8 Essential Elements of a Great Fantasy Novel (and How to Write Them)

Fantasy fiction captivates readers by tapping into their sense of wonder and imagination. A great fantasy story pulls its audience into a world of magic, with foreign creatures and epic journeys. The worlds of Tolkien, the stories of J.K. Rowling, the comics of Stan Lee, and even the tales of Disney princesses have nurtured the whimsy of generations. How do those fantastical works linger in our minds well after we have read the final pages or watched the rolling credits?

In this blog post, you will learn that I believe it is the masterful weaving of 8 essential elements; those are conscious world-building, organized magic, engaging characters, rising stakes, purposeful plotting, balanced pacing, thematic symbolism, and authorial voice. 

1. Compelling World-Building: Crafting a Living, Breathing World

World-building is the foundation of every fantasy story; it combines history, geography, cultures, and unspoken societal rules. World-building is about crafting societies with depth.

How to Write It:

Understand the history of your world. 

• It helps to start with a central theme or conflict, both historical and current, that shapes the societies you have crafted. Consider how this conflict has influenced the physical land, available resources, its people, and their beliefs.
• Having a grasp of your society in the present moment may not be enough. Develop a unique and detailed history that informs the present. Where your story starts needs to reflect a continuity from past events. That history needs to have social and societal consequences. (You do not have to tell your audience every piece of history, just what is relevant.)

Understand the Populations of your world.

• Diverse cultures have different views and beliefs on global history. They may have dealt with varying consequences from past wars or conflicts. The victors of battle write the history, but that does not mean the emotional sentiments, practices, or cultural customs of the “losers” have vanished. They may have been passed on in smaller communities and even potentially changed from their history.
• Avoid simplistic portrayals. Cultures are not just traits; they are the function of a society. You risk creating an inauthentic stereotype when distilling an identity down to a few traits.
  • For example, people outside the United States have stereotyped Americans. That simplistic portrayal is devoid of history and tells you nothing about the day-to-day interactions between the common populace.

• Do not forget to place a spotlight on ignored or avoided historical blights. All cultures, even those like Buddhism, have brushed with the dark side of humanity. Beliefs can be misused or pushed to the extremes for political, social, or even monetary gain. No country has achieved “greatness” without sacrifices.
  • We can once again use America as an example. When the first people (settlers or colonizers, whichever term you believe to be correct) arrived, they slaughtered native populations with disease, cannons, fire, and distilled human hatred. In more modern times, the American government released millions of gallons of Agent Orange over Vietnam. America invented the atomic bomb. But even today, America has agencies that work against the population rife with corruption, greed, and prejudicial thoughts. 

2. Magic System (if applicable): The Art of the Arcane

A magic system is a set of rules and principles that create a map of how magic works and what it can do.

How to Write It:

Define what magic is and where it comes from.

• Determine what “magic” means in your world and how it may be used. Here is a list of the most common depictions of magic.
  • PPotions: Ingestible or topical substances that cause temporary or permanent conditions in someone or something. 
  • Enchantments and Curses: A magical influence that binds to something or someone for a time until a condition is met, whether that condition is negative or positive.
  • Prophecy: Visions of the future, hidden or unknown information. 
  • Magic Items: Items with supernatural properties. This may also include items with their autonomy or cognition. 
  • Spells: A series of actions or words that affect the world or those within it within a specified proximity that could not happen in our world without severe technological facilitation. 
• Determine where your magic comes from. Here is a list of common magical sources you can find in fiction.
  • Magic as a Science: magic is a field of study that has strict and calculable rules, limitations, and outcomes. 
  • Magic as Divine or Demonic: Magic is a gift from some powerful being. 
  • Magic as a Talent: Some people are born with magic, while others are not. 
  • Magic as Nature: Magic lives in the world and functions with free will. 

Define what magic can do and what it costs

• Establish clear rules and limitations for its use. What can magic do, and what can’t it do? These rules should be consistent and internally logical.
• Explore the consequences of using magic (both intended and unintended). Magic should not be a convenient solution to every problem; it should have costs and repercussions. Magic should not be a deus ex machina.
  • One of the best examples of this is the anime Fullmetal Alchemist. The magic system is called Alchemy. And the basic principle that is repeated to the audience over and over again is the law of equivalent exchange. This has philosophical and ethical implications that are used masterfully to explore themes of sacrifice and the value of a person.
  • Consider a different magic system like that in the Harry Potter series. The magic revolves around themes of choice when deciding between evil or good acts. Magic is not a hard set of rules that can only be used in certain conditions. Unlike alchemy, there is no law of equivalent exchange. However, magic can work in mysterious and unexpected ways. Such as Harry releasing the snake from its enclosure or Lockhart accidentally making Harry’s arm bones disappear. 

Define how Magic affects the world 

• Consider the impact of magic on society, culture, and warfare. How has magic shaped the world and the lives of its inhabitants?
  • The presence of magic can fundamentally alter the planet. It influences technology, social structures, and even the course of history. Imagine the ability to magically grow food was commonplace. How might that transform agriculture and trade? If food can be magically grown, how would that alter world history when there are no famines or wars over food?

3. Memorable Characters: Breathing Life into Archetypes

The plot is the path the stories take, but what many people cling to are the characters that walk that journey. Characters that are relatable, unique, and well-developed with flaws and motivations are vital.

How to Write It:

Outline your character 

• You can start with a familiar archetype (e.g., the hero, the mentor, the villain). These are similar to how a story plot structure works as a framework for your story. But don’t stop there, give them quirks, motivations, and backstories.
  • A great idea is to subvert the expectations of these archetypes. The mentor archetype for example tends to be a father figure who is older and is often killed off early in the story or around the start of Act 2. You could re-imagine this role. A child teaching an adult how to play and have fun again or even a rare plant that requires constant supervision that teaches the main character important lessons about his life.
• Explore their backstories deeply to understand their present actions, motivations, and beliefs. You should also consider the history of their world or their culture and how it impacts their motivations, thinking, and personality.
  • Geralt of Rivia in Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher is a morally gray protagonist. He has a strong sense of duty and a complex personality. He has a haunted past and struggles with his identity as a Witcher and what that means in his society. Some view him very poorly; others do not. All of this together makes him a compelling and enduring character.

• Give them both strengths and weaknesses. Common advice says to avoid creating characters who are purely good or purely evil. They may lack the complexities of human nature. While this is generally good, the power of pure evil (and the lesser-seen pure good) should not be banned. The interplay between virtue and vice could be interesting, like the fall of Lucifer that has become foundational in Western religion. Or even a purely good character doing what we would consider evil, such as God purging humanity in the movie Legion.
  • Cruella de Ville wants those puppies dead because gosh darn it—they would make a fashionable jacket! The Joker is a great example. His backstory is purposefully confusing and filled with lies. The Joker does evil things because he finds enjoyment in doing so. 

Outline your Character’s evolution

• Show their growth and change throughout the story. Characters often start in one place and end in another, not always physically, but certainly emotionally and mentally. You should not only allow them to adapt but also encourage it. There are also common “character arcs” that one can use as a guide. However, character progression is handled differently in serialized fiction than in episodic fiction. You have to understand which one you want to write before researching how. 
• Consider their relationships with other characters and how those relationships change the plot. Explore alliances, rivalries, and romances.

4. Believable Stakes and Conflict: The Heart of Dramatic Tension

Character actions need to have consequences or alterations on the world around them. Stakes and conflicts both influence character actions and are altered by them.

How to Write It:

• Establish what the characters stand to lose. What are the potential consequences of failure?
• Make the conflict personal. Even if the world is on the verge of destruction, ground the conflict in the characters’ emotions and relationships with others, themselves, and society.
• Create a sense of urgency. There could be time limits, imminent threats, or escalating mini-conflicts.
• Show the impact of the conflict on the characters and the world around them. How does the conflict change them? How does it affect their relationships and their environment?
  • A great example to understand this is with an episode, “Nosedive,” of the show Black Mirror. The main character, Lacie Pound, wants to move into a new apartment. After a consultation, she learns she does not have a high enough “rating” to rent the apartment. In her world, everyone has a social rating score. Everything you do and say, whether intentionally or by accident, is rated on a scale from 1 to 5. She is only a 4.2 and needs a rating of 4.5. Her childhood “best friend” asks her to give a toast at her wedding. If she gets rated a 5 by those people, she will become a 4.5. However, when she embarks on her journey, everything goes wrong. She begins to watch her score drop minute by minute. Her point total takes a “nosedive.” But Lacie doesn’t give up. She continues her journey to the wedding, but the clock is ticking, and her points, well… they’re dipping.

5. Engaging Plot: Weaving a Thread of Suspense and Intrigue

A captivating plot is a well-structured storyline with a clear beginning, middle, and end. The entire journey is filled with conflict, suspense, and intrigue. It is not just what happens but how it unfolds that keeps readers engaged.

How to Write It:

Your beginning

• As always, start with a strong hook. You want to grab your audience’s attention. It is essential to research your genre and age category to understand the conventions and audience expectations. This information helps guide you on how to handle your first lines.
  • When I pick up an urban fantasy novel targeted towards adults, I expect the initial scenes to be slow. I want to see this main character’s life before they step into a world of magic. However, that does not mean your story has to follow that format. 
• Structure your story with a plot framework (e.g., the Hero’s Journey, the Three-Act Structure), but don’t be afraid to subvert expectations. A familiar structure provides a foundation, but originality keeps your story fresh.
  • For example, in music, there are things called key signatures. They are a framework showing musicians which notes they should use in a piece. We have all heard the notes of a piano from low to high, but which ones, when, and how a pianist chooses to strike is what creates music. This principle applies to common story structures as well. 
• Start your story with what is most important to introduce to your audience.
  • In my novel, I begin with an internal conflict between siblings (two of the main characters). A brother is trying to recover his lost memories, and his sister claims she will assist him. However, she has secretly used magic to see her brother’s future rather than uncover his past. Meanwhile, he has no idea that magic exists. The chapter plays off the relationship between an overbearing, magically educated sister on a path to fight their hidden enemy. Meanwhile, her brother, in his early 20s, doesn’t know who he is and what is coming for them, let alone the first thing about magic.

Your middle

• Develop a clear central conflict with rising stakes that escalate as the story progresses. You should create a sense of urgency or make your audience anticipate a plot beat. Most think that conflict is external, a fight, a disease, or a monster—but internal battles can be just as intense.
• Use foreshadowing and red herrings to keep the reader guessing about where the story will head next. Plant clues, craft diversions, and write subplots so that your audience stays engaged. However, a plot twist for the sake of having a twist may not serve your story. There should be a setup and a payoff.
• Ensure each scene contributes to the overall plot and character development. This piece of advice is rather complicated. It is intended to cut “fluff” out of a novel.
  • While most people would say to remove fluff, there are moments where others, including myself, would disagree. For example, the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The episode that lingers in my mind is “Tales of Ba Sing Se.” It follows the individual characters through Ba Sing Se, even Momo the flying lemur. However, the section called “Tales of Iroh” made a lasting impact. Iroh was always the funny and goofy mentor with a dark past. But in that episode, he sings a song at his son’s grave. That scene made me think about death, grief, and familial love. The entire episode is “fluff.” But the song “Leaves from the Vine” is just heart-wrenching. Even more emotionally touching, the original voice actor for Iroh, Mako Iwamatsu, passed from esophageal cancer before the episode was released. “Leaves on the Vine” was his last voice recording for the show.

Your end

• Every fiber of your story should come together into one climactic confrontation. This is where your theme can be really tested. You could question the growth of your characters and see how they have changed and draw parallels to how they would have failed if the person they were at the start of the story attempted the task. 

6. Pacing: The Rhythm of the Story

Pacing is the speed and distance between key plot points. Effective pacing engages an audience with a balance of fast-moving action and slower reflective moments.

How to Master Pacing:

• Varying sentence lengths and structures can create different effects. Short, punchy sentences can convey action and excitement, while longer, more complex sentences can create a certain atmosphere or allow introspection.
  • Music balances silence and sound, and effective writing balances action and reflection. There are many techniques you can use, but they are dependent on the purpose of the passage. A spicy scene, an action sequence, or a philosophical monologue are very different. It’s best to understand the purpose of your passage and research it specifically.

• Use scene breaks and chapter endings consciously. Understand what information you have given your audience and what you have hidden to create a feeling of anticipation. A cliffhanger ending can make people continue watching or reading to know what happens next, but a reflective ending can provide your audience a moment to think about the work as a whole and become more invested in your character’s internal struggles.
• Balance action sequences with quieter moments of character development, world-building, or exposition. If there is never a moment for your character to reflect, to sit in dread or worry in fear, then what’s the point? Your story should connect with human nature and explore a character’s thought process in some aspect.
  • The anime Attack on Titan handles this well. Many intense action sequences have you biting the skin off your lips, but there are also moments of quieter retrospection that have you pressing your hands onto your chest.  
• Read your work out loud! This sounds very simple, but it is powerful. Reading aloud can help identify awkward phrasing, poor pacing, and a sense of the rhythm and flow in your prose. Writing is not a stationary work of art; it is performance art. It is not just the picture you painted. How you flick the brush is just as important. 

7. Themes and Symbolism: Weaving Meaning into the Myth

Fantasy explores profound themes using symbolism. These symbolic elements are used to explore human nature.

How to Write It:

Phase 1: Formulate

• Identify the core distilled themes you want to explore (e.g., good vs. evil, love, loss, redemption, the corrupting influence of power). Remember that less can be more. This is the first step, and one or two words are not enough to develop a theme, but it helps to start there.
  • Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings explores how power corrupts. It uses the One Ring to explore this theme. The Ring is not merely a symbol of power; it’s an active force that preys on the desires and weaknesses of those who possess it. Gollum becomes twisted by his ownership of the Ring. His physical and mental deterioration reflects the Ring’s insidious power. But corruption is not limited to the weak; even the wise and powerful are tempted. For example, Gandalf, knowing the potential for evil, refuses to take the Ring. 

Phase 2: Refine

• Ensure your themes are modern and resonate with the experiences of your audience.
  • Imagine a story about gene editing technology that was meant to cure illness but accidentally turned most of humanity into zombies. You could have themes of when modern science has gone too far, the ethics behind gene manipulation, proper testing of medicine, etc… We have thoughts around these topics. Now give this same exact story to someone in the 1600s. They may think about the evils of witchcraft rather than science gone wrong. They won’t have the same thoughts as you because they live in a different society. 
• Your themes should take into account the emotional intelligence of your audience.
  • Regarding emotional intelligence, a child around the age of 8 wouldn’t usually understand the difficulty of a story about divorce. These two people may be deeply in love but wish for diametrically opposed goals where one cannot exist with the other. This story would question the nature of heartbreak, grief, and the limits of love. The language and settings involved in the work may be too foreign, complex, or filled with innuendos that a child can’t (and sometimes should not) be able to understand.

Phase 3 Elevate

• Avoiding simplistic or black-and-white portrayals.
  • I find the best way to develop themes is not just with a single word, but with a question. We start with love and then ask, “Does love conquer all?” or “What is more valuable than love?” You could start with the word “justice” and then ask, “Where does justice become immoral or unfair?” This kind of thinking helps you build character foils and morals. You could have one character who believes the justice system shapes societal morals and another who thinks social morals and beliefs create a justice system. You put these characters either together or against each other.

Phase 4: Execute

• Weave these themes into the plot, characters, and setting. Avoid being heavy-handed. Allow your readers to figure things out themselves.
  • Tolkien suggests that power, even when sought for noble ends, carries the possibility of corruption. Boromir, a noble warrior, wanted the Ring for the good of his people. However, he fell prey to its dark allure. Saruman was once a force for good but eventually mirrored the dark lord Sauron and ultimately became a reflection of the evil he opposed. The only way to overcome “the Ring,” or in reality, “extreme and unmitigated power,” is through humility, self-sacrifice, and the renunciation of power. The audience can see this in Frodo’s willingness to travel with the Ring and destroy it. These ideas are not heavy-handed or written in plain English. They are woven throughout the characters, history, and plot.
• Use symbolism to represent abstract ideas in concrete and evocative ways. A recurring motif, a significant object, or a character’s journey.

8. A Unique Voice and Style: The Author’s Signature

A unique voice and style is the author’s distinctive way of writing, including word choice, sentence structure, tone, and perspective. Your voice makes your story stand out and creates a strong connection with the reader.

How to Find Your Voice:

• Write, write, and write. To find your voice, you must write. Experiment with different styles, techniques, and perspectives to find what feels most natural. You must be honest with yourself! Don’t use “décolletage” because you want others to read your writing and assume the author is an intellectual when the words you naturally wanted were “low-cut top.” This process takes time! Through time and experience, you also build confidence.
• Draw inspiration from bodies of work you admire, but don’t imitate them. Analyze what makes that author’s voice unique, then use those lessons to develop your voice. I suggest reading a large number of works. Annotate what works for you. Jot down notes about descriptions you like or paragraphs that flow seamlessly. Study the prose, themes, and characters and pick them apart so you may study their bones. Take those understandings to heart and place them in your writing toolbox. 
• Seek feedback on your writing and be open to constructive criticism. Ask trusted readers for their impressions of your voice and style.
  • Not everyone is going to like your writing. When you ask for feedback, make sure you know what you’re asking critic partners to keep track of. If you write a fantasy novel about a woman and an alien tentacle monster, that won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. “Monster boyfriend” is a trope that not everyone loves. They might be so turned off by the topic that they don’t give your prose, pacing, symbolism, etc., the proper appreciation. Make sure you’re getting feedback from someone who understands your genre, tropes, and audience expectations, but make sure the person is honest with their criticism.

Conclusion

Crafting a great fantasy novel can challenge your self-confidence, but the process is ultimately rewarding. Experiment with these elements, and remember that beyond the mechanics, the true magic of fantasy lies in its power to hold a mirror to our own world. If you are a newbie writer, you could use this as a starting point to further research and understand the topics I have briefly spoken about. If you are more seasoned, take your own writing and analyze how these 8 elements are handled in your writing. However, do not be bogged down by rules. This post is just reference material to look at when struggling or unsure. It is not the end-all be-all; there is no authority on your writing except yourself. 

Also, if you really want to streamline your writing process, consider taking a look at Scrivener through my affiliate link. (https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener-affiliate.html?fpr=polyprose). It is my writing software of choice and the one I recommend to every person working on a novel.

To end this, I would like to ask: What are some of your favorite fantasy stories, and how do these elements contribute to their enduring appeal? The pool of fantasy works is open to movies, shows, video games, comics, even songs, and of course, novels! Let me know what advice has helped you and what you want me to blog about next.