10 Easy Steps to Writing a Fantasy Novel | How I Wrote My Debut Novel

[Music] one of my most frequently asked questions is like how did I write a book and honestly I kind of want to say I have no idea but I would be totally lying because I have a a pretty rigid structure so I thought I'd do a video on the 10 steps that I kind of roughly take to write a book let me start by just adding this I am not in any way shape or form the best writer out there and you could probably get loads of advice from other people that could give you better advice than I could but I must a lot by the people I've read in my book and want to know how I did it so this is just another way of doing it I guess I will say this though and I will toot my own horn a little bit when it comes to like plotting out things I'm I would say that's what my strength is plot and character I wouldn't say my strength lies so much in in the writing element but that's why you have an editor so the way that I learned to structure writing and stories and plots and characters is very much in a filmmaking movie making way so that that will come into a little bit of the steps that I take when writing I think personally everyone brings their own experience of their life and what they've learned and what they enjoy to write in a book and it kind of makes it hard to put it in specific stages because different things will work for different people and this is just really what works for me but these 10 steps can also be kind of just uniform to anyone's learning style and just give you those like little prompts into maybe just opening your brain opening your world a little bit into storytelling character development and really just getting it down so that you can work it into something that's going to be you know magical So I myself published author I've sold over 2 000 copies and the last time I checked I had around 100 000 page reads a month on Amazon KDP if you're not sure what Amazon KDP is I am doing a video on like the ups and downs of publishing through Amazon KDP so be sure to subscribe if you want to see that you want to check out if you're interested but let's get on to the 10 steps so for me the first step in developing a fantasy people is to determine the genre and the sub-genre so for example I like writing fantasy books but then they could be a subgenre underneath that such as high fantasy urban fantasy Dark Fantasy there's loads so this step is really important because it kind of determines what your entire theme of your book is so really think about that think about what it is that you want get that wrote down step two of developing my fantasy books would be going straight with the hard stuff and developing the world what does the world look like so you have to consider the history the geography culture the magic systems and obviously like the politics of your world you can make that as detailed as you want or just as little as you want as well I didn't go too much into the politics because it's not something I enjoy right but it is something I enjoy reading but when you're doing this try not to fall into the familiar sort of tropes too much it can make your your world a little bit sort of feel recycled almost your world's ultimately going to be the foundation of your story so you have to make it as unique and imaginative and to a certain extent believable I would just create a map that's the one thing I like to do when I'm doing mine just create a map what does it look like okay then we've got this region there we've got this region maybe there's something here why are they separate that kind of process for me making it a visual thing really helps with the World building process okay third step I would say this is the most important step because for me I'm a character-driven person I like to read about characters that I want to fall in love with so the third step is develop your characters now your characters are the heart of the story these are the people that are going to make the readers fall in love with the book with the story what it is you're trying to tell them so you really have to develop your character so that they are completely all-rounded as well as being relatable you need to know if you was to have a conversation with your character what it is that they would say naturally in their tone how they react what kind of mannerisms would they have so just some top liners to consider their personalities what kind of personality how would somebody else describe them what kind of goals do they have what's something that they're really good at like their strengths what's their weaknesses and I would say probably most importantly what motivates them is it fear is it hope what is it is it the fact that they are having to provide for their family you know what is it that motivates them get really in there with that okay so now you've got your top three you know your genre in your subgenre you know where you want it to go and the feel and Vibe of the book that you have you know the world that they live in and you know the characters that you are going to create these stories around so naturally the next thing to consider is your plot where are you going what story are you telling I always start with characters before I start with plot because I don't know what would happen in a plot unless I know my characters if I don't know my characters I can't tell you the plot it's as simple as that it's like asking somebody what would you do without knowing them you know like it just it just doesn't work for me but now you know your characters and you know your world so you know how they're going to react so I think your plot needs to be something that is carefully crafted and obviously super engaging the way that I tell stories is in a three-act structure and that is basically the First Act sets up the the location the people who it is that you're going to be telling the story about and then at the end of act one something called an inciting incident happens that is essentially a point of no return for the main protagonist the main character that can be something as simple as you know somebody dies and she's having to take something on or maybe she finds out that magic is real it could be literally anything but the point in which your story is now projected forward into the plot is the insight and incident and that happens usually within my structure at the end of the first third but I think it's again because I have wrote screenplays I work on these movie moment beats these are things that my plotline must hit these moments of either Exposition or character development specifically to the character's art specific rising action points it could be traveling it could be going from one place to another it could be discovering these different things keep these rising actions keeps the pace going and then obviously you get to the climax and that could be a big war it could be confrontation it could be a breakdown it could be literally anything it is that you want but think about ultimately where is you're wanting to get to where are you wanting to see your protagonist your main character get to and you know you could kind of work backwards from there and think about all the struggles and strives that she's going to have he's going to have they're going to have on the way there an important thing to remember with your characters as you are thinking about your plot is how they will develop so we've touched on it just a second ago about a character's Arc and that if you've heard that Tim it literally just means somebody's development how do they change as a person what is it that they're going through and how is it affecting them do they become more resilient stronger sadder happier what happens to them because we all know in life the more things that you go through you change and ultimately they might they might need to change they might need to change for them to be who it is that you see them as at the end of the book should not be the same person you are introducing them as at the beginning of the book you should allow that character to have room to change and grow and develop so never go into the book with your character being who they are who you want them to be straight away okay step number five establish your sort of magic rule system your rules of magic if you're doing a Fantasy novel it is very important I think as a writer and as a reader to establish the majority of the way that your magic system works pretty early on so consider how magic Works within your world including its limitations the consequences of using it and obviously how it affects the characters and their surroundings it could be everyone has magic nobody has magic it could be that there's different types of magic we see a lot of that like different types maybe Elemental Magic or it could be simply that magic is something that doesn't exist anymore I always like that you know like thrown in flask Vibes and it's ultimately the plot and Discovery is is aiming to get that magic system back and if you are doing a story like that you actually can get away with you know keeping a little bit of the magic system held back and work through it as you're going through the plot but for your magic system it's important that you know how your magic works in your world who it belongs to what your consequences are of using it and how it affects everyone okay stage six would be to think about the villain of the story now the villain doesn't have to be a person it could be something else it could be a rot that's that's killing the land it could be the Earth is dying that could be the villain I will say it is easier for it to be a Corporal version of a villain it but I do also like sometimes when I read books things be more ethereal than that and it being taken away from this sort of person form of a villain it could be something else so obviously with your villain or all your sort of your antagonists let's say treat them as a character regardless of whether they are a character or not if it's not a person you still treat them as a character you need to know what motivates them why is it that they're doing what they're doing if you don't know that it it's the same as any character development you cannot create a plot without knowing what motivates your characters and why they're doing what it is that they're doing give them a backstory we love a good villain backstory and it makes their reasons and motivations way more believable and it also adds tension to the plot because sometimes you you know it I sometimes prefer the villain I'm like no you know what I I can see why you feel like that so it also has this different Dynamic of you know enjoyment for a reader I would say step number seven is once I know my characters once I know my world ones I know the villain the plot I know everything that's kind of going on now I've got it all sort of mapped out is the conversations for me conversations is a really great way of allowing the plot to naturally and organically flow in a direction that is believable to the characters and all I mean by that is just right engaging dialogue so obviously dialogue is an essential component in any storytelling but sometimes it can be used in what I think is always sloppy and it's again I think it comes back to sort of my screenwriting um history training that I've done they always say in screenwriting narration can be kind of lazy if you have to use a narrator in um screenwriting you know somebody has to tell you what's going on you're not really doing a great job of doing it visually like and I think that concept goes hand in hand with the show don't tell concept within you know novels and writing books and I feel like if you are ever questioning whether something that you've written is is good enough or is detailed enough or is engaging enough read it and and look at yourself and say am I being told this or am I being shown this and dialogue is a huge Pitfall for a lot of people I've seen where they'll use chunks of conversations for the expositions and it's not dialogue and it's not engaging because it's almost like you're just being spoken at you know you just sat there listening to somebody tell you everything that's happening in the form of dialogue that's not engaging it's not engaging to me as a reader and I find it really unengaging as a writer I find it quite lazy actually I do think that there are definite uses for it and and needs for it but it depends how often you use it that it become exhausting almost I would say shorter snappier dialogue scenes that keeps it engaging whilst also revealing information about your characters and their motivations we say things without saying it and I think there's a statistic out there I'm sure I could be making this entirely up okay but I'm sure the statistic has something like eight percent of communication is non-verbal okay so step eight when you've done all of that all of those things it's important to go back through and make sure that you are creating a memorable setting and I don't mean that in a way that you have to completely go against everything that we know because you know there's so much to be said about having something that is also relatable you can you can actually relate because you understand that you've seen it whatever for me it could be quite a fine line between creating something that's completely memorable out of nothing but also being relatable I'll say just an example for this in my book there is a cafe that the main character works at Lana now the cafe is described in such a way that it actually describes the owner of the cafe and it helps you understand the situation that the the main character is living in so although this is such a small component of the locations that I'm telling my story in it tells so much more because Lana our main character is having to go to work in this overly tired drab Cafe with her loser perv bath and the entire environment that she's in is adding to the stress in her life and you can imagine the way that it's described it being a stressful environment and I don't just mean the way that it you know it's operated I mean the way it looks the way it looks is like to me it's a headache it's checkerboard flaws and you know ripped leather sort of booths red boots it's just when I was writing about that specific memorable location I take into account this is not just a place this is an Ambience step nine now we're getting to the good part edit edit and revise your work honestly oh Joe if I read the first chapter that I wrote of a crown of cursed love I look at and I think Jade I have learned so much so so much and I will do a video on that if you if you're interested in it in publishing my own first book I've been writing stories forever but publishing a book actually editing it publishing it allowing people to read it is an entirely different thing you have to be so much more analytical with the way that you are writing because I think sometimes as writers and as readers we forget that the way that we think and and perceive things is not the way that other people do somebody can read the same book as you and have an entirely different experience so as a writer it's important that you are allowing for all of those experiences without there being too much room on what did actually happen you know you've kind of got to guide them a little bit but not too much that it's just boring so I found a lot when editing it there was things that I was overly describing that I didn't need to I didn't need to hold the reader's hand as much as I were I was worrying for example that they would forget that Lana's eyes were Amber but I was worried that they wouldn't they wouldn't log that now me as a reader if you point something out specifically twice I have logged it I've actually tabbed it because I know as a as a reader and a writer you're going to bring that back around that meant something but right in my first novel I didn't really afford that trust I would say in my readers that they would be able to pick up on those things so sometimes I was dropping maybe a little bit too many crumbs now going through editing it and also having a couple of my girlfriends read a chapter by chapter and give me their thoughts and feelings I thought was so useful because it allowed me to understand where their mind was going when they was reading it so I could go okay yeah they're picking that up or oh they've completely skin past that they've not even read that and that's a really important bit now I need to edit it and change it so having that I would say is so useful for me the editing process and the drafting process goes through at least four phases in my own writing and editing style so I would say I do a first draft second draft third draft people read the fourth draft chapter by chapter they then give me their thought pattern this is before alpha or beta readers and then we go to Alpha and beta readers by then it's pretty much what it's going to be it's pretty much what it's going to be it's not been like line edited so the grammar and stuff might still be off there might be some tweaks that need to be done but ultimately most of the stuff has been caught by the time it goes to Beta readers it's just the vibe and stuff that I get from those and then was the beta readers have read it and they've got their you know sort of take on it and I'm happy with their take some people won't like it like you've got to get used to that some people won't like it some people will love it look at my favorite book for example a guitar some people don't even like that book and I'm just like are you we all will never be friends but what so you have to understand that not everyone is going to love the book that you write they're not going to get it and that's fine they can read it at the book that they're gonna get but when you go through that process you get the different sort of you know add it I want to say like Vibe and energy of what what people are thinking about the book and it's really useful and then you can go back and we redo those tweaks remake those things and then I would say one of the most important things is to make sure that you have somebody line edit it now let me tell you I have somebody line edit mine and I had a disaster and I will talk about another video I had an absolute disaster with it essentially what happened is they sent me the file that I sent them so I loaded a version that I've not even been outline edited which was a nightmare but it's fine those things happen my mom my mom was like Jay don't feel bad about it you know tolkien's first editions were like riddled with grammar mistakes I was like okay that makes me feel a bit better actually but I would say make sure that you go through somebody who was recommended instead of just going through Fiverr and the last step in my 10-step little process would be to publish your novel I will be doing a video on how I publish mine through KDP so if that's something that you're interested in make sure you subscribe it'll be out in a few days but there's multiple ways of publishing you can self-publish or you can submit your manuscript to Publishers and again if you want me to do a video on that let me know I can do that I have many friends who have worked in the publishing industry that I could get on a video with me and we can go through it and talk through it so you guys can have all the info but ultimately those are my 10 steps on how it is that I sort of draft out a fantasy novel anyways guys I hope you liked this video it was a highly requested one so I'm so glad I did it if you liked it make sure that you give me a thumbs up so that I know you liked it comment down below which one of the stages do you think was mostly useful thanks for watching and I will see you soon foreign

Channel: JadeLeannexo

Views: 34,172

Keywords: booktube

Id: 74eDPvsPc58

Length: 18min 10sec (1090 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 11 2023