The Godfather
This is the last day of break for many, so I didn’t want to do anything complicated. Still, I’ve been meaning to make this post for a while. I haven’t come up with titles for most of these topics and the ones I have are iffy. Don’t even have one for the book, which is looking more and more like a 2021 release since I have my hands full with War of Nytefall. Anyway, here are the topics for that fantasy tip book that I mentioned a few times:
The Intro
The Author:
- Prologues and Epilogues
- Choosing Tense
- Plan or Pants
- Cliches
- Be You (Using your own author voice)
- Admit Your Inspiration
- Can’t Please Everyone
- Revel in Your Quirks
The World
- Setting as a Character
- Does it Have to Be Medieval Europe?
- Magic Systems
- Using the Classics
- Interspecies Relations
- Religion and Politics
- Painting the World
- Importance of Notes
- Monsters
- Passage of Time
- History
- The Wilderness
- Relics
- Necromancy (Necrocasting in Windemere)
- Accepted Levels of Violence
- Multiple Series in One World
- Riding Beasts!
- Dragons!
- Great Cataclysms
- Short Story Worlds
The Characters
- Starting Weak or Strong
- Evolution
- Importance of Supporting Cast
- Comic Relief
- Gods!
- Flawed is Perfect
- Damsels and Princess Generals
- Names
- Signatures of Characters
- Monsters as Heroes
- Types of Casters
- Villains
- Minions
- Fan Favorites and the Despised
- Holy Characters
- Ensemble Casts
- Biographies
- Rivals
- Archetypes
- Short Story Evolutions
The Quest
- Always a Goal
- Synergy of Heroes and Quests
- Rollercoaster Plot (This is where I’m at with outlining as of the writing of this post.)
- Good or Bad Endings
- Fight Scenes
- Final Battles
- Times to Shine
- Power of the Caster
- Adventure vs Politics
- How Dark Do You Go?
- Big Battles
- Destiny vs Free Will
- Romance
- Food and Eating Scenes
- Traveling Sections
- Distractions, Deviations, and Side Quests
- Killing Characters
- Training Without Losing Flow
- Next Generation
- Short Story Quests
The Outro
There you have it at 70 ‘chapters’ that will all be written in a casual, blog-style way. I’m not going to use jargon or talk like it’s my way or the highway. This is going to be something fun and informative, so I’m keeping it light. Tried to get a good variety of topics and hit on things that people have asked me about. Hope it works and I’m aiming to get the planning stage done before the summer. Might make this my summer project then and push for beta readers in the Fall. Anyway, that’s really far down the road. Best to take it easier here. Need a title too . . . ‘So, You Want to be a Fantasy Author?’ Ugh, everyone I think of sounds too smug, pompous, and overly professional when I’m going for laid back and casual.
Legends of Windemere 
Fantasy Guidelines for Beginners
Fantasy Facts
Fantasy Writers Compendium
Fantasy Writing for Fun
Writing Fantasy? Tips Within!
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Some of those seem a little too serious and professional. Odd critique, but I think the laidback style of entries means a similar title. That last one is good and I think I made a similar title last spring.
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How about “You and Me and Fantasy.” It looks like a super informative book.
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Thanks. I think I saw that title on an erotic novel.
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Hahahah
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This looks like a great project. How about The Grimoire of Charles Yallowitz, with a sub title like suggested above.
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Thanks. I’ve been told that putting my name or anything from my books restricts my audience.
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Huh! Maybe I shouldn’t have done that myself. They sold fairly well, but that could be the 99 cent price.
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I believe it pertains more for writing advice books than short story collections. If I use my name or Windemere here then people can think it’s exclusively about how to write like me and not something that can be used in general. That or they will have to have read my books in order to understand what I’m saying.
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Decent thought. I’m sure something will come to you. Sometimes I have a title before I even start, other times it shows up in the last couple of chapters, but it always shows up.
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It might just be a strange ‘So, You Want to Write Fantasy?’ title. I think what throws me off on this whole project is that the only character in the book is me. My low self-esteem makes it hard to believe that anyone would care what I say even though people keep telling me that my tip posts on the blog are really helpful.
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Write the whole thing under a pen name, and make the guy cooler than you are. Then, before publishing do a word search and insert your own name. Your tips are great, and you shouldn’t sell yourself short.
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I’m actually flattered that you think I could come up with a pen name when I can’t even think of a title here. 🙂
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Since you’re going to change it anyway, just open the phone book and do a blind point. Might be kind of funny.
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People might catch on when they see I’m using only my own stuff for examples. Don’t have to pay for rights or risk lawsuits that way.
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Turn it into a blog contest. Might be a few yuks. At the end you take out the pen name, then replace it with your name.
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Seems like too much work for something I’ll barely use.
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Reblogged this on Author Don Massenzio and commented:
Check out this post from Charles Yallowitz’s blog with a Fantasy Tip Book List of Topics
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Thanks for sharing.
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You’re welcome.
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It seems like a good, comprehensive plan. For your title, how about a pun — “The Write Fantastic.”
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Not bad. I’ll keep that one in mind.
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Looks good. You could also go with Fantasy Writing for the Fainthearted; Where to Go After the Tavern: A Writing Guide for Fantasy Authors; or Tips, Tricks, and Taverns: The Inns and Outs of Fantasy Writing.
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Thanks. Like the puns, so I’ll have to think about those.
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🙂 I like humor.
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