How to write a best selling fantasy novel.

[spinbaby]

Everything you need to know right here:

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~imcfadyen/notthenet/fantasy.htm

My favorite is number 8:

8. Skip the hard parts.
Despite the need to keep the book long, some bits are just too hard to write. A thousand mile journey by foot is long, but easy to write. Battles on the other hand are hard because there’s a lot going on and you probably require some knowledge of military strategy. So if you’re writing a battle scene and it’s just getting too hard, simply have the hero suffer a wound and lapse into unconsciousness: e.g.

"… then suddenly his head exploded and a mist enveloped him and he felt himself falling down into an ethereal tangible blackness. Badcolds’s sword, still swinging through the air, seemed caught, imprisoned in time. The sound of the battle was suddenly a long way away but just as he closed his eyes and the black cloud engulfed him he thought he heard someone crying from the grassy knoll, "The Toasters are coming. The Toasters are coming."

Voile. Next thing our hero wakes on a white alabaster slab in the Healing Room where the Pure Maiden Warrior (see "Characters" below) tells him that the battle is over and, Guess what? They won! Result: you've saved 50 pages of intricate military description.

[lazarus]

1. hilarious

My favourite:

5. Create the Land
The first thing the Motley Bunch must do is travel some phenomenal distance through an assortment of vastly different terrains and climates. All Fantasy Lands have every conceivable form of climate and landform - mountains, deserts, swamps, glaciers, forests - arranged randomly across the landscape contrary to any known principles of geography or ecology.

Note: All fantasy worlds are roughly square. i.e. the shape of the double page of a paperback.

I get so tired of Map Fantasy. As in, "I've designed this world, and made a big detailed map, and by god you, the reader, are going to be introduced to every element of it."

[Maple]

2. I luv this!

Very true, and if you've read one,you've read em all. Same plot every time. Now I know why!

[lazarus]

3. if you want someone different

I highly recommend Steven Brust. He's unique, very funny, very cool.

Taught me how to play poker, too.

Start off with Jhereg. The Book of Jhereg is an omnibus of his first three books. Nice, short, easy and fun to read.