I’m honored to be on The Tales Pensieve for a guest post, How to Create a Fantasy World – Tips on Worldbuilding. Read the excerpt below and check out the full post on The Tales Pensieve.
Fantasy is not a creation of the modern world. In fact the roots of fantasy go back thousands of years to an age of myths and legends, when wandering storytellers sat by a fire and recounted fantastic tales of wondrous worlds, populated by gods, heroes and monsters. Starting from the ancient epic ofGilgamesh and The Tales of King Arthur to the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and J.M.Barrie’s Peter Pan; fantasy is the longest surviving genre in the world of stories.
One of the most important aspects of writing fantasy is the creation of your world. It could be a vast land with many kingdoms like in Lord of the Rings or a world that is hidden and exists within our very own, like the wizarding world of Harry Potter. Enid Blyton wrote about worlds at the top of the Faraway tree, magical lands that could only be reached by climbing a ladder into the clouds. And C.S. Lewis’Narnia is a childhood classic.
In order to write a fantasy novel, it is important to first have a complete idea of what your world is going to be like. There are a few basic steps that can be used to build a believable and consistent world. Although your fantasy world is a creation of your mind, and can be anything that you desire it to be, there are certain rules that we must follow to make sure that the world makes sense. Otherwise when you start writing your book, inconsistencies in the details of your world can lead to greater problems later on.
Full Post on The Tales Pensieve.