How to Write Fantasy

Build a magic system, not a magic catalog

Brandon Sanderson's First Law: an author's ability to solve conflict with magic is directly proportional to how well the reader understands that magic. Define the rules and the costs early. If a character can heal with magic, what does it cost them? Blood? Memory? Years? If healing is free, you have just removed every life-threatening stake from your book.

Worldbuilding by hint, not lecture

Reveal your world through what your characters take for granted. A market scene, a meal, an insult — these tell the reader more than a chapter of history will. Save the deep lore for moments when a character needs it to act, and trust the reader to fill in the rest.

Subgenres and their promises

Epic fantasy promises scope and stakes (Tolkien, Sanderson, Jemisin). Urban fantasy promises our world with a hidden layer (Gaiman, Butcher). Grimdark promises moral grey and cost (Abercrombie, Lawrence). Romantasy promises magic plus a love story (Maas, Yarros). Pick your shelf — readers will judge your cover against its neighbors.

Famous examples to study

Read Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea for prose, Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn for hard magic systems, N. K. Jemisin's The Broken Earth for political worldbuilding, Naomi Novik's Uprooted for fairy-tale tone, and Rebecca Yarros's Fourth Wing for current-market romantasy.

Common tropes that still work

The chosen one, the dark lord, the prophecy, the hidden heir, the magic school, the dragon bond, the cursed bloodline, the artifact that must be destroyed, the found family of adventurers. Tropes are the language of the genre. Use them with conviction and twist one or two; do not try to twist all of them.

Common mistakes to avoid

Magic that solves whatever the plot requires, info-dumping in chapter one, ten named characters in the first thirty pages, a chosen one with no flaws, a dark lord with no interior life, and forgetting that worldbuilding exists to serve emotion, not the other way around.

Five books to study

• A Wizard of Earthsea — Ursula K. Le Guin
• Mistborn — Brandon Sanderson
• The Fifth Season — N. K. Jemisin
• Uprooted — Naomi Novik
• Fourth Wing — Rebecca Yarros

Tropes that still work

• The chosen one
• The hidden heir
• Magic school
• Dragon bond
• The artifact that must be destroyed

Mistakes to avoid

• Magic with no cost
• Chapter one info-dump
• Too many names too fast
• Flawless protagonist
• Worldbuilding for its own sake