Someone asked me the other day why I liked to write in the Fantasy genre.
The answer came in several parts. To being with, I love the medieval
period and the technology that surrounds it. Over the years I have studied
the period at length and find it one of the most fascinating in history.
Mankind had regressed to the point that one person in a small community could
make a greater difference than a person in a large community. That leads to
greater opportunities for character development. Then there was the
imagination aspect of Fantasy. Non-fiction leaves little to the
imagination. Science Fiction is really cool and a love of mine, but you
have to have some scientific premise to make your story plausible. Horror
simply never had any interest for me. That is not a knock against it; I
simply never had an attraction there. Paranormal writing has been the rage
for years and while it is fascinating at times, it did not speak to me
either. Now Fantasy, on the other hand was wide open. When you
create your own world, no one can tell you that something won’t work there
because you have decreed that it will work. If you want the sun to rise in
the west…it is done. One of my personal favorite notions is to imagine,
“What if Rome had never fallen in our world?” More precisely, ”What if the
technology of Rome had not been lost in the Dark Ages?” If you could
include that in your story then the options as a writer would be
limitless. You could have aqueducts and massive building projects.
We could have better armor and stronger weapons as technology would have
continued to evolve. If you want magic in the story, you can have it there
in a sentence. Explain it however you wish; or don’t. It’s YOUR
story and no one can tell you it is wrong because it is all make-believe.
Fantasy opens your mind to new ideas or ways of looking at things. Make it
as you choose and don’t look back.
The answer came in several parts. To being with, I love the medieval
period and the technology that surrounds it. Over the years I have studied
the period at length and find it one of the most fascinating in history.
Mankind had regressed to the point that one person in a small community could
make a greater difference than a person in a large community. That leads to
greater opportunities for character development. Then there was the
imagination aspect of Fantasy. Non-fiction leaves little to the
imagination. Science Fiction is really cool and a love of mine, but you
have to have some scientific premise to make your story plausible. Horror
simply never had any interest for me. That is not a knock against it; I
simply never had an attraction there. Paranormal writing has been the rage
for years and while it is fascinating at times, it did not speak to me
either. Now Fantasy, on the other hand was wide open. When you
create your own world, no one can tell you that something won’t work there
because you have decreed that it will work. If you want the sun to rise in
the west…it is done. One of my personal favorite notions is to imagine,
“What if Rome had never fallen in our world?” More precisely, ”What if the
technology of Rome had not been lost in the Dark Ages?” If you could
include that in your story then the options as a writer would be
limitless. You could have aqueducts and massive building projects.
We could have better armor and stronger weapons as technology would have
continued to evolve. If you want magic in the story, you can have it there
in a sentence. Explain it however you wish; or don’t. It’s YOUR
story and no one can tell you it is wrong because it is all make-believe.
Fantasy opens your mind to new ideas or ways of looking at things. Make it
as you choose and don’t look back.
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