The fantasy genre is one of the most popular genres out there. And why not? You're pretty much just making everything up as you go along. No rules to follow, no real structure to go along with, or need to research anything. It's perfect for a beginner writer to dive into.

If you're reading this, chances are you're a writer who wants to do fantasy. You are also most likely someone who wants to be a self-published author, and those two things are perfect. You want things your way and you want to make sure they stay your way.

Sadly, there's a lot of help out there that is ill-fitted for such a desire. Also, as writers, especially beginners, we tend to lose the purpose of writing in and of itself. Well, I want to help.

Here's 5 things you should do and 5 things you should not.

5. Originality

Do make sure you give everything your own spin.

I get it. You play D&D or pathfinder. You love Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. A lot of people do. So much, that anything even remotely close to it, and someone tries to connect it all like a conspiracy theorist connecting Halloween to agent orange.

The quick answer is: take what you love and mix it with another thing you love.

Do you love elves and cats? Turn your "elves" into cat people. Do you love the wise old wizard and busty goth girls? Combine them. Making a fantasy story is all about taking things you like and can find and combining what you like while taking away what you don't like. It's like cooking, and because we all have different tongues, we all want different flavors.

Don't worry about making everything original

I used to do this mistake, and I suffered for it. I wanted every single little bit of the story to be original, all while not realizing that I was pretty much copying Kingdom Hearts mixed with Bleach (the anime, not the laundry sauce). I was a teenager, I was learning, and I was lucky enough to get over that hurdle. A lot of people are not so lucky. They live until their dying day stuck in the idea that they are not original enough, don't accomplish anything, and their own doubt is their downfall.

Don't be like that loser. Actually write your story.

4. World building

Do make your world yours

A lot of people try to study into a new culture or try to do something out of the ordinary, and this is where the problems becomes apparent. We are not that skilled in what we don't know, and we are also afraid of adding things we are familiar with. Here's the thing, you really should make your fantasy story based off of what you know, including your own life and your own home town and traditions. Have it all about your own beliefs and your own fears. The more clever your are, the less apparent it becomes, and the more people will be impressed.

Don't get bogged down on the less important things

A lot of help guides make lists of things your fantasy cultures do, and they don't really understand that a lot of it is useless. Here's the thing: I don't care what music the Rock Biter from The Neverending Story listens to. His character was that he was all about eating rocks. He served a purpose for the story, all because he was so simple.

3. Themes

Do make it into a religion

I don't mean you should make your own bible, or that now you have to believe in your own nonsense. What I mean is that you should have it be your beliefs and ideas, but portrayed in a fantasy setting, much like most regions are.

Take the Greek epics for example. Their gods don't really mean much to us, but the stories they are in do. Their struggles, their involvement, what we can learn from them, the fables. You want your fantasy story to be a buffet of fables, at least if it's a novel length. Every character should represent an idea bigger than they actually are, and if they don't, at least make them interesting enough to include.

If you want some inspiration for fables, here is a good start

Don't worry about cliches when they matter

This one is a little hard to understand, but I think I can summarize it well. A cliche is when we have seen the topic over and over again to the point where we are used to it. Once it's an established part of a genre or type of story, it becomes a trope. There's this weird mix of tropes and cliches we see in every story, especially fantasy stories, and so many people fear them. I say, don't fear them, embrace them, but know what you want to embrace. If you don't like it, don't touch it.

Of course, there are cliches that are bad, and it's good to know which ones these are, but these cliches are usually involved in how a plot progresses or how a character gets out of a situation. the cliches I'm talking about are stuff like involving gods, having a traditional magic system, or having the classic prince in shining armor slaying a dragon.

These are things that we can all play with, and we can even parody them in our stories. All we have to do is play with the adjectives and we have a new idea. If this one is not clear, I can make another article all about it, but I know it's important to embrace cliches that we usually are told to avoid.

2. Characters

Do make your characters myth-worthy

I will admit, I'm tired of characters that don't have much interesting about them other than maybe their hair style or clothes. Your characters need to fit a certain position and flaunt it like no tomorrow. Remember Legolas with his bow? it wasn't just because he was an expert bowman. He was over the top and did more than what normal elves could do.

Why do you think Jason from Jason and the Argonauts is so famous? He did more than the average man, and also quested for the Golden Fleece. It was his desire and his ability to get it that made him worthy of the myth. Your characters have to stand for an ability and an idea, not just be the main character or the main character's friend and that's it. It's not about who they are, it's about what they stand for.

Don't get caught up in diversity and other frivolous nonsense

One main issue I have these days is how people are taking adjectives and turning them into something important, when it really isn't. Having your character black or brown or basically non-white because there's "too many white heroes" is the dumbest thing I've seen from now. Might as well tell the Chinese that their Wuxia characters are too Asian, or tell the Japanese their anime characters are too Japanese.

The language a character uses, the color of their skin, the style of their appearance, it doesn't matter to the story. it's all atheistic, and that is all for style sake, not story. Back to cooking, imagine if you make a cake that's full of salt, but you make sure the outside frosting is pretty. It's still unappetizing and people won't eat the entire thing just because of frosting. Unless the person really likes frosting or salt. In that case, all the flavors in the world and you had to be salty!

1. End Goal

Do make the story about yourself

This is your story. Your world, you are the God of the world. It's your money and you want it now!

Don't have trends trick you into writing garbage and don't start writing about stuff you are not really interested in. What I do is that I wait a little bit on an idea after playing or watching something new. If it stays, I keep it. If I lost interest, I scrap it or change around the adjectives. And this is what it's all about most of the times: the adjectives we use.

I almost believe that the adjectives in a fantasy story make up the majority of problems for a lot of writers. I don't want to say it's 100% true right now, but it's so close, I can taste it.

Perhaps test your ideas. If you don't want to make a European style story, try to change the armor and weapons to Chinese. if the story is still the same with it's European style problem, you have found the problem in the bones, rather than the flesh.

Don't make the story based off of trends

This is the biggest no-no I have seen, especially from self-published people. They see a trend like Game of Thrones, take the setting, take whatever they think is "popular" and then slap it all together like a nasty patty from Spongebob. It's okay, it makes the person money for a while, but it's not what a fantasy story is supposed to be. It's the fast food of fantasy, and as we all know, we cannot survive solely on fast food and expect to be healthy.

Writers should challenge their audience and challenge themselves. Playing it safe is fine for your first or second story, and I suggest writers start with short stories to really get their idea down.

Wait, this is probably the biggest thing to think of: start small.

If your idea is not able to be done in a short story, your idea is too bloated for its own good. Not the entire story and all of its characters, I mean the main goal of the story, the main point, the theme. Because if it's all about good vs evil, that can be done in a sentence , and we already have many examples of those.

Want more? Check out my minds article about how to write the perfect fantasy story here

Want more help in writing your story? Comment your problem and I'll be happy to help. Now go out there and start writing!