I Will Not Expect Dragons

Why “Fantasy” Doesn’t Always Mean “Writer’s Acid Trip”

A Semi-Satiric Essay by Jordan A. Masters

So I finally finished one of my books. I wanted some feedback, so I put the first few chapters up on a site for some constructive criticism – not here on FictionPress, I wanted some more substantive reviews than “OMGMOREPLZ.” So far, I’ve gotten two reviews – neither of which has been very helpful.

The biggest thing wrong with the two reviews is that both seem to think “Oh, this isn’t fantasy,” but neither gives examples of why. The first one just says “I don't see how…it's fantasy” and the second one says “It took me a while to understand the world that you have created is a fantasy and that may have helped knowing before hand.”

Here’s my issue – what are fantasy writers supposed to do? After J.K. Rowling and J.R.R. Tolkien, a lot of people expect that fantasy books will have exotic races – like trolls, goblins, and elves – and magic. A lot more have come to expect that at least some reference will be made to vampires (thank you, Stephenie Meyer). The problem is that there are many subgenres of fantasy, and not all of them require any of these elements to be fantasy. The simplest form of fantasy – my definition of it – is this: if your setting doesn’t exist on any map, anywhere in the universe, then it’s fantasy. It might fall under six thousand other genres, too, but you’ve still got a little touch of fantasy if your setting is completely fictional.

So, here are a few guidelines for you lovers of fantasy, so you don’t get confused and think the writer’s cheating you.

Rule Number One: If I see that the whole story isn’t uploaded, I will not automatically assume the writer is a lying ass. This should be a BIG rule. This rule should be tattooed to your forehead. The site I have my chapters up on, they only allow you a 10,000 word maximum – which for me is the first three chapters. In the story – in the whole series, really – certain characters have magic, but they only use it sparingly. In the first three chapters, if I were to put them using magic for every little thing, it would be breaking the rule I’ve set up for the entire series – therefore, they don’t use it in the first few chapters. If there are at least references to magic or other fantasy elements in the first few chapters the writer has up, you need to actually read and say “okay, it’s got to be fantasy – no one I know is semi-mortal.” If you don’t, it’s your fault and not the writer’s. So don’t be a douchebag and think the writer’s lying to you – trust me, it will make them mad.

Rule Number Two: Just because the genre says “Fantasy,” I will not go into the story expecting (elves, goblins, dragons, etc.) and, when I don’t see them, I will not leave a scathing review demanding that the writer put them in because the story is “stupid without them.” First of all, anyone who leaves a review like that should be eaten by a dragon. Period. Secondly, and from my own experience, any writer who changes their story to include elements suggested by reviewers didn’t have a clue what they wanted to write about in the first place. Writers write for one person – them. Most writers write what they want to read – they just hope someone else likes reading that stuff, too. I don’t look at my reviews and say “Oh, I wonder if I should change the story to include (insert clichéd fantasy element here) because this one person would enjoy it.” No. I change the story based on reviews when they say things like “Oh, in this paragraph, you left a gaping plot hole and you should probably fix it.” Writers should only fix their story when it will help them get better at their craft – not when it suits AwesomeReviewr89 and their tastes.

Rule Number Three: If I don’t understand how the story is fantasy, I will read it more than once to see if I missed something. If I don’t get it after multiple reads, I will go and look at descriptions of fantasy subgenres so I can see if maybe the writer is writing in a subgenre I haven’t read before/heard of. As reluctant as I am to suggest it, Wikipedia actually is a good starting place to look at fantasy subgenres. But I stress it is only a starting place. But this isn’t a bad rule. A lot of people, when they think of a fantasy story, tend to think of high fantasy – the kind with elves and goblins and dragons – and a lot of the people who write anything other than that get scathing reviews (“Where’re the dragons? You’re supposed to have dragons in fantasy!”) and get annoyed.

Rule Number Four: If I start to read a story that is labeled as fantasy, but realize I don’t like the type of fantasy the writer is using and will not be able to give a good review, I will stop reading and go find a story I can give a good review on. If you don’t have anything nice to say, not one thing, don’t say anything at all. If all you can do is flame a writer, then don’t leave anything – especially if the only thing you could notice about the story was “oh, I don’t like this fantasy genre.” The writer did their best job on that story – bad or good, if you can’t even find one nice thing to say about it (“I didn’t notice any spelling errors at all”), then stop reading and move on. I thankfully haven’t been flamed – frankly, the day I am I’m going to laugh about it – but too often I see writers get flamed simply because the reader disliked one or two little things about the story. If you can’t give any constructive help, then please take your nasty attitude elsewhere – I give back only what I get, and if you help me, I’m more than willing to help you. I know plenty of writers like that – but if you don’t help us, we suddenly find ourselves too busy to help you. Especially when our pet dragons are so hungry.

Rule Number Five: Magic, while one of the more important fantasy tropes, should NEVER be overused. Magic is the fantasy genre’s most overused trope. Most people try to write fantasy because “it’s easy – you can make everything up, everyone can use magic, and everyone will believe you!” Completely untrue. Even in fantasy, your rules still have to be believable. If you have characters with magic, it must have rules to accompany it. There must be consequences for using it inappropriately. As I said earlier, I have characters that use magic – but they use it sparingly because there are dire consequences for using too much. When a fantasy writer allows their characters to use magic, there is that temptation to allow the characters to use their magic to escape from every problem. If, however, there are no guidelines for magic use, you could conceivably let them use it every time – but you’ll have the most boring story ever. “Character A was trapped. But he used his magic and got away for the fourteenth time this chapter. And there was much yawning as the readers closed the book and demanded their money back.” If you set down guidelines, when your characters use their magic, it will be a much more powerful scene, because they will only use it as a last resort – at least, the heroes will.

So there you are. My rant for the month. Thanks so much if you got this far and didn’t yawn, or stop reading, or think me a complete douchebag – and if you did, well, you know where the comments go by now. Have fun reading, and remember – if fantasy’s what you like, make sure you know which genre it is you prefer before you start reading.