Essential Elements of Fantasy Fiction Novels

Are you about to write your first ever fantasy fiction novel? I hope you have worked well enough on your draft. I tell you, it’s not going to be easy but you will surely enjoy the process.

When writing fantasy fiction, you must not forget the elements to a good story. Authors may have different styles in creating or writing their stories, but the elements are universal. They are what make the readers stick to the story or book.

For me, the key elements of fantasy fiction are:

• Mystery
• Fast-paced action
• That unexpected angle in the story line
• Having one outlandish character / comedy relief
• A driven story line that moves the story forward and maintains the reader’s attention. (In my novel Daughters of Twilight, a pyramid from the reign of the Pharaohs appears in the middle of an Iowa cornfield during modern day.)
• A special team (In my novel, a team of well-trained men challenging a group of high-powered women that live inside the pyramid go head-to-head in an all-out brawl!)
• Love/romance (Of course! Within all of this, two people are unexpectedly brought together by love. This tends to make for a fast- paced action thriller for men and a true romance for women.)

Sometimes your fingers would get ahead of your mind and you want to jump to the ‘good parts’ but you should not miss the minor yet important parts as they also contribute to the ‘good parts’ of the novel. Skip reading them and you might miss the juicy details.

I’ve always thought that writing the beginning, the middle, and the last parts of the novel was the easy part, but I was wrong. It was the filler that was hard.  My novel could do without one, but I deemed it necessary to keep the story interesting. But please don’t overdo your filler or else it will make the novel tiresome.

Aspiring fantasy novelists should use every trick in their sleeves to engage readers and sustain their interest in what the next pages hold.