Scene Constructing Your Fantasy Novel

Posted on February 20, 2008

The importance of plotting, scene construction, and narration when writing your fantasy novel.

You may have read interviews from many authors who state that they place less effort on the plot outline than the actual writing of their novels. You will also find that many of these same authors regret that they did not learn the art of plotting early in their writing experiences, and do admit to finding dead scenes and stray ends at the completion of their novels. Fantasy writers simply cannot afford to skip the plotting process. Certainly you may revise your plot during the process; in fact you should as you find new directions and interesting inclusions.

Writing fantasy draws very heavily on the imagination, as with the nature of the beast goes; imagination has a habit of straying and taking directions that were never intended. One thing leads to another, then eventually your fantasy novel, direction and intention becomes so unclear surrealism becomes complete abstract; readers will eventually lose patience and interest.

You fantasy novel will very likely include a quest, or an adventure. Be sure to provide motivation for this quest. Why would your hero set out on such a perilous journey? The motivation must be strong, after all this will be the driving force to continue. You need your readers to believe you, and you need your readers to wish your hero forward. Don’t just consider your hero’s motivation, your antagonist, if you have one also needs motivating.

A fantasy writer would benefit greatly by learning to storyboard the novels plot. This is a technique used widely in film and commercial creation where individual scenes are represented by an image (you may choose to use sentences), giving the writer and over all quick reference to the novels events, keeping your plot well organized.

Avoid pointless scenes. Nothing should happen at random. Every scene in your fantasy novel must have some value. Dialogue should enhance characterization, or scenes may offer details about the setting or quest in the very least. Preferably your scenes should advance your novel. Writing on the spot is a little the same as watching someone standing still. Use your scenes wisely, you’re preparing for the eventual climax. This does not imply that your fantasy novel should be action packed, what it does mean is that your scenes must have intention.

Although a fantasy reader loves a good surprise, I recommend that you prepare your reader. A mild mannered hero suddenly erupting violently may not be so believable unless your reader has been presented with some hint to the possibility that they may be capable of this. Certainly you will be forgiven if you were to offer some explanation latter, but it is not recommended that some out of character occurrence take place that does not get addressed.

To avoid a reoccurring mistake many average fantasy novels make, it is important for you the writer to find a narrative voice and stick to it. If your novel is written in the first person, consider the language that your character speaks his/her culture and write strictly from their eyes. First person narrative is restrictive as the character that is telling the story may not presume to know another characters past, or any information at all not directly his knowledge.

If your narrative character is not completely human or human at all, it is important to keep your tone steady, and reflect the nature of your character narration with careful use of language, step out of yourself and watch the events of your novel unfold through your characters eyes. Certainly this will give you are unique and fresh perspective. Your non-human narrator does not have to be a character in your novel; he may also be the third person voice, the writer’s voice. This is an exceptional way to discuss human attributes that may be presented by your human characters.

I might suggest that you dress in character to write, but be sure that someone will come knocking on your door the moment you try on your dragon wings or wizards cape when you do, perhaps you could settle for a hat instead. Above all it is simply extremely important that you stay in character.

Certainly choosing to narrate your fantasy novel either from the first person narration of one of your characters, or from the third person with a characterization or even simply as an impassive story teller is very much a person choice that only you can make, but do this as soon as you start writing and don’t change.

When the characters in your fantasy novel speak, be sure to include dialogue from their language only. To be certain that you have done this, examine the speech and ask yourself if you could guess who said this if there was no reference to the speaker. This is the only time your narration may step out of character.

Writing a fantasy novel may be a lot of work, but it truly is absolutely enjoyable. Writing any novel is a little like being a new mum, it’s all hard work at the time and it’s not until the work is done that we realize that the time just went too fast. Take your time and appreciate every moment, it’s an experience you will want to remember.

About the Author

Publishing pro and author/filmmaker Barry Sheppard has written and published many books, with hundreds of reviews in newspapers, TV and radio. He is now concentrating, with his team, on writing articles for others. Did you find this information useful to you? You can learn a lot more by visiting http://www.novelmaster.com

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