10 Things Fantasy Readers Love (Writing Advice)

I asked 348 fantasy readers the number one thing they love to read and in this video I'm going to be sharing the top 10 responses along with sharing my thoughts on how you can use these things to craft better fantasy novels yourself there were a lot of really specific comments in these survey responses that made me smile because I love these things so much uh myself as a reader and as a writer so I think you'll get a ton of really useful writing inspiration as we go through these let's start with number 10 meaningful consequences and sacrifices so in the survey readers really appreciated when characters face meaningful suffering and when you're willing as an author to actually have genuine consequences and stakes and painful outcomes for your characters in some instances we had one respondent saying when villains can win and heroes can die it's nice to have a bit of realism sprinkled into the story as it keeps you concerned for the character's safety another respondent said I love unpredictable main character deaths I love when you genuinely don't know who might make it to the end of Their Own Story having companions you feel for deal with unexpected loss and taking on a new role is powerful another survey comment here was that uh someone said they love having an eye on the consequences when there's a magic system that takes away apart from the Mages every time they use it how does that affect the Mage when they come back home after the battle is over and when they realize that they've forgotten their mother's name his fingers ghost over the guitar's strings in search for the pattern of his favorite song and when he looks outside at the crows in his Gardens he can't recall the old happiness he felt when he first managed to attract them there by spreading some grains who are you then when you are missing all these little parts of your yourself in terms of my thoughts on this I feel like we connect to characters not so much through their successes but through their failures and so when you give your protagonist weak challenges and you don't really push them to the brink you're robbing us of a chance to truly understand this person at a deep level because you're never pushing them to the edge you're never forcing them to really be backed into the corner where they have to escape by proving who they are and digging down into the kind of inner resourcefulness and grit within themselves because it's only in moments of extreme difficulty and extreme pressure that you really get to see who somebody is at their true core so don't be shy about pushing them to their Brink and as some of these respondents have mentioned don't be shy about taking them even beyond the brink to their death if that's necessary for your story as well this is something I'm always saying to the writers in my fantasy outlanding boot camp quite often new writers are reluctant to give their characters a lot of strife or a lot of struggle and so something I always like to encourage writers to do is to ask themselves how could I make things worse for my character in this situation how could they be forced to make an irreversible sacrifice that there's no coming back from and through doing so and through choosing to make that sacrifice what does that then say about this character and about what they value consequences stakes and loss that is where the real gold is as a Storyteller number nine authentic relationships and romance in the survey readers said they really value genuine romance uh and relationships that sort of add emotional depth and complexity to the characters especially when these relationships go against common cliches or when they explore areas we don't normally see in typical fantasy story relationships so for example we have one reader saying I love a good written romantic relationship I love unconventional love affection and friendships another response here which I thought was quite interesting modeling healthy behaviors and relationships characters who emotionally regulate or actually think before acting or act like decent moral beings particularly when it comes to romance I love seeing healthy communication yeah this is something that not a lot of stories necessarily do a lot of stories sometimes show these things breaking down or there's a lot of conflict here um or a lot of stories tend to show characters getting into a relationship but few stories tackle what it means to maintain or be in a relationship another reader said they love true friendships be at same sex especially rare in fantasy books with female main characters quite often the only significant positive relationship is with the male love interest which I think is is very true certainly in my own reading experience or between Sexes no romantic tension whatsoever no backstabbing or jealousy just actual trust support and understanding and I really enjoy all these things personally when I'm reading as well I think fantasy stories a lot of stories in general tend to focus on the love interest in terms of the core relationship or you know sometimes there's kind of the friend relationship if you think about the you know the fellowship of characters in Lord of the Rings for example it's kind of a friend relationship there but I personally love stories that explore interesting father son Dynamics like uh the lightbringer series by Brent weeks there's a fantastic sort of somewhat Twisted but also really complex and an interesting fatherson relationship between Andros Kyle and his son gther and I also really enjoy an interesting sibling Dynamic like the ones we see in the three call siblings in Jade City by Fonda Lee and then even beyond the obvious stuff like that there's some really interesting sort of polyamorous relationships that are explored in different fantasy and sci-fi novels one that comes to mind is in the Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert heinan which is this uh classic Sci-fi story about a Luna Colony seceding from the earth government basically like an American war of independence but it's set in space between a Luna colony and the Earth United Nations um there's some really interesting sort of po polyamorous relationships that go on in that story that reflect the fact that this is a narrative about challenging the way in which the world operates and challenging the the status quo so to speak and so as a writer when you're going through and writing your own fantasy story when you kind of go outside the typical relationships we tend to see over and over again in stories not that there's anything wrong with those per se but when you explore different territory whether it is you know a platonic relationship or whether it is a romantic one or whether it is a familiar one or something else and that can really open up some fresh territory and lead to some intriguing and unique World building that your reader has never seen before number eight exploration of themes so readers really love stories that explore uh difficult and complex philosophical questions around what it means to exist in this world of ours and fantasy offers a tremendous ability to do this because you can kind of remove the real world politics that we tend to fight over um and you can do it in a fantasy setting where it is not literally using the same elements that that we might use when we're talking about these issues in our world but because it's removed it allows you to approach them from a more objective and sometimes more interesting and more impactful angle so we had one reader say I really love when fantasy novels investigate darker or more serious themes I think this can add a really intriguing complexity to the story and it usually makes me connect with the characters and even the world on a deeper more intimate level another reader said they love to read about the characters and their personal inner struggles I love it when the plot forces them to confront their inner Darkness or the LIE they believe about themselves and others and either rise above it or fall deeper into it it's what got me so invested into cadum from the storm live archive or Rand Al Thor from The Wheel of Time and then another response here was I love when characters talk to each other about deeper topics even if they aren't relevant having a character talk about their views on marriage or death or other such topics is great because it helps to flesh them out and make people feel real continuing on with this response people in real life Ponder and talk about IR relevant philosophical things because it's part of human nature to wonder about the future and so when a character in a book does it it feels like you're sitting across from a real person having a conversation with them personally I think theme is maybe the most important aspect of writing and I mean the theme in the sense of a moral argument about how best to live in the world which you explore from different angles through the characters and the plot and the World building and all the other elements of Your Story theme is not about preaching a certain political or ideological message and or ramming a message down readers throats rather it is about presenting a complex moral dilemma and having it explored from lots of different angles it's not about answering a question it's about raising a question in the reader's mind it's about developing a sense of depth by exploring an idea that you're extremely curious or fascinated by so to look at some example themes from fantasy books you might be familiar with the theme for the blade itself in my mind is that war and politics corrupt even the noblest of intentions you look at something like the way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and I would say the theme for that is that true purpose can only be achieved through dedicating yourself to protecting the weak those who cannot defend themselves then you look at something like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and I'd say the theme of that is that life is absurd and meaningless but we can find joy and humor along the way and the reason why I think theme is maybe the most important aspect of your story and this is something I'm always telling the writers in my fantasy outlanding boot camp is because once you identify what the theme of your story is it gives you this incredibly useful filter that you can use whenever you're stuck in your story you can use your theme to guide every single direction that you make as an author this creates a sense of coherence that truly deepens your narrative because everything is going to be filtered through and responding to and exploring this Central core this Central guiding idea number seven morally gray characters so a lot of readers said that they love these characters that feel a bit morally complex that don't necessarily slot into easily defined categories of good and evil one reader said I love morally gray characters because they are more realistic and relatable another reader said they love kind of the Redemption arcs and the complex characters and villains who don't believe they are a villain so again all Hallmarks generally speaking of these kind of morally gray characters that are a little bit more complex than maybe the standard sort of black and white characters um that sometimes fantasy authors tend to get across and I think modern fantasy generally morally great characters are maybe the predominant ones um in terms of what a lot of writers are creating these days and I think that's a good thing for me personally I I kind of enjoy reading these characters the most they're certainly not the only type of characters you can write and you can definitely do characters that are not morally gray and are totally interesting and exciting way I suppose but to me what makes a character interesting is their contradictions for example they want to live a life of Peace but they keep finding themselves pulled back towards violence and maybe there's part of them that actually loves that violence and doesn't want to move on despite what they're saying to the outside world and this contradiction then fills them with guilt and propels the conflict in The Narrative of your story when you give your characters contradictions it creates such a opportunity for internal tension that just drives the narrative forward and raises all these questions within the reader about how this character is going to resolve these two states within them that are intrinsically irresolvable while the other exists and that leads to so much potential for captivating character arcs in your story in my fantasy outlining boot camp I actually encourage the students to map out you know maybe four to six key contradictions for for their character and this exercise always helps them find new depth and new realism to their stories if you'd like to apply to be part of the next cohort of my fantasy outlining boot camp you can do that by going to Jed her.com outline on that page you can also check out video reviews from the previous students that have gone through the program as well now I should mention this is a very intensive uh 7we group coaching program so it is not right for everybody but the writers who have gone through it have seen incredible transformation and growth with their own storytelling because we're not just looking at outlining we're looking at your character arcs your plotting your structure your world building and all the other aspects that make up a fantastic fantasy novel and you're getting tons of feedback and support from myself and the other writers in the small community as well here's what one of my students said about the program my name is Demitri and I just finished Jed Hearns fantasy outlining boot camp it was absolutely amazing and I really recommend it to anybody who can do it or apply for it Jed was a great teacher the lessons he gave us were really well organized and they were always reinforced by exercises and assignments that helped me develop my understanding of writing and improve more than I could ever imagine number six readers love diverse and creative creatures one respondent said I love when writers are creative enough to make their own species from scratch and incorporate them into the story like different races animals plants Etc that don't actually exist another person said I love creatures show me the dark Gods the Misunderstood flora and FAA of world's unknown tell me how you tame them or earn their trust or or what you have to sacrifice to appease them show me the ones that can't be reasoned with really great writing behind that response actually I don't know who sent that in but if it's you watching this well done that's a really nice response another reader said I love when the main protagonist befriends a quote unquote useless magical creature but later in the story this thought to be useless creature plays a crucial role in the climax I found it really interesting that so many people in this survey of about you know 350 readers specifically singled out diverse and creative creatures as such a compelling aspect of fantasy novels to them I really do enjoy writing about creatures personally in my latest fantasy book Kingdom of Dragons obviously there's tons of dragons in there as well but even in earlier novels like the Thunder Heist which is set on this monster infested sea there's lots of kind of unusual and unique creatures in that World um that don't exist in in our real reality uh that I super enjoyed writing about because they just give you such a great opportunity to flesh out your world building and to immerse the reader and give them that sense of wonder and awe and sometimes fear as well creatures can be a great source of fear in your stories if you take a creature like the sandworms from June the giant sandworms of oracus they serve this function brilliantly and I think what really elevates your magical creatures is when you don't just focus on how cool or interesting or unique they are but you figure out a way to map the creatures to your character arcs to your plot to your wider World building as a whole again the sand worms in June do this to a fantastic extent because they're not just this cool creature but they're also Al symbolizing the fear that Paul trades must overcome there's that great scene where he has to confront the worm and he has to climb up onto its back and ride on it and that's a moment of him triumphing over his fear and sort of making his Destiny made manifest and then of course the worms are the ones that are producing the spice mange that is the precious resource on oracus that everybody is fighting over because it lets you see into the future along with ging other particular Powers as well fantastic example of how you integrate a cool creature that in to The Wider World building and The Wider themes and the characters of your story number five the found family Trope so a lot of readers really pointed out how they love and they really cherish when these sort of motly groups of characters uh come together to create their own family that is not bonded by Blood but it is bonded by shared experience and understanding we had one read to say they love found family specifically between characters who all don't like each other at first but are forced to get along in order to accomplish the same goal another person said I love the found family Trope people with different skills personalities and backgrounds coming together to form such an imperfect yet well-oiled machine that they become indispensable to each other plus the banter another reader said I have a big love of the found family Trope usually this revolves around a fairly unhappy often times miserable introverted or grumpy Misfit who finds a place in the world with others who become attached to them and vice versa continuing on with this response this person said this works particularly well when the family has a diverse range of character types and backgrounds as it allows the riter to show off some wonderful and sometimes unexpected character relationships again this is like such a super specific Trope to be mentioning but so many people in the survey brought this up which I found fascinating because I absolutely adore this Trope as well and I think that to execute this Trope correctly you really want to be leveraging the opposite role that is at the beginning of the story you want to show how much it's hurting your character for them to not be with their found family for them to be a loner show how much that's hurting them at the start of their story and then when they eventually form this found family and they get to bond with the other people and the other members of this group that Triumph will feel all the sweeter because of the contrast you have with how lonely and how miserable they were at the start of the story number four plot twists so one reader said I love when a plot twist or a revelation hits and you suddenly realize the foreshadowing that was there all along I feel smart putting the pieces together collecting the hints through the story another reader said I love interesting unpredictable but logically structured sequence sequences of events in the story so again the unpredictability of TW another reader said I love surprising satisfying plots and endings with effective Cliffhangers another reader said I love it when there's a plot twist that makes sense when you reread the book you can see it coming for me personally I love when the plot twist incorporates the magic system or the World building of the story or sometimes both like when there's a moment where the main character figures out how to use the constraints of the magic to find this loophole to solve the problem of the story in a way that you couldn't have expected but makes total sense in hindsight or when they realize is the true nature of the world in which they exist I've written quite a few fantasy novels that do similar things to this and if you've read fires of the Dead you'll probably know the scene that I'm talking about here because it's consistently one of the things that readers say they enjoyed the most about the book when they talk about it to me or when they leave a review and come to think of it I've included plot twists in pretty much every fantasy book I've published I think all four of them to date have plot twists in them so I really like this uh this thing as well when it comes to writing my stories number three immersive World building so readers as you would probably expect being fantasy readers we love exploring new worlds and discovering this law and this sense of history and this immersion and this sense of wonder in this place that doesn't exist but feels so immensely real to us so one reader said I love develop settings I find a wellet universe to be as interesting as a good story it give me an intricate magic system pages and pages of Law and history of your world tell me about the tongues of the people in your world speak the deeper the better another reader said I love worlds with the implications of every World building detail are well thought out such as the effects of high storms on the biology of the plants and animals in The Stormlight Archive another reader said I love detailed World building specifically seeing how character actions change the world they are around so that's a very good point World building is never well it doesn't have to be but it can be if you want doesn't necessarily have to be a static thing but it can be something that evolves as your character acts upon the world themselves for me personally when I started out as a fantasy writer I think World building was probably the thing that came the most naturally to me and I think that's cuz I used to be an architect and architecture is kind of like World building in real life in a sense you know you're using your imagination to create these places that don't yet exist and you're trying to convince other people that it would be a good time to um be in these places whether it's building or whether it's a playground as I designed a lot of playgrounds as well in my architecture career and architecture is really good because it's actually a Gateway into understanding history and politics and myths and societal structures and power all through the lens and the language of the kind of built environment and so whenever I go traveling with friends you know I'm always boring their ears off by telling them all the details around the buildings that we're seeing it was really bad when I was over in America last year and we were traveling around Chicago and I was geeking out about the incredible architecture all throughout the city and just how beautiful it was sometimes my friends do enjoy this other times they're like J like it's just a building we don't see the things that you're seeing here and bringing this back to Fantasy I think this is really one of the great Joys as a writer and a reader is the thrill of Discovery the sense of wonder the sense of explor exporing this realm um that doesn't exist but feels like it does I think to me that some of the strongest World building occurs when the author goes extremely deep down one Rabbit Hole or down one sort of category of World building perhaps they really think deeply about the geography of their world or they really think deeply about the economics of their world or they really think at Great length about the sort of societal interactions between the different cultures in uh this setting and when you go really deep into one aspect of Your World building like this it has the benefit that anytime you mention any other aspect of Your World readers will kind of assume that you have proved your world building competency with this one area you went super deep into and therefore When you mention this other area just briefly readers will kind of assume that you've actually put all of this extra depth and details and knowledge into it even if you are just mentioning it briefly number two Innovative magic systems so a reader said I love discovering unique Magic systems another person said I love wonderfully unique Magic systems um new magic laws that no one has written about before so that sense of originality being quite a big appeal here I love when the magic is deeply connected with the way the world works or functions according to the philosophies of the people who use it that's a really really good point I totally agree with that as well another reader said I love unique Magic systems with meaningful consequences totally agree with whoever wrote this I absolutely love hard magic systems in particular you can do soft magic systems well for me personally my preference tends towards the harder systems because I think it's strong limitations and Def consequences that make magic interesting to me as a reader and as a writer and if you haven't already checked it out I did a video on this channel where about 116 fantasy writers sent me their magic system ideas and I picked my favorite one to win $11,000 I'll link to that at the end of this video as well but it was a really good Cas study in all these crazy different magic system ideas and there's some really useful inspiration you'll probably find in there so this brings us to the number one thing that readers love to see in their fantasy novels which is relatable complex characters who grow so in this survey a Tiner readers expressed how much they appreciate seeing characters who feel real and complex and flawed and characters that we get to see go through some sort of Journey of change or Evolution or progression in their lives one reader said I love relatable characters even though they often live in Worlds with dragons and Magic I love characters that are relatable and feel like someone you can meet in real life especially the funny characters another reader said the true magic of a fantasy novel is in its characters those who face their fears fight for what they believe in and show us the meaning of courage and friendship another respondent said I love characters who make mistakes learn and grow over time they're the ones who stick with me long after I've finished reading another reader said the best part of a fantasy novel for me is seeing characters who feel real with struggles and triumphs I can emphasize with even in a world far different from our own nothing beats the connection I feel to a well-written character whose flaws and strengths are lay bare making them Unforgettable like I mentioned earlier in the video do you notice how all these respondents are saying that it's the character's flaws and failings that actually make them interesting readers don't want Perfection they want to see your characters struggle to overcome their own shortcomings and their failings to rise above the circumstances and the difficulties of their situation to rise to become the best version of themselves in other words readers want to see inspiration for their own personal journey of change and transformation laid bare on the pages of your story and when you can do that that's how you craft a fantasy novel that holds a special place within your reader Hearts so if you enjoyed this video you might want to click on this one over here this is that magic system contest I mentioned earlier where 116 writers sent me their magic ideas and I picked my favorite one to win [Music] $1,000

Channel: Jed Herne

Views: 80,200

Keywords: writing, writing advice, writing craft, story, fantasy, author, jed herne, authortube, booktube, wizards warriors words, self-publish, indie, publishing

Id: W2ZR5UT3OUo

Length: 22min 40sec (1360 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 21 2024