What are some mistakes to avoid when creating a new fantasy world?
I disagree. I think the hard part is creating characters that readers can believe in and identify with. World building is the easy part. It’s extremely addictive and much less work than struggling with all those thousands of nasty little words. Creating truly original worlds may be hard, and must be getting harder, but adequate worlds come penny for six. I’ve had fans tell me that they’ve built a world and can’t seem to get the book written, would I like to accept/buy/use their world? Or write the novel, please? I know writers who choked their stories with a surfeit of “world” and turned them into travelogues. And listening to someone describing his personal fantasy world is worse than hearing about the dream he had last night. What do you believe are some of the elements of a really great fantasy novel? Characters firstlikable people in trouble, bravely battling odds. Next, a sense of… not just wonder, but of place, too. Of being somewhere marvelous: Barsoom, Pern, Treasure Island,
