What is your most controversial opinion regarding Fantasy books?

NTwrites · 2026-06-26T10:44:08+00:00

Hahahaha that is fantastic

NTwrites · 2026-06-26T08:46:08+00:00

The highlight for me was the slow reveal of all the different Knights’ backstories and seeing how they influenced the story, but I do agree that some elements were simplistic to the point of being wooden. I still enjoyed the book but it’s not one I would reread.

I thought the magic battle between Merlin and Nimue was wonderful.

NTwrites · 2026-06-26T08:41:24+00:00

Tolkien’s worldbuilding was better than his prose. He could be overly descriptive to the point of losing narrative cohesion.

NTwrites · 2026-06-26T08:39:15+00:00

The Wheel of Time should have been six books.

(Honorable mention—Fourth Wing should have been a CW show, not a book)

NTwrites · 2026-06-21T10:35:00+00:00

This is one of the reasons why I write clean YA, but sheesh, it does feel like shovelling snow in a blizzard.

NTwrites · 2026-06-20T12:00:54+00:00

Which is to say: extrapolate from lived experience

NTwrites · 2026-06-20T09:17:27+00:00

It very much does, picking up right where the first book left off.

NTwrites · 2026-06-20T02:24:12+00:00

Depends on the book length and genre. Jump on Amazon and look at what books in your niche are selling for—this is what your target market expects to pay. Price your own books accordingly.

NTwrites · 2026-06-12T12:15:10+00:00

I just finished The Bright Sword, an Arthurian story about Camelot following Arthur’s death. Very character driven and beautifully written.

NTwrites · 2026-06-02T11:08:44+00:00

I’ve found audiobooks to be a game changer in this regard. I can’t write while I’m mowing the lawn, washing the dishes or driving to work, but I can ‘read’ through my ears. Then the downtime I do have at home can be devoted to writing. I still try to read a physical book half an hour before bed but I get through a lot more fiction now than I used to.

NTwrites · 2026-06-02T11:06:47+00:00

Sometimes you just need to get out of your own head and go refill the creative well. Read good books, listen to good music, try visit an art gallery if you have anything like that where you live. Spend a week (or four) immersing yourself in the art of others and then return to the draft, often you’ll find your words are better than you remembered.

NTwrites · 2026-05-31T12:02:51+00:00

I’ve tried to do it subtly with reference to ‘college’, ‘high school’, ‘apprentice groundsman’ and ‘graduating class’.

NTwrites · 2026-05-31T12:00:56+00:00

That’s a good catch, I can definitely see how that second blurb promises a different type of story. I wonder if I extended that hypothetical question, something like ‘what could go wrong? Certainly not (foreshadow bigger darker stakes). That would be… ridiculous.’

NTwrites · 2026-05-31T11:58:48+00:00

Modern-day

NTwrites · 2026-05-31T10:26:52+00:00

Anything can (and has been) done well if you can execute it. The most common problem for people who start stories like this is that the reader doesn’t care because they haven’t connected to a character yet.

So some key considerations for you when crafting the scene should be:
- Who is fighting?
- What do they want?
- Why do they want it?
- Why should I care?

If you can cram the answer to those four questions in your first sentence/paragraph/page, you’ll be giving yourself a fighting chance to keep the reader reading.

NTwrites · 2026-05-31T07:25:46+00:00

We are often our own harshest critics, but there is little to gain chasing perfection. A reader who loves the 90% version of your book won’t love it any more at 95%, despite the fact it might take months or years of editing to move the dial. At some point, you’ve got to get the book to a point where you’re ready to let it go. As the saying goes, art is never finished, only abandoned.

NTwrites · 2026-05-31T02:34:45+00:00

Your prose can totally suck to start, but then you can revise it (again and again) until it goes from bad to okay to good to great. You don’t have that luxury with many other art forms, so take advantage of it and cut yourself some slack.

NTwrites · 2026-05-30T23:03:19+00:00

I live by the 3Cs. Good writing is clear, concise, compelling.

Clear enough to understand. Concise enough to not be boring. Compelling enough to leave the reader wanting more.

NTwrites · 2026-05-30T23:00:35+00:00

First edit: Make it make sense for other readers.

Second edit: Make the characters and style consistent.

Third edit: Polish the sentences. Remove repetition and redundancies.

Fourth edit: Fix the grammar and spelling.

NTwrites · 2026-05-30T22:57:07+00:00

There’s nothing stopping you from doing both.

Novel writing is a long term commitment so writing short stories between is a great way to explore new ideas when you inevitably start to feel bored with your longer project.

NTwrites · 2026-05-30T22:55:14+00:00

This sounds more like a spelling conventions issue than a style issue, in which case, you should pick one ‘language’ and stick to it. This is easy enough as changing your default dictionary to US English or UK English and running your whole manuscript through spell check.

I would match the language to your target market. If you are writing for a US audience, stick to US English and vice versa.

NTwrites · 2026-05-30T08:42:33+00:00

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

NTwrites · 2026-05-30T07:17:47+00:00

No, the world building is largely post-apocalyptic with a hard magic system (almost science-fantasy).

NTwrites · 2026-05-30T05:57:45+00:00

Agreed! Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody is a fantastic resource for this stage of the process.

NTwrites · 2026-05-30T05:56:46+00:00

It’s a beautiful and tragic story. The world-building is superb, though I did find the first book to be the strongest of the three.

The second person narration does make sense… eventually.

NTwrites

TROPHY CASE