infinity war) or personally, 3. make them lose a part of themselves ( have the smartest character lose their sanity or the kindest soul in the group become cold). I find those more painful because there are changes both in fiction and in real life that will either progress to make things for the worse ( or possibly, for the better).
I disagree, I think morally grey characters are the best, I don't think nihilism goes well with anything but straight up evil characters.
A morally grey character for me might rob a bank to help his friend pay for cancer treatment, a good character would simply try to earn the money.
I'm not saying this is a riveting plot point, I'm just pointing out that this is morally grey, you can write it as Evil, Heroic or Grey,
Heroic, they make sure the bank isn't crowded, they don't hold anyone at gunpoint, it's written as if noone gets traumatized in the process.
Morally grey, this is an actual bank robbery, the tellers might have serious trauma after this, the main character might feel bad for his actions but in the end he feels justified in doing what he does.
Evil the character shoots a couple of guys to make sure not to leave any witnesses.
@@nox4298seriously. Most deaths in GoT were meaningful and a direct result of actions. It just so happens the world was brutal and conducive towards swift, fatal retribution.
I love when stories force characters who are good to make hard decisions that might make them change, or we see a fairly bad character make some relationships that force them to change and be a more “good” character.
I love this too. I do this all the time lol. Fascinated by how we as humans work
Like Lucy from Fallout.
Spoilers for Fallout.
Her whole life she has been told to do good things. It has become her entire life. Then she is forced to kill a feral Ghoul, and by the end she refuses to release her father and even threatens to kill him.
8:47 One of the problems I have with most morally grey characters is that they’re not really morally grey, in truth they’re mostly morally good it’s just they’re put in morally grey situations. Daemon Targaryen is an example of a morally grey character at least in my eyes, he’s not a good person but he’s a beloved leader to his soldiers, and he’ll fight tooth and nail for his family. Fighting for one’s family is both a virtuous and morally grey trait, as, especially when you have families of power, those families can have different goals and objectives of dubious moral character.
Properly morally grey characters in my eyes need that mix of self-interest and morally grey virtue. Is ambition an inherently good trait for example? Is a character guided by his ambition a morally good character? For example, a leader who believes themselves to be the arc of history itself and creates an empire like what I’m writing about. He isn’t a good person, he willingly does terrible things and commits outright atrocities, but the outcome of his goal is an empire that can stand against the tides of evil. It’s a question of moral consequentialism.
I also think the want for “morally grey” characters is overblown, the most popular fantasy story, LOTR is one of good and evil, the fellowship are undoubtedly good people and their goal is undoubtedly good, and no-one, unless they’re some kind of pretentious snob who thinks they’re too adult for this book, actually cares. Not to say there aren’t morally grey characters in Middle Earth, just look at Turin.
W for mentioning Turin, we also can'y ignore that Boromir in a way was "morally grey" at least to a degree
I like characters who have a code or a guiding star but maybe it’s not clear to those who don’t know them well so their actions seem “gray,” but they are not to the character at all. I like to imagine Daemon’s guiding star is fierce protective love of his brother and later Rhaenerya and later Laena and later his kids by each and later nettles , and the way he expresses that love is through embracing all things traditionally Targaryen, so violence is kinda his love language.
I love when tropes are subverted. It's probably why I love Terry Pratchett
I'm glad that Fantasy readers want to see Genuine Romanic relationships. Makes me more confident in my own OCs pairing.
Past tense is more than a form of grammar. I say this because people say they like heroes who can die and all that. (Which I broadly agree with)
Tense is a literary choice. If a story is being told in the past tense, (which is very common in fantasy) it means the events have already taken place, and what you're reading is a retelling of that story or those events.
It makes sense that the story would be told from the perspective/s of character/s who survived through to the end. Having The/A character die is a subversion of this expectation. Third Omniscient vs Third limited perspectives offer different different opportunities for the writer to tell that story with given characters' lives at stake.
I've stated it before as some stories are: "Will they survive?" and other's are "How will they survive?"
I like Indiana Jones for the 'How' type of story. Those movies are fun, and entertaining, but you never think Jones is going to die, (same with James Bond) the fun question is "how will he get out of this one!?"
For a more recent example, ASOIAF intentionally is a 'will they survive' story. But it's easy to forget that when you first read A Game of Thrones, not a lot of main characters died until the end. (Spoilers for a major story that pretty much everyone is aware of) Eddard Stark is presented as the 'main character' of the first book, then dies at the end. This is a massive subversion, and only at the end of that first, massive novel, does the reader realize that everyone is at risk, and the stakes are real.
I say all this in defense of authors accused of writing characters with 'plot armor'. If the story is in past tense. The history already knows who survives. The story is told through their POV because the survive. The don't survive because the story is told through their POV.
Sorry, I may be too drunk to be making sense. I hope this is somewhat coherent.
(this of course doesn't mean that you can't surprise your readers by killing focal characters in a past-tense story. This just means that killing 'main' characters in a past-tense story is a subversion. Failure to kill characters in a past-tense story is not a failure in storytelling.
I love a well-drawn map in my fantasy, it can add so much to the world building and telling the story, you can go and look at the map to see where your characters are. As an Australian though I am sick and tired of seeing stories set in the Northern Hemisphere. I am not a writer but do have a great imagination, but something I could see a well-drawn map that matches the story being told, is it could get you out of a hole where you are stuck for inspiration for a scene.
Well the "northern hemisphere" is where most of the interesting history has happened. No one gives a shit about mud hut people
Can’t speak for novel, but for visual media there are 2 things that are allways Kino:
1) picking up a guy and using him as a weapon
2) fighting the sun, or any other star
Wow you're still going!
I found your videos a while ago and am SO GLAD. I have been sharped immensely by your advice! Thank you for being generous and sharing it!
I've been watching your videos for hours with my eyes glued to the screen. Thank you so much for all your advice!
Thank you so much for this video! I've been writing my own hard magic system novel and I 100% agree with each of these responses to help make books more intriguing.
I can't believe you came to Morocco that's my home country! I hope you enjoyed your time there ^^
Marvellous quality as always, Jed!!!
Love your videos, they are helping a lot. I just started writing lore for my game, and listening/watching these helps.
Another great video Jed. Every time I watch a zillion ideas pop up and zoom around my head. It's inspiring!
Finally lol been waiting for this since the last video 🙏🏼
Another great video, gives me a lot to chew on.
I'm so glad I'm spending time fleshing out eight distinct races 🎉
Super inspirational video 👍
I so love watching your videos, because they are inspirational, educational and entertaining, all at the same time. I try to watch a video of you every day, sometimes it's more, sometimes I can't because I have a friend arround, but I also forward your videos to other friends I know like fantasy writings :D
I really enjoyed
My favorite on this list is diverse and creative creatures. Probably because they are the one thing I'm good at making. I have a list of about 90 of them. Some of them are small and weak, others are continents long. Describing them are less easy
I'm working on sci-fi but these advices fit to that as well.
The best part of having experience in something is being able to geek out about it. I was a part a stage crew and now whenever I'm at a stage I love to look at all the equipment that they use.
I love when the plot twist is so unexpected it makes you question everything in the world. I’ve read one where the main love interest completely betrays the main character unexpectedly playing his hand. Another, it came to light slowly that the narrator was unreliable.
Yay I made it into a video and I'm not the only one!
This makes me feel much better about my own story
Im writing a story where the main character dies and revives multiple times, but the idea is that fights still have stakes to them because the main character still _can_ die for real, and in fact i might actually have that happen later down the line, but more importantly, if any character that ISNT the main character dies, then they die, like really die, like even if the main character kills themselves to rewind time to before the other character died, the death will STILL persist, so the death of the main character isnt tooo much of a threat (although still a threat), but the death of the loveable side character will constantly be a threat
I really love that they mention fantastical creatures specifically.
I came to fantasy for new and creative things that other genre can't have.
Honestly this isn’t a purely fantasy thing but I love when a friend or disciple type character is threatened or put right hurt but still refuses to give up on there friend or teacher (etc)
My current 30,000 word novella I am working on features a setting that is a world of eternal night and darkness, and my worldbuilding in my book stems from this, in addition to featuring prominent oceanic and maritime motifs all throughout the book, especially for environmental and character descriptions. How do I make a world of eternal night and darkness make sense?
I tried to imagine how Zack Snyder would write a narrative
Jed, you should do a video on how to do effective retellings of past works, and how to draw inspiration without completely ripping off the original works
What do you mean by make sense? If this a world building issue and you want the world to make sense, look at if from a few different angles. What is the culture like? How does an eternally dark world affect people's imaginations? What do people eat and how do you make the food? Sounds like they eat fish, but if they want it battered and fried, what's the batter made from I wonder?
That's my ¢2 input.
@@marshallbrendstrup281 I feature a moon based religion, where the characters worship gods of death, where bi annual sacrificial rituals take place to appease said deities
If there is eternal darkness, I would guess no one has need for eyes for a start. But maybe that’s too extreme.
You should really watch some videos on how the real world evolved. And maybe give people things such as ecolocation or other ways to orient themselves in the dark.
The concept is really fun. Like the reason people walk upright is to be able to run for a long time on the Savannah. In your world did we evolve differently? Would there still be a use for fire, fire was essential for the brain development because cooked food is easier to digest and a big brain takes a lot of energy.
There’s so much fun to be had with your concept. I am creating a world that is fully dark for periods of time and creatures and plants have evolved a lot of bioluminescence with bacteria to still harness energy without light, yes it is based in magic 😂 they do however have eyes since there are also periods with light.
@@mariespaak4776 I have done some research on the deep abyssal zones of the deep oceans, as well as some marine biology and oceanography in general for the setting of my book, since I use those motifs in my book, which meant to be dark fantasy/grimdark
For example, I feature an important location, which is a bioluminescent forest, full of tall trees that glow and pulsate in the darkness, as well as creatures that take cues from real world deep sea animals, except it is all fully terrestrial
I like the idea of terrestrial deep sea creatures, easily horrifying and awe inspiring. Good Lord imagine giant Bobbitt worms!
Thanks for posting this video, and all the content you produce to help us find our voices. At the very beginning of this post though, I'm sorry to say that you may have implied something unintentionally. You implied that, if we fledgling writers adopt these Things that Fantasy Readers Love into our own writing, then we will produce better works...Okay, when we first begin writing, we are searching for our own voice, something that sets us apart from other writers. If someone tells us to follow readers' opinions, then we are writing for them, not for ourselves. I think Jed would agree that once you begin writing just to satisfy other people's wants, or to sell more books, then you have abandoned your voice.
In regards to interesting relationships, something that I quite like (honestly a sucker for it): giving your big bad evil guy a daughter, and then having them be a doting father (they can still be evil, but just have that be a part of them, or you could also have it lead into the daughter leading them away from evil, take your pick) and even as something related to that, giving big bads families, it can make them human and give them motivations that might not be obvious. One of the things I thought was interesting in the anime Demon Slayer, that didn’t end up mattering, but whatever, was that the villain was first pictured with a family, and I thought that was really cool, but then later on it turns out that he just hides in families, which I was honestly kind of disappointed by, but whatever. Anywho, I like giving big bads relationships, it can be intriguing and build their characters up.
Thank you for putting consequences as the first thing you mentioned because again you don't always have to have consequences that are horrible, but I just think of how much more powerful they make a story look at frodo at the end of Lord of the rings and how much more powerful the ending of the first how to train your dragon movie is just because they add in that element of irreversible consequences that someone loses a piece of themselves as a price to save what they love even if it's something that doesn't necessarily even love them back or understand them. You have that moment of clarity where it's like only they could have accomplished the thing that needed to be done, and they could ponder the worth of the sacrifice
I write my stories based on my own preferences: a lot of which were mentioned in this video.
Most important: use your fantasy!
This is a qualitative thematic analysis of why people love fantasy
More videos like the magic system ideas would be interesting.
hi im arohan and im quite young.watching your vids give me lot of ideas and inspirationfor a book that ive started writing.Please contnue doing this!
Ah I wish I had the time and money right now to apply for the bootcamp! Maybe next year I'll try, I'm currently working on a fantasy story with its own unique magic system and made up creatures, I have over 20,000 words written in notes so far of scene ideas, world building info, story outlining etc. I'm hoping to at least get the draft of the first book done this year 😂 in the meantime I'll just watch these awesome videos.
Characters Who Grow: Disney writers could really use videos like yours right now. People would rather watch the struggles of the animated Mulan from decades ago than the live-action Mulan that only struggled because she was "held back" and was "perfect all along." Don't even get me started on Star Wars...
I'm new to this channel, and I wish I could have submitted my magic system idea to you during the contest, if only to hear your thoughts and critiques (goodness knows it's not quite perfected yet). I feel that it's a bit more practical--I'm sure it's not that original, but it's believable for me that, of course, the ability to imagine your magic working is a factor. Imagination is a factor because one theme I'm working on is dreams--everything that is started as a dream, and I've got several gods that specialize in dreams, in the blissful, hopeful, and frightening aspects. There will be other consequences, too, depending on some spells, which I'm still working out. I'm also working on implementing a skill of "rewiring" curses/blessings, similar to how the fairy godmother saves Sleeping Beauty by changing the wicked fairy's death curse into a 100-year slumber. Imagine the rule implications of being unable to remove the curse, but being able to alter it to make it less lethal, like those action movies where a missile targets a location with a high population only for the hero to change the coordinates to somewhere less dangerous, or even redirect it right back at the terrorist.
There will be a lot of diverse magical creatures recognized by my readers, but I also want to implement ones that are not widely known, from the barometz to the hydrus (no, not the hydra).
Also, thanks for explaining the "Found Family Trope", I had never heard the term before. I'm trying to explore themes of doing the right thing even when inconvenient, and finding the strength to resist temptations of embracing the darkness within to find peace and healing--and then sharing that with the people around you.
I've been trying to write since I was 12, and my story has changed so much over the years. I wish I'd found this channel years ago!
Very grateful for this video!
I often say The Borrowers is my first ever science fiction. One of the things that's different is that Arietty doesn't go off to have adventures alone or with friends with a comfortable home to come back to but the whole family is forced to go on the run together. Pod, the father is the experienced brains, Arrietty is curious and brave and poor old Homily, the mother is neither clever nor brave but she reminds them that they are "respectable borrowers" not wild animals and advocates for civilisation.
it's weird how many of these I already had in my novel but then everything I've done until now was based of the old 'write what you want to read' saying so maybe not lol, still lots of good advice on how to better utilize some of the general ideas.
Re: morally gray characters - I wonder if all of us agree what that truly means. I think we can agree that morally conflicted characters fall under "morally gray" however I also find characters who are self ascribed to be good, yet have no qualms resorting to violence to solve all conflicts, and because they are fighting an even "greater evil" this justifies their actions.
I argue Anti-hero and morally gray aren't the same thing.
You've probably answered this already but will the podcast ever return? I personally really enjoyed it
The video froze at the beginning and he looked hilarious 😆
Meaningful consequences and sacrifices? Oh yea…my book has a whole lot of that.
Death around the MC-check
PTSD from battles and torture-check
Doubt, fear, and hesitation-check
So either I’m on the right track to making a somewhat enjoyable novel, or I’m just addicted to causing mental anguish to my characters 😂
Or both
I have ocs and the have all the trama, mental trama, mental illness, physical trama, long periods of bed rest, emotionally draining periods of time, overworking, so much 😅
Mmmmm, I love the taste of human suffering
@@mr.gnocchi4115 yeah that's definitely me too.
Well I loved your post for the 10 things we Fantasy Readers Hate, but once again I needed to come here to find the follow up. I aint one to wanna complain, but like WwW podcast I prefer to listen to your lovely voice over adding the need to look at your wretched mug of a face ;) *teasing.. Really just a dawg in need of using his time to multitask. i.e CZcams requires I sit down and look at where as Podcast Addict app lets me just listen to your audio feed.
Which is why I am here to request if ya wouldn't mind uploading your stuff back to audio based as well? I of course am not aware of how difficult such things are, but you were doing it so consistent for so long that I felt the need to say something. Not trying to tell ya how to do ya job, just letting ya know how some of us fans/students take your work in! Feel free to ignore, but since Patreon is gone with WwW I thought it best to just write a comment over sending a message.
Thank you for your content either way . Godspeed and Blessings to you and your efforts, sir Jed! Hope we can meet one day for some inside baseball on behalf of Professor Dyrk ;)
Ps.
Sent ya FB friend request - no need to accept, but if ya do I can be a little better with just sending a message.
I'm famous again, ma! What a timely video, Jed. Thanks!
I already implement so many of these! The novel I am currently working on the first draft for has a main character who goes through a lot. He never actually dies, but there are a few instances where the plot armor gets very thin. Two other individuals do die, and it has a profound impact on my protagonist. There is this girl who helps him, but survival is given higher importance, and no romance is shown. I am not saying they do not fall in love later, however, my story ends before that happens. When "push comes to shove" my character does what is right, even when it costs him, which it does frequently.
In another tale, I have this prince and his best friend as my main characters. It is the "closer than a brother" relationship. One would quite literally die for the other, and the prince would die for his people. My prince character has some struggles similar to those of Captain Aubrey from Master and Commander, Far Side of the World. His friend just does not understand certain things about what it means to lead, and the prince must walk the line between being the authority and being a friend. He fails occasionally, and second-guesses himself time and again. All in all, this prince is the best leader he can be almost because he is always trying to do better.
In my long-term project, the main characters are a family, but have been spending most of the time separate. There are the two older brothers who have private jokes and have traveled together for years; and then there is the younger sister, the heroine, who has wanted to travel with her brothers for the longest time. The result is banter, epic action, campfire stories, and magic-training. The result is ancient weapons wielded again. The result is the defeat of the darkness. The result is the rise of another Great Hero.
I love when a story that has a magic system in it, magic uses actually use magic. I also love morally grey characters.
Can you do a video on how to make a power up or new learned skill for a character interesting and deserved instead of them just getting the ability
Speaking of family relationships i enjoyed the sword of truth relationship between the mc and his grandfather.
As a person who watched animal stuff in my free time, making the environment and the animals effect each other is fun
Funny how Jed mentions architecture is a good precursor to fantasy world building. I've found the same thing with some electives I studied in college. I took Geology, meteorology & Climatology, Economics and Urban Planning classes that all help me in applying real world science into the world, understanding the Earth sciences and how the world was shaped by it's natural processes, such as volcanoes and plate tectonics. Where will the tallest mountains be? Naturally where plates of the world's crust are crashing into each other! Old rolling hills? Those are the site of word down ancient mountains from a bygone era when ancient plates once crashed into each other and then later stopped as landmasses fully absorbed each other and started behaving as a single continent. (Eg the Appalachians in eastern USA). And how the world is shaped will affect local climate and weather patterns, all of which will affect distribution of resources and where populations will naturally gravitate to, and where political borders will naturally resolve to. A vast plains will naturally tend to resolve into a vast empire or nation. Maintaining separate borders along such wide open terrain is nearly impossible and the pressure to merge through alliance, marriage or conquest will drive them into a single, vast nation whose size and military might are sufficient to resist incursion, where their terrain would invite it. In mountainous or rugged terrain with many natural barriers, nations may tend to be smaller as rivers, mountains, forests or swamps form natural barriers that make invasion, conquest and maintaining lines of trade and governance across them difficult. Only the most powerful and advanced of civilizations can make that work (Eg Roman Empire, Persian Empire, British Empire, Russian Federation).
I have a ton of writing to do, but the story is finished, it is in generally very sci-fi and it's a story where could put yourself in anyones shoes and understand them why they are doing it, over time
i like characters that are crazy or insane in a way
I would love to see what you have to say about a series like Attack on titan, it's the most thematically dense story I've ever seen and will 100% surprise you and not be what it seems to be.
Do you have a video on good fantasy novels? I want to read more fantasy but there are so many mid copy and paste low quality books in stores
Blue-eyed Samurai ticks nearly all these boxes, and I just finished watching The Gentlemen on Netflix and, while not technically a fantasy, it kind of is and the character writing, world building and plot twists are right up there. Sadly, too many movie and TV people don’t respect or seem to understand good writing.
Most important thing for me is a own universe
Like Asimov foundation! Characters is not always important as the story !
Hot take: Moral greyness doesn't exist. Morality doesn't have a shade. Just like an antagonist is the protagonist from their own perspective, morality is divined entirely by the beholder.
Rather than shades, I prefer to think of morals as avenues of projecting intent. You can pick a lot of different paths to success, but what to pick defines a lot about you. So rather than shades, what moral _route_ does your character take?
I think it's the depth of character that I struggle with most (or think that I struggle with most), I overthink whether they're actually deep enough or fake to the point where I lose interest or even feel guilty for procrastinating. Sometimes I wish I didn't know about any of these tropes up front and just, write. It doesn't help that I have few people to turn to, and no one of experience for advice, nor do I have the money to enlist any advice. Ik this is only a comments section, but, at least this gets this off my chest a bit. I'm sure at least a handful of people can empathize.
I feel you so much! What helped me a lot was understanding why I didn't think my characters were deep enough. I realized I had to work more on them and used abbie emmons' templates to figure out more things about them and how they fit into the magic system. In my case, it has helped a lot, but it might not be the case for you. Maybe your characters are already deep and diverse, and all you have to do is believe that and keep writing! I would advise analyzing the characters first and then deciding what's right for you. But don't worry, most writers have felt the same way you do now. Hope you can overcome it and write your amazing story.
@@tragicsimmer Thank you very much! Every time I run into something like this (or most times at least) I'm aware that even the greatest authors have their fair share of doubts and concerns. Some of which apparently still worry if their next work will be any good. Again, thank you!
I would like to see your take on: What to focus on if your fantasy has no magic going on.
I am currently in the world-building process of a fictional world (so far I have 3 continents, 65 countries with political systems, social structure, and somewhat functional economies, 10 cultures, 3 languages in full, 5 languages where I have the structure down but don't bother with full vocabulary, 4 religion systems, and a compendium of fictional animals and plants, 25 currencies and exchange tables, and still growing) but I feel like I'm missing something important.
The point is, magic is often the driving force of the story, or the thing that draws readers. What are your ideas for the 'hook' of such a world? Is it technology? Or is it society?
The characters and stories are already forming around the world, but I want that certain something that distinguishes the world from the rest, otherwise I fear it will be bland and that readers could easily forget that it's taking place in a different world and start subconsciously substituting the scenery for real world places.
I also welcome ideas in the comments. No magic, please.
My take would be to write a good story with a strong theme and characters who act in line with it. Take advantage of the differences between your world and ours, and use those differences to highlight the thematic elements of the plot.
well fantasy and supernatural are two different things, in a way sci-fi world is also a fantasy world
if you want a fantasy world without magic, you just need to show what way your world different from real world.
like is it the environment , tecnology or creatures that make this world different and how are people interacts and have adapted to this changes.
An example would be the aliens in the Avatar movies
One of my favorite authors writes books like you've described, Guy Gavriel Kay. His Sailing to Sarantium series got me hooked and I've been following each book since. The world building is intense.
Each story is set at a different place and time on the timeline of the world, with frequent references to how the culture, politics, and religion of those other regions are currently effecting this one.
They focus on the stories of each individual character, until they start to meet and intersect and affect each other's stories. Sometimes they never even meet or just pass each other by in a room never knowing who the other person was or how their actions had changed each others lives.
One story might start with a craftsman hired to do work in a palace. You learn about his life, his family, his hopes and dreams. He overhears some people talking about a chariot race, but he's busy at work.
Then you meet the charioteer. You learn about his life and why he does what he does. He accepts some flowers from a few ladies after his win, then gets beaten up behind an alley.
Then you meet the courtesan. You see her childhood and how she ended up here. How she now has a patron with a terrible temper, he had his guards beat a prize-winning charioteer just because she was among the women throwing him champion flowers. And now he thinks she'll be impressed because he hired a craftsman to design an art piece in her image for the palace.
Back to the craftsman, and he's struggling under the tyrannical rule of an arrogant noble. The charioteer has had his hand broken and it's costing all his prize money to treat it. The courtesan is being held captive. The craftsman hears a voice crying in the halls at night and now his crew thinks the place is haunted.
So on and so forth like that. By the end you're in this big sweeping change of eras, watching it through the eyes of a regular person, someone in the know, someone in power, none of whom are actually in control. The can affect the incoming tides but not control the effects.
I can't say I never compared his settings to real world history, but even when it's a similar setting the details and names are so specific that you would sooner imagine these were real countries we just didn't know about that happen to be in the region of some of those other countries.
Like a "Desert kingdom" is not just Egypt, but you could imagine it somewhere in Northern Africa or the Middle East. Instead of just giving us Rome-Greece, we get "Mediterranean kingdom" but it's not just generic, he gives them specific regional, cultural, religious, economic, and artistic characteristics to ground it in reality.
You understand the world through the pov of the people who are actually living in it, and facing the consequences of the results. For the craftsman, if this royal family falls, he loses his commission and paycheck. All that work for nothing. His family could starve. For the charioteer, it means he might get work as a mercenary. He could die but the pay is better, and death was always a possibility. For the courtesan it means finally getting rid of her oppressor and having a chance at a new life, if she isn't eliminated along with everyone else in the palace, as presumed cohorts. It pulls you into the story, the setting and the stakes.
The Mediterranean Kingdom trades with the Desert kingdom for goods. The kingdom across the Sea used to trade with them but recently switched leaders and religions so now no one can get ahold of the goods they used to use for those purposes. So at the end of the book if the Sea kingdom suddenly invades, it both is, and isnt a surprise.
And when the next book is about the Sea kingdom, and the various people living there and how they're affected by by new religion and the war, even if it's not directly relevant, you already know the lore, the history. Now you're seeing it from the other side.
And then if a book set in the Desert kingdom talks about the grandfather of the Mediterranean Kingdom's prince as though he's a newly crowned young warlord, and how some small cult has just been expelled from the land and escaped into the Sea kingdom, you feel privy to some Deep Lore. When the prince decides to make his career by opening up trade routes to the Mediterranean Kingdom despite the rumours of their fierce unreasonable leader you feel fully confident, knowing how it turns out, only to see him fail the first time, the second time, then finally succeed only when he dies and his son takes over.
It draws you in, makes you deeply invested in the history and economy and how all those little details create this domino effect that ends up changing the world.
Never found another world builder who could make me care so much and get so deeply invested in a completely magic free story. If there's any kind of "magic" involved whatsoever it's just the sort of religious-natural-universal order kinda thing, like what Tolkien has set up in the Silmarrilion, but without any gandalf or magic rings actually occuring in the "modern" world. Like, there's a philosophical idea of the universe being a tapestry, and that's reflected in the world religions, but that doesn't affect the day to day lives of each character. They aren't living "main character" lives, they're just people trying to get by in the world they live in, which is deeply relatable.
Also, just fyi I made up those specific plot points because I didn't want to spoil the series, it's just things **like** that happening, in several different, semi-related stories.
@@pvp6077 Sounds exactly like what I have in mind. Strange that I have never heard about this guy, especially since I am constantly on the lookout for new books. Might be he's not widely translated in my country. Will definitely give it a shot.
I decided to follow a 40 years long chunk of history in my first trilogy, but the history is basically the main character. I mean, in real life, characters that are important to what is happening often only come from somewhere unknown, do something that influences the said chain of events, and disappear to obscurity once again. Example: a Thief from 'Northern Islands', whose life has so far been unimportant to the chain of events I write about, steals the crown jewels of the 'Southern Kingdom', which leads to war... He then disappears without a trace, not being mentioned again, because his further exploits are unimportant for the rest of the story. Just like real people come and go (some of them even die accidental deaths like choking on bread), my characters will be the same.
I am tired, extremely tired, of stories where there are plot armored protagonists who see the whole conflict from start to finish (even worse, they're destined to do so). I also am tired of stories with villains. I don't want villains. I want multiple characters (and multiple POVs) with different goals in conflict, and the reader can pick a side.
I just seem to be lost about how much uniqueness to inject into the world to hit that precise balance between dumping unimportant details for the sake of worldbuilding and the blandness of underthought concepts that put people off.
"Meaningful consequences"
Omw to commence a tpk for story reasons.
I know this isn’t a book, but gosh, if you’re looking for some top notch character development, and very serious, human themes, go play The Last of Us. 🙂🙂🙂
I love the exploration of darker or more serious themes, even if its not entirely plot relevant.
One such thing I do in my own story is that I have these three characters who have all went through horrible things, and they get to talking about it along with a fourth character within ear shot. Each of them are essentially of the mindset, "I believe what happened to me is less bad than what happened to both of you." And trying to give their own reasonings based on their perspective as the one who had gone through their specific hardships. They all find themselves unable to convince the others that they're the one who is correct, so they ask the fourth character, who's response boils down to, "They were all really bad things that happened and I don’t think trying to make one out to be worse than the others is a constructive line of thinking. You all went through bad things, but you all survived and have been able to become better from them to the point were able to to even have a conversation like this to begin with. I think it's best if we all just ackowledge that none of these things should have happened to any of you, and we're lucky to all be here to have this conversation."
Who have all “went through” something? It’s “gone through”. Grammar matters, especially for writers.
@@jgamer2228
Indeed, but you never have to stick to a first draft mistake so long as you don't publish the first draft, now do you?
I'm actually working on a fantasy novel with a fairly negative series of consequences to the use of magic and I don't want to do anything romantic with my female lead ( she is going to be somewhere in between antihero and anti villain) but I wanted her indifferent attitude to change so I came up with the idea of a child side character that she rescued in chapter three who literally was an orphan sold to the very organization that is hunting her and others like her lead by seemingly immortal beings
Your videos are great, well though-out, well edited, and provides really helpful advice in general. You are super underrated and deserve much more views and subscribers. I have to say that what I think is pulling your channel back from growing any further is the fact that your videos are more directed towards people striving to right fantasy books specifically. I think what will help out more is if you broaden your audience by directing it at writers in general (of all genres). I know this will work because a lot of your advice and tips work not only for fantasy but for most other genres. Keep your great work because I wouldn't know what to do without your content!
I'm a game designer trying to swap out the standard RPG town, of an armor store, a weapon store, a potion store, and an inn, and replace it with towns that actually work. So I've spent a few years learning urban planning, and bits of architecture, and snippets of history, to build my understanding of why we have the cities we have. I would have loved to have listened to the architecture facts you told to your friends while you were traveling- I tried looking but didn't see anything talking about that directly- do you have a video, or shorts, or a separate youtube channel or social media account where you talk about our real life cities, buildings, and civilizations?
I really like main characters who have flaws but it has to be done right. 1. It needs to be an intended flaw and not the writer making their "perfect" character who, unbeknownst to the writer, happens to be incredibly selfish or annoying. 2. Sometimes a person's weakness is also their strength but giving the character a flaw that only benefits them defeats the point. 3. It is great to see the character grow such that they aren't an entirely different person at the end of the story but instead have evolved to overcome/control their flaws.
Probably a question that has already been asked: how much should one ideally have completed (of their work in progress) before the outline bootcamp?
As a reader, I want the main character to learn something, but I don't want his or her untimely death.
Hey nice video. I have a question.. I really believe i can wright a good fantasy story. The only problem is that i'm not someone who reads books.
Does that automaticly make it a failed story? If not do you have any tips. Are there mistakes i can easily make because i don't read books?
Would love to hear what you think.
Thanks again
I like coming up with new and original creatures, that's always good, but I find it at least as fun to take existing creatures and toy with them. Make your version of these well-known creatures unique somehow. In my fantasy setting, technology has been lost a long time ago, but the effects of its use remain in creatures like Orcs, who are the descendants of pigs who were 'elevated' through advanced technology. They evolved into humanoid creatures. Minotaurs are the result of the same thing with cows. Lizardfolk are the same as well. But then I have the Medvedi and the Haathiyon, which are bears and elephants. And so on.
I've spent quite a lot of time working on the biology and society of the Elves in my setting, distinguishing the subraces and what roles each plays in their society. I write that because it's what I want to read.
Also, morally gray characters are overdone and starting to get outright boring. Maybe I want a paragon from time to time. And if a villain thought they were in the wrong, they would rarely keep doing whatever they're doing. I think morally gray characters are the ones that can be good sometimes.
I think the best example of the found family trope I've ever seen is in Star Trek TNG. Picard at the outset states that he's "not a family man," yet he's very much the father figure to his crew - in a way, he gets to have a family even though he didn't originally see it that way, considering that he had sacrificed his own family prospects for the sake of his career and his dream as an explorer. The other main characters for the most part all either have lost certain family members or have dysfunctional families as well, priming them for finding a sense of belonging on the Enterprise D.
Any other good examples from media?
"new writers are reluctant to give their characters alot of strife" meanwhile here I am pushing my main character further into depression and addiction because, even when he gets the job done, he still manages to lose
I think the intricate magic system got way too high ranking. Too bad that is the only thing that stuck with people from everything Brandon Sanderson says.
It has to be consistent, but I don't need a new magic system in every book. World building and magic system is important, but not nearly as important as characters and relationships.
4:44, That's rough buddy...