Last month, I wrote more on how to set the scene for good fantasy books. This week, I wanted to delve more into the macro-level of things on how to establish an effective history for a fantasy world.
Who Needs a History?
If you are writing fantasy, namely an epic, it is important that you have a believable world established. Part of establishing a believable world includes building a realistic landscape, coming up with realistic organizations, and perhaps most important developing a history. No world simply just comes into existence, so it is important that you know where your world came from before trying to establish where it is going.
Study History to Know History
A lot of people do not realize it, but oftentimes writing fiction requires more research than writing non-fiction. The real key to good fantasy books lies in the details, so it is important when forming a history for your universe that you understand how history develops. Naturally, the best way to learn this is to study the history of the one world that we all live on; earth.
Earth has a rich cultural history. Different people from all around the world have had their struggles and different powers have risen and fallen over the years. From the ancient Chinese dynasties to the crusades of the Middle Ages, to the American Revolution and to modern-day wars, there has been a mixture of cultural advances and significant battles. As a writer, one of the best ways is to understand how these events came to take place. This does not mean you need to become an historian, but it does mean that you should have a fairly detailed understanding.
Making Your Own Details
Of course, like any other aspect of good fantasy books, the real important part in establishing a history is to make it unique to your own world. Don’t simply take the history of earth and adapt it. Use one event in history and merge it with another. Better yet, take the overarching cause of an historical event and use that to shape a fictional conflict or development.
Once you have a history established, you don’t even have to ever release it to the public. It is important, however, that you know the history yourself. In this way, characters can be affected by a war that might have happened a decade ago, or talk about an ancestor that might have been involved in the invention of some new tool. If you failed to lay out a history, your readers will catch inconsistencies and you will find yourself in trouble.
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Hailed as the J.R.R. Tolkien of the 21st century, Joseph Macolino is the author of the Evorath series, providing good fantasy books to those looking for heart-pounding action in a magical world.
