Lifestyle, Landscape, & History — Three Essential Fantasy Elements
Hi there, welcome to Anasua’s creative space. I am Anasua Ghosh, author, life coach, reader, and mentor. I help aspiring writers to chase their writing dream. So, a few days earlier, I have been asked to write a post on fantasy geography, landscape, attire, and lifestyle. I added history because you will need it too. If you are writing a book with high fantasy elements, you will need to figure these out.
Before getting started, let me tell you something really important. When a writer offers you writing tips, they tell you the methods which work for them. So, this is how I create my story’s landscape, geography, lifestyle, and history.
The Preparation
If you are writing a book for the first time, you may get a little confused about worldbuilding, and rightly so. Worldbuilding is an intimidating task and for this reason, you need to approach it carefully. I will advise you to follow a simple method, at least at the initial stage. It is fancy to have colored pens and highlighters and colored papers and graph notebooks. But those look good on social media. When it comes down to actual worldbuilding, you only need a sheet of paper and a pen that runs smooth, at least to create the rough draft.
You can draw the map after you have created your fantasy story world. I follow the opposite approach. I draw the map and then make detailed notes on my story’s world. Later you can use colored pens and paper and graph charts and whatever you want.
The World of Your Story
If you are writing a book for the first time, the concept of worldbuilding may cause a little tremor inside. How do you know where to put the mountain? How do you know where put the river? How?
The best thing about a high fantasy novel is — you are the God of your world. Therefore, as you wish so it is. The landscape of a fantasy story is closely connected to the story premise. Therefore, you must prepare your synopsis or story outline before approaching worldbuilding.
The map on the top belongs to my last release Kingdom of Clay Book 1. Here I have highlighted the kingdom I have featured in the first book. I needed a mountain that guards the kingdom, so there it is the great mountain. I needed a dense forest at the foot of the mountain, so, there is it the forest, might not be too well defined. But it serves the purpose.
You will find a river which divides into two sections, the one going down is black. This is a cursed river no one goes near it. My story needed a cursed river, so, I put it in there.
Everything is connected to your story. For this reason, before you start writing, know your world. Define it in your mind. Make notes. And then sit with your pen and paper. If the blank paper looks too intimidating, make yourself draw a triangle at the corner of the paper. The rest will follow forth. If you are writing a book with fantasy elements, it is a required procedure.
The History
It is also connected to your story premise. Remember that when it comes to a story world, everything should exist for a reason. However, here you will not have to start from a completely blank piece of paper. You have the freedom of stealing bits and pieces from real history and mythologies. If you can create an amalgamation of them both, you will create a compelling fantasy world that captivates people.
The lifestyle (attire, food, communication, profession) depends on the story timeline. So, there also, we come back to the outline. I know, I am taking the romance out, but the worldbuilding is a perfect fusion of creativity and calculation.
Another essential part to remember is — don’t dwell on too much description. You may feel the need to explain your world to your readers. But readers usually skip the descriptions, especially the lengthy ones. Therefore, show your world through action. Put your characters in the middle of an action and describe your fantasy world.
Instead of giving them a long description of a forest, make one of your characters cross the forest. It will be a better read.
So, with that, I am gonna wrap this thing up. If there you have any writing-related questions, I will be happy to answer. Feel free to ask.
PS — My dark psychopath thriller The Ripper is progressing well. I have received the book cover from my designer and will feature it for you all to see shortly. Thank you so much for stopping by.
