Q&A for How to Write a Credible Fantasy Story

Give them a culture and a history. They will be either as natural to your world as humans are, or they split off of humanity due to natural disaster and were forced to evolve. For example: in a post atomic war setting, dwarves might be humans who evolved shorter because they lived underground for so long.

Yes, but make sure each villain is equally important and has a purpose.

You can try to relate the characters to yourself or others in your life, giving them personality traits and qualities that are similar to real people.

Give the villain human traits, but traits that you may not see much in an average human. Try not to resort to using mental disorders for villains; this just creates a stigma and is a turn-off for many people.

Just make sure you are not repeating anything and describe everything that happens with detail. That said, do not overuse detail, because too much and it could get boring.

Have the characters meet others who will possibly turn out to be their friends. That way they can introduce themselves. In describing them, you can write things like: "She flipped her dark Raven hair" or "His tan skin turns a rosy shade and he looks the other way, obviously embarrassed."

Start with something that will hook your reader in, something like onomatopoeia or diving straight into action might do.

You always want to try and engage your readers and make them want to read on. Try starting with a rhetorical question that makes the reader interested and engaged from the first sentence.

It is helpful to outline your book ahead of time. Try to think of the big climax before you start writing, then think of all the different ways to resolve the problem presented by the climax. Then, as you're outlining, wait until the plot seems to be winding down, bring the book to a satisfying conclusion that wraps up all the loose ends. Unless you're writing a sequel -- in that case, either leave the book with a cliffhanger, or leave it with a few loose ends that you can wrap up in later books.

All characters, heroes or villains, should have both good and bad traits. If you want your readers to like your villain, make their good traits more obvious - if you're writing in the first person, your hero could start to notice times the villain spared them, or that the villain chose to do bad things for good reasons. They should still have all their flaws, but they could learn to manage those flaws. For example if your villain is selfish, you could have them make a strong effort to try and put others first, even if at first they don't succeed.

Decide on a setting or an object that acts as a portal. For example, maybe your character could pass between two ancient and enchanted trees. Once passing between these two trees they see something entirely different through them. A whirling of lights, a different country, or maybe a misty picture of the world they are about to enter. Be creative! Or take any object and turn it into something fantastic. A more common portal like a doorway is an idea you can use, or you can broaden that with something better and rare, like an enchanted teapot. Create a story or background for your way of getting to this magical world.

We observe the real world with our senses, so you can use this to describe features of Death. Maybe he smells like sulfur. Maybe he can shape shift, but always has a distinct scar on his face. Maybe the room gets colder when he is nearby. You can even employ a magical sixth sense.

Redeem him. Prove that he had a reason for his evil. Have the main characters use magic to change him.

First person is an excellent way to portray your world. It can be used to portray a character's feelings about his/her quest and their world. It is used in every genre of writing and, if used correctly, is extremely effective.

It's entirely up to you. If you want to incorporate an existing religion, you could make it a central characteristic of one of your characters. If you want to make up a religion, take some inspiration from old or dead religions. You could also look to smaller subsets of religions in places like Africa or ancient Egypt for inspiration. This would be a more creative option than the usual Greek or Roman mythology inspiration.

You can try having three of the rivals discussed frequently in the book, with the fourth mentioned only briefly. Then as events in the story unfold, the first three rivals could begin to hear more about the fourth rival and see that his personality has changed, which could lead them to have a truce to work together to determine why the fourth rival has changed.

As complicated as you want them to be, but don't reveal all of the secrets of the items at once. Try revealing them slowly to make the story more interesting and keep your reader hooked.

With something that attracts the reader's attention. Try introducing some sort of question and answering it in the next paragraphs. Or, immediately introduce an interesting character, then make the reader follow them through the first chapter of the story. Jump straight into action or introduce a mystery right away if you fear being boring. Just think about the most interesting thing you can possibly write about at this point of the timeline of your story. You can turn to books you really like for inspiration and see if the first few paragraphs of the story hooked you in and made you love it, and what is so interesting about them.

Well, you could build a fantasy story that includes races from our current world. You could also include elves, dwarves, orcs, fairies, sorcerers, warriors, trolls, goblins, vampires, werewolves, or mermaids. If you wanted to get really creative, you could come up with your own race(s).

Absolutely! Sometimes having more characters can increase the reader's interest, but focusing on a few can be an interesting and refreshing change as long as they all have unique personalities.

Absolutely. As the writer, you're allowed to design your world any way you see fit, and writing can be an excellent way to have your say on the issues we face in today's world. If the issues in the society on your world aren't the same as the social issues we face today, that's still a really interesting thing to include, and it makes your world so much more alive.

As many as you want! There isn't any rule about how many races or creatures have to be represented in your story, so it's entirely up to you.

Absolutely! You're the author -- your story is yours to shape as you will. Drama is about focusing on the way people act and would act in certain situations. You could write about how your characters are reacting to certain fantasy elements.

Give them a back story, and drop mysterious hints until about halfway in the story, when the back story will be revealed.

Try starting it with a lead-up; something fast and exciting, but not too fast and actually plays a role. For instance, if your story is about a thief, make him/her steal something important but not realize it, maybe. Make the middle slightly slower, and the end slowest but with a twist and flare that will make it the best part.

Make sure you do not repeat lines or words. The same word repeated over and over again can get boring. You should also use just enough detail and not too much. Be sure to proofread your story before you publish it (if you are).

Think about the age range that will be reading your story, and word your gory/depressing details in a way that is suitable for that age range. Try reading books written for that same age range and see how the author handles more grown-up content.

Basically all you have to do is put yourself in other people's shoes. Just try to think of what they like. For example, if your friend loves zombies then write a fight scene about zombies. Add lots of fast-paced action.

Each race is unique and has developed differently, so it is believable they will have their own weapons, such as how Western Europe had swords and bows, while Greece had javelins, and Japan and China had Katanas.

Sure! Lots of great fantasy stories have romance. You can do anything you want in a fantasy.