Why Write Fantasy?

Every so often, I read or hear some comment that roughly boils down to “the fantasy market is saturated,” or “all fantasy is basically the same,” “it’s all been done.” Is it true? Why write fantasy, here in the last short days of 2022? Is it worth it?

I believe it absolutely is. There is still room in the world for a good fantasy story. Specifically for your good fantasy story.

But… All Fantasy Is Basically The Same

I hear this comment a lot, although, I will say, not usually from people who enjoy fantasy genre. It’s true, fantasy can be formulaic. I see this for a couple of particular reasons.

At the rise of modern genre fiction in the 20th century, the bar was set incredibly high by true masters of the craft. Tolkien, Lewis, along with the rest of the Inklings, all had an intimate familiarity with the classical Western canon, and this familiarity informed the structure and content of their own works. These are, at heart, virtuosic riffs on the stories that made Western civilization. These are stories that undergird the way we idealize our own journeys, as individuals and societies.

Tropes are tropes for a reason. Story structures and archetypes, like (but absolutely not limited to) the Hero’s Journey, stick with us for a reason. They speak to the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves, and the ideals that we wish to embody. The structure itself, that we can recognize, perhaps cynically, as repeated and rehashed, is something that is nearly universal to humanity. Our deepest, darkest, oldest myths and legends, across cultures, carry the same hallmarks. Consider the iconic pieces of genre fiction that stand out to you, that have stuck in your mind for years after you were introduced. There are common threads of similarity. It’s those similarities, those tropes, those structures of narrative, that capture us.

Refreshing The Genre

So, if the tropes and structures are there, and people have been writing fantasy, at least in the modern genre sense, for a century or so, how do we grow and evolve the genre? How do we keep it fresh without losing the hallmarks that define it as fantasy or the structures and tropes that capture our deepest inklings of internalized human potential? Wow, that was a lofty thought… but really, how do we do it? What can you or I do to carry the torch?

Consider What those Legends Did

At the base of it, those foundational writers and authors identified, whether consciously or intuitively, the structures and common threads of what came before and survived for eons of oral tradition before they were written. Tales of how a hero confronts the chaos that invades the orderly garden. Sagas of people, often weak and stumbling, who stand for ideals like Truth and Honor and Justice and Freedom against forces seeking totalized Power and Control through Lies, Falseness, and Cruelty.

Sometimes the stories are bold, on-the-nose allegories. Sometimes they are more subtle, showing us as readers the struggles happening within in the hearts of the characters in tandem with the grand scale of an epic narrative. But the threads are there. The greats cloaked these human frameworks with details that capture the modern imagination and the childlike sense of wonder that still inhabits all of us.

These aren’t “new” stories. They are new visions of very, very old stories and ideas. Some of them could be as old as human consciousness itself.

What Doesn’t Work

There’s a lot of conversation surrounding ideas like “subverting tropes.” This is so much easier said than done, and I certainly can’t claim to be an authority on doing it. But we all can come up with an example of it done wrong, a story that rings hollow, something that doesn’t quite work. Or even an example that didn’t go badly, exactly… but also didn’t burrow deep into your heart for an extended stay.

This is a subtle skill, but it comes from the individual perspective of the writer, coupled with years of practice, of mastering the trope straight and knowing it in and out.

Mixing Genres

Something that I observe to be very effective in high-profile fantasy projects lately is a blend of genres. George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire/GoT has easily as much political drama as it has fantasy elements, in terms of plot. Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicle is a beautiful coming-of-age adventure. Susanna Clarke’s debut Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a gloriously fantastic alternative history. Several of the most lovingly worn titles in my own little library straddle the line between fantasy and science fiction, or horror.

As cozy and familiar as a classic hero’s journey tale is, fantasy seems very rarely only fantasy anymore. Authors seem to be creating rich and complex tales of all kinds and flavors, and setting in escapist and magical alternate worlds that add another layer to the trials and tribulations of their characters. Indeed, the successes of these fantastic blends over recent years may be proof positive that fantasy is a warm and living genre.

Why Write Fantasy?

And this brings us back to my answer to the initial question. Why write fantasy?

The best reason might be because you aren’t finding the fantasy story that you want to read. Most of my stories, especially my earliest attempts, began as simply telling a story to myself. Sometimes it was in the afterglow of a book or other story medium that really captured me. Sometimes it was in a bored slump between obsessions. But all of those early stabs at storytelling were filling the space in my mind that wanted another story. If it’s a story that you would want to read, odds are pretty good that a few of the 8 billion or so of the rest of us would like to read it, too.

What do you think?

I’ll assume since you’re here, reading this post, that you do have some interest in fantasy writing, if not as a writer, as a reader. Have you encountered sentiments along these lines? Have fantasy stories begun to bore you, personally? Or, do you still like to cozy up with a good old-fashioned hero’s journey of swords and sorcery?

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy this one from last year, coming on the heels of another iteration of National Novel Writing Month, 5 Things NaNoWriMo Reminds Me Every Year. If you already receive my monthly newsletter, you know that I didn’t exactly have a textbook NaNo in 2022, and didn’t reach 50k. It was good for me to revisit my own thoughts from last year on the challenge… even if I “failed,” the lessons of the challenge still applied. That was definitely a comfort.

Until next time, may the Muse be with you!