If I wrote fantasy, what would I write?
Apr. 11th, 2020 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkGrowing up, I had always been a fantasy fan, and I always thought I would be a fantasy writer. I devoured Harry Potter and the works of Garth Nix, Tamara Pierce, and TA Barron. I was steeped in the tradition of Western, pseudo-medieval-European fantasy, and I knew little of Chinese history or storytelling traditions.
But as I grew older, I began to veer away from fantasy. I grew tired of the same tropes and unimaginative settings in YA Western fantasy, while I found that I didn’t have any patience for the tomes that constituted Adult fantasy. I reflected on my unsuccessful attempts at writing fantasy when I was a teen and concluded that, while I enjoyed reading fantasy, I didn’t know what kind of fantasy I wanted to write.
Maybe that sounds odd. It certainly sounds odd to explain it that way.
Yet most people, when they begin writing, are often influenced by something else they like. It's only natural. Even I found myself thinking along those lines for the books I finally managed to finish writing: my first novel (sci-fi) was heavily influenced by my time in the Captain America fandom. My subsequent novels were category romance, influenced by the category romance novels I'd read. A future novel I'd like to write is basically "like Mission Impossible."
And yet, whenever I've wanted to write fantasy, I've never wanted to make it similar to any other fantasy novel I'd read. This is actually problematic, because it means that my fantasy attempts usually fizzle out because I'm essentially trying to write something I've never read before.
(For example: One of my early novel projects was a pseudo-European low fantasy with political intrigue. The problem was that I'd never read a political intrigue fantasy up to that point and had no idea what I was doing.)
To put it another way: While there are fantasy novels I've enjoyed, I'm more conscious of what I don't like in fantasy rather than what I do love and want to incorporate.
Ever since I've begun watching The Untamed, I've thought about attempting to write a Chinese fantasy. Yet even there, I'm still more conscious of what I don't want to write rather than what I do want to write. After all, I don't want to simply copy The Untamed.
I don't want to write about a female character in a sexist pseudo-Chinese society.
I don't want to write about intrigue in an emperor's court.
But what do I want to write? I'm not sure.
I guess this is all a long-winded way of saying I'm still not ready to write fantasy yet.
But as I grew older, I began to veer away from fantasy. I grew tired of the same tropes and unimaginative settings in YA Western fantasy, while I found that I didn’t have any patience for the tomes that constituted Adult fantasy. I reflected on my unsuccessful attempts at writing fantasy when I was a teen and concluded that, while I enjoyed reading fantasy, I didn’t know what kind of fantasy I wanted to write.
Maybe that sounds odd. It certainly sounds odd to explain it that way.
Yet most people, when they begin writing, are often influenced by something else they like. It's only natural. Even I found myself thinking along those lines for the books I finally managed to finish writing: my first novel (sci-fi) was heavily influenced by my time in the Captain America fandom. My subsequent novels were category romance, influenced by the category romance novels I'd read. A future novel I'd like to write is basically "like Mission Impossible."
And yet, whenever I've wanted to write fantasy, I've never wanted to make it similar to any other fantasy novel I'd read. This is actually problematic, because it means that my fantasy attempts usually fizzle out because I'm essentially trying to write something I've never read before.
(For example: One of my early novel projects was a pseudo-European low fantasy with political intrigue. The problem was that I'd never read a political intrigue fantasy up to that point and had no idea what I was doing.)
To put it another way: While there are fantasy novels I've enjoyed, I'm more conscious of what I don't like in fantasy rather than what I do love and want to incorporate.
Ever since I've begun watching The Untamed, I've thought about attempting to write a Chinese fantasy. Yet even there, I'm still more conscious of what I don't want to write rather than what I do want to write. After all, I don't want to simply copy The Untamed.
I don't want to write about a female character in a sexist pseudo-Chinese society.
I don't want to write about intrigue in an emperor's court.
But what do I want to write? I'm not sure.
I guess this is all a long-winded way of saying I'm still not ready to write fantasy yet.
