Tell me how to write an original medieval fantasy novel without

Gnomes nigga

Fairies neighbor

>learn to write
>write a fantasy novel
>don't include dwarves, elves or dragons
>???
>profit

>>8492538
Manlet dwarves.

>>8492542
Metrosexual elves.

Do new races with their own gimmicks that are loosely based on the archetypes like Zelda.

Centaurs
Dryads
Beast-men

>>8492549

Fuck it. Cat people it is.

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>write a fantasy novel
>don't include anything fantastical in it
>basically just medieval fiction in a made-up world

Kobolds
Trolls
Orcs
Ogres
Magick
Cyclops
Witches
Vampires
Zombies/ Necromancy
Come on OP use your imagination. I could keep going forever here.

>>8492557
This. With a lot of historic research. Maybe add a little magic as a plot device.

>>8492532
have humans of other ethnicity. if you still want to have magic make shit up like sanders or use less popular lore

>>8492559
>Maybe add a little magic as a plot device.
That is just asspull

>>8492551
Elder scrolls already did cat people.

>>8492532
Invent new races like draegyns, aelfs and thwarvs.

>>8492574
>fantasy

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>>8492559

I'm writing a fantasy story, and I'm really struggling with the concept of magic. Like, how the fuck can you have credible melee fighters, when magic should rationally blow everything else out of the water? How can anyone non-magician fight a magician? Even the simplest of spells should give an overwhelming advantage. Where do you draw the limits? It's just bullshit. Unless you have the melee fighters also use magical skills, in which case it becomes bullshit against bullshit and the ideas of skill, training and strategy evaporate.

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>>8492532
Use any mythology other than the Indo-European.

>>8492626
Magic might be really hard to do, perhaps it would takes a few decades to learn just a simple spell that cant hurt anyone, perhaps theres people who has been working on hiding magical knowledge so that its extremely hard to find the neccesary information.

>>8492626
Make the magicians weaker. Make spellcasting extremely complex. Make spellcasting extremely accessible and write battles where everyone fights with magic. There's a billion ways to balance this stuff, be creative a little bit.

>>8492532
Don't use dragons, elves and dwarves.

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>>8492626
The Western canon has no shortage of magic and miracles and melee fightan, it never was a hindrance to good writing.

Fuck off, /tg/. Read a fucking book.

>>8492645
Athena OP pls nerf

>>8492648
>Athena OP
Indian epic poems say hi

>>8492626
That's why having everyone able to do magic is rpg bullshit. Magic is powerful because it's literally someone forcing their will to the world, you can't just have a farmboy learn magic. Magic is for the Big Bad Evil Guys or the Big Good Guys, ie Sauron and Gandalf. Gandalf knows magic because he's literally an agent of god, how stupid would it be if Aragorn knew magic as well.

>>8492532
wrtie a story where a nation is gripped by fear of small people, gaunt looking people, and large lizards.

fantasy is usually shit because the authors just copy other established fantasy settings.
go back to your roots and look up fairytales for inspiration. local folklore, ancient folk tales, foreign legends and other myths.

Invent some non-cringe magick system. I mean without sparks coming from wand.

>>8492532
Do one based around the Black Death, with Mongolian wraiths haunting a local village

Maybe doing something small scale would be pretty refreshing. Fantasy is often about huge scale wars and saving the world and shit.

>>8492644
>Make the magicians weaker.
There aren't a whole lot of ways to do that. I mean, either a fireball burns or it doesn't. You can't have it "burn just a little".

>Make spellcasting extremely complex.
Then no magician would be dumb enough to fight in the frontlines in the first place, but be surrounded by waves of guards, making direct confrontations altogether nigh impossible.

>Make spellcasting extremely accessible and write battles where everyone fights with magic.
Which changes the whole fundamental nature of the story, rendering swords and spears irrelevant in the setting.

>There's a billion ways to balance this stuff
Not really, depending on your goals.

The only reasonable options seem to be either limiting magic to the chosen few divine agents, like >>8492653 said. Which then forces you to establish contrived bullshit rules on why these chosen few can't just fight their own wars with their OP hocuspocus. "Destiny", "prime directive" and so on.

>>8492796
You can do it this way. When you want to learn a skill you have tons of resources on the internet giving you a huge amount of prepackaged information. It's getting really accessible nowadays.

Now let's imagine a medieval world, not only is there barely any information available for learning magic the information is also very restricted. You not only need to learn something blind you don't even know if you have the talent to learn a certain type of magic.

Also to use magic you need to keep your emotions in check. If you're inexperienced in a fight you may die pretty quickly since you can't stay calm and use your magic effectively. This makes magic not only extremely hard to learn but it's even harder to battle harden a wizard for him to be able to use magic in combat.

That may even make the greatest wizard weak in a fight if he doesn't have the experience or talent to fight in a battle.

>>8492796
I think you're ignoring the
>be creative a little bit
part. Nothing you mention is a problem unless you're specifically trying to write something hugely cliched and generic. Which is probably what anon is aiming for, but anyway...

>>8492796
>There aren't a whole lot of ways to do that. I mean, either a fireball burns or it doesn't. You can't have it "burn just a little".
Then don't let them throw fireballs.

>Then no magician would be dumb enough to fight in the frontlines in the first place, but be surrounded by waves of guards, making direct confrontations altogether nigh impossible.
Is that a problem? Do you have to have direct confrontations with magicians?

>Which changes the whole fundamental nature of the story, rendering swords and spears irrelevant in the setting.
Is that a problem? Do you have to have swords and spears? This is fantasy, what prevents you from creating a world with warfare completely different from medieval? Have you ever read Temeraire books? They are about Napoleonic wars where dragons are used in battles as aircraft. It's pretty neat and original.

>>8492809
Limiting information might seem like a balancing factor, but it's actually achieving the opposite. Knowledge is power, and the fewer people have access to the arcane arts, the more OP it makes those few in comparison to the rest of the world, as the other people have virtually no knowledge to defend themselves with.

It might be a sound compromise to give everyone a basic understanding of how shit works, so that even non-magicians may exploit the principles to their advantage, and then make the really powerful stuff complex to learn and master.

>>8492819
I only see you be creative in the art of bad baiting, instead of saying anything constructive.

>>8492826
>Then don't let them throw fireballs.
Now there we find another problem. Magic is the power to manipulate reality with your very mind. Then on what basis can it even be limited to a mere "fireball"? Shouldn't a sorcerer be able to simply will anything he sees into flames? If you can create fire, why not simply set the opponent's heart in flames? What are the principles that keep that from happening? You have to create quite the detailed system in order for it to be plausible.

>Do you have to have direct confrontations with magicians?
How do you presume to fight magicians when they're not only overpowered, but also unreachable? Let's say we have an evil magician, who decides to get rid of the petty little ant of a protagonist. Well, that's the end of the hero's journey then, because he has no logical way to surmount this obstacle, except by maybe running away and leaving his goals unattained.

>Is that a problem? Do you have to have swords and spears?
Well, my original point kinda was that swords and spears are made irrelevant by the existence of magic. Is that the conclusion we want to remain in? If you have to cut one vast form of combat from your story, that really does not promote the idea of fantasy as a genre of creativity and infinite possibilities.

>>8492532
Write some historical fiction about the plague.

>>8492874
>Magic is the power to manipulate reality with your very mind.
Says who?

>How do you presume to fight magicians when they're not only overpowered, but also unreachable? Let's say we have an evil magician, who decides to get rid of the petty little ant of a protagonist. Well, that's the end of the hero's journey then, because he has no logical way to surmount this obstacle, except by maybe running away and leaving his goals unattained.
In practically every "hero's journey" the hero runs away from a fight against the antagonist. This is actually an extremely important element that forces the protagonist to realize his weaknesses and become stronger.

>If you have to cut one vast form of combat from your story, that really does not promote the idea of fantasy as a genre of creativity and infinite possibilities.
Being able to cut out that vast form of combat is literally the proof of the genre's infinite possibilities. You can make a world where people fight in a way that has nothing to do with the real world. How is that limiting? Fuck, you don't even have to cut it out, see how many writers have both magic and traditional combat in their stories. I haven't read any fantasy in years so I can't analyze their solutions, but you can and should, if you want to write fantasy and face this problem.

>>8492532
It's easy as fuck. Research several historical cultures and religions and so on. Then make up some concept to start things off with the world building. Morrowind is a great example of fantasy done right, i.e: not generic as fuck.

>>8492897
>Says who?
I don't know, about every definition of magic in the existence? Of course, there are other mechanics for it to work, like in the Elder scrolls series, but those kinds of systems then have problems of their own.

>This is actually an extremely important element that forces the protagonist to realize his weaknesses and become stronger.
Setting aside what a worn-out and grating cliche this is, what if the magician is not the main antagonist? You have a character who by his profession outshines the actual antagonist, because there's no plausible counter to his powers.

>How is that limiting?
Because it's not by your choice, but a logical necessity. You didn't choose to jump that high, you simply were unable to go any higher. You have to do some absurd mental gymnastics to turn that into a good point.

>see how many writers have both magic and traditional combat in their stories
I've indeed seen lots, and it always results in some pretty embarrassing plotholes and lazy writing that you're simply expected to accept because "it's fantasy" and being irrational and cheap is treated as one of the defining traits of the genre. It shouldn't be!

>>8492626
Make magic faith based.

Gods are unpredictable and easy to anger.

People are afraid to draw too much and offend them.

Those that do eventually blow themselves up eventually. However magic is incredibly powerful and scary.

Making it weak is kind of pointless really.

>>8492574
It depends if the magic is solely used as a plot device, or if it has a presence in the world beyond its use in the story.

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>>8492532

Write it about poor people and have their qualms manifest as christian mythological figures.

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>>8492532
Straight out of the (late) Middle Ages, and into the Western Canon.

Doesn't get any more medieval than that

>>8492937
>I don't know, about every definition of magic in the existence?
What? Did medieval peasants think witches could throw fireballs?

>>8492874
>instead of saying anything constructive
My comment was perfectly constructive. You're defining fantasy in an incredibly narrow way which means 'dudes with swords fighting wizards who shoot lightning out of their hands'. You're ignoring the fact that fantasy doesn't have to be about that at all, which makes it pretty bizarre when you then say
>that really does not promote the idea of fantasy as a genre of creativity and infinite possibilities

>>8492905
It's also an example of how you shouldn't be afraid to both use and abuse old fantasy tropes. Nobody bitched about elves and dwemer in Morrowind because they felt fresh.

>>8492532

Dwarves are awesome though.

>>8492532
Make your own race, or make it about humans vs other humans

>>8492532
if you come from the united states, please dont bother

>>8493097
>My comment was perfectly constructive
"To do something well, all you need to do is not be bad. :^)"

>You're defining fantasy in an incredibly narrow way which means
I'm not giving any definitions to fantasy! "Might&Magic", that is, muscular sword warriors and wise wizards co-existing just happens to be one of the common premises in fantasy literature. If their problematic balance is something I want to examine, and think of new ways to present it, then I obviously wouldn't accept discarding it all as a solution!

And yes, if there's a problem, and you supposedly can have an infinite ways to solve it, then refusing to deal with it at all and doing something else does not exactly demonstrate a great imagination. It's what a kid would do.

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>>8492637
This.

>>8493178
I hadn't realised that your aim was to write something strictly within the sword and sorcery genre. I think it's because you're stating things like
>Magic is the power to manipulate reality with your very mind
as matters of simple definition instead of genre conventions.

>>8493211
Before my own goals, the whole conversation started from pointing out the problems magic presents in a setting. A magic-exclusive world is one solution to the problem, yes. There's just no point in me separately arguing about that, because it's self-explanatory.

>Magic is the power to manipulate reality with your very mind
In many cases, that's the way it's essentially presented, and because it's common, I used that definition for the argument. Regardless of the mechanics involved, magic is about making what you want happen in reality. How else would you define it?

>>8492532
Use folklore of an obscure culture.
>in b4 youkai

>>8492532
by creating your own creatures!

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Try something like the game Darklands. What the common medieval man thought was the truth it's the truth in your novel. The saints are an active agents in this world. There are miracle workers like Saint Anthony. Divine intervention, prayers, vengeful saints, virgins that can kill Dragons by the grace of God. There is no magic, but alchemy. There are devil worshippers in the Sabath and evil heretics. There are also creatures of folklore, robber barons. Do a research.

I liked how they managed it in Legend of Korra, of all things.

Using technology or knowledge of biology to counter/replicate 'magic' and even the playing field.

For example, hitting pressure points in the right sequence would disable someone's ability to bend the elements for a time.

Furthermore, their 'magic' merely enhanced their abilites at physical combat for the most part, a better fighter would still be able to block/dodge blows.

For example, you have your warrior against a standard spellcaster. A fireball is cast, but a certain steel alloy used in your warrior's shield dissipates the flame, or it travels slowly, giving him ample time to dodge.

Armour could be designed around that metal cage stunt people do, so a lightning spell just circles around them harmlessly, or is redirected by a lightningrod on the armour in to the earth via greaves or somesuch.

>>8492532

High fantasy setting but replace all the races with real world ones. (Jewish conjurers and thieves, Chinese necromancers, African and Pakistani rogues, etc.)

>>8492532
A fantasy world with modern technology. No swords or arrows. More guns and grenades.

Go balls-to-the-wall weird with making up other races. Pull some Lovecraftian shit out of your ass.

Avoid the typical medieval Europe setting and come up with something a little more creative.

If you do magicians and wizards, do them like Joe Abercrombie did in the First Law trilogy. That was a fucking great series.

Magic is as op as you make it. Swords and spears have multiple use but who says wizards can indefinitely shoot fire from fingertips.

Have they no stamina
Have they no culture
Have they no laws
Are they a tiny minority
Are they scattered and alone
Are they a secret community
Are they mentally stable?
Are they failed than regular men

So many ways to spin and balance this. Apply yourself

>>8493231
>How else would you define it?
Achieving results by supernatural means. Historically it's often conceived as doing deals with spirits, carrying out prescribed rituals or using special items. Shooting fireballs from your hands is afaik a modern genre convention which doesn't have a basis in real-world cultures and which doesn't actually appear in several classic fantasy books either.

>>8492574
>asspull

To TVTropes with you faggosaurus-rex

>>8492532
A really good example of what you're talking about is Garth Nix's criminally underrated Abhorsen Trilogy. No elves, or dwarves, or dragons and a cool magic system based off hand sigils and bells.

>>8492966
Neat idea.

/lit/ I have a fairy fetish. For some reason the idea of fairies fucking really gets me going. They're so sleek and sprightly and beautiful and have those colorful wings. Plus they probably fornicate in flowerbeds and other neat places.

>>8492532
>write an original medieval fantasy novel without dragons, elves, and dwarves.
There. End of thread.
How hard is that?
(Though dragons are always bitching. Why would you NOT want that?)

>>8492532
Fuck Europe and partially fuck the Near East in terms of where to get your inspiration from past culture.

Look entirely to Asian folklore and mythology. It's far better thought out, as well as being far more evocative, and far less used.

>>8494726
That really was a great series.
Looking forward to the last one in the series next month.

Should be fun with the magical political climate changed by the new "Great Charter"...
And the resolution to Chlorr's story.

>>8495095

As much as I want to call you a fucking weeb. You are quite right.

Make the magic be like in lotr. That is, being a voice of command. The weaker mages can command animals, then people, other magicians, dragons, the weather, etc.

>>8495308
>make it be like lord of the rings

This is honestly the worst fucking advice you could give anyone attempting to bleed new life into an otherwise mediocre and tactless genre full of hacks.

Fuck getting influence from Lord of the Rings in any way shape or form, just let the tired crow die.

>>8492532
I'm currently writing something of an Arthurian/Chaucer kind of tale, as in, 'in that setting' of magic and medieval happenings. It's also fairly 'greek tale' inspired with the character's relation to their gods. Their technology at some points is fairly advanced for their time, like some instances of artificial lighting, but its casually explained as technology from an enemy, more advanced, kingdom.

Anywho, I'm simply not adding any other races. The only thing i'm adding are 'Fae' people, a civilization that lives under the rule of the goddess of earth in a remote forest. But they're being wiped entirely in the first book, so they're not central at all to the plot.

Tldr, you don't have to add any other races than human, because all that adds to your story is a sense of 'mystery and unfounded culture' which you can instead impliment with something far, far more easier: unexplained magic abilities.

There ya go, i set you on your path of writing.

>>8495330
>>I'm currently writing something of an Arthurian/Chaucer kind of tale, as in, 'in that setting' of magic and medieval happenings.

I wonder how it feels to have your novel be indistinguishable from everything else in the bargin bin at a Barnes and Noble in Arizona. Or having authors rightly criticize you on being an unoriginal talentless hack.

It must not feel too particularly good.

The Mole People Incident of 1546

>>8495343
I'm actually writing it to be an obvious, or at least i hope it's conveyed that way, recreation of the genre of 'Arthurian tale.' I think that honestly its a very dead area amongst current popular books what with it not being as trendy as, 'My life as a tranny,' or something something I'm a special teenager.

It's something of a spoof, but i kind of hope, that if anything, it brings back the Chaucer-like tales because those were my favorite to read in my classes.

>>8495343
You don't know that

>>8495343
Song of Roland is probably my favorite book of that genre.

I-in case you were wondering desu

You're sex life

>>8495343
Why is his book automatically cliched and talentless just for using an often used setting.
Is it somehow impossible to breath new life into it?
Just because you can't write well enough to do it, doesn't mean he can't

>>8495368
I didn't say what i was writing for you to defend me or anything!

B-but thanks for defending me anyway desu...i guess.

>>8495355
>I'm actually writing it to be an obvious, or at least i hope it's conveyed that way, recreation of the genre of 'Arthurian tale.'

It is obvious that you're obviously trying to appeal to something simple to a fault, with no real motive or moral otherwise besides what's already been done to death.

>I think that honestly its a very dead area amongst current popular books

That's not particularly bad. What is there to say about European myth that hasn't already been said to death. That and you're quite wrong on it not being trendy, for every second you type your idea has already been thought out and shelved out an enormous amount of times within the past 6 years.

And guess what none of them sell or are reviewed particularly well? Why? It isn't because it's a bias against Europeans, it's simply the fact that its gotten old and there is a stigma associated with it.

>It's something of a spoof

Even worse.

>>8495360
I honestly think you should realvuate your literature if you think "Oh that one other race might exist but it dies" is good writing. There's no impact or conflict to it. It just sounds like bad fantasy, "spoof" or not. You aren't doing a work like Song of Roland proud.

If the point is simplicity just have humans

That and there's no real morale today to be gleaned from Arthurian legend. Author's focus now should primarily on morals from isolation.

>>8495368
>Why is his book automatically cliched and talentless just for using an often used setting.

Because to say the setting is often used is an insult for literature that is only just often used. The amount of pages wasted on no name publishers shelving out stories not for artistic merit or the author's perceived artistic merit, but because it might sell well because its fantasy, is heinous.

It's repeating the same idea with the hope it will be interesting enough to get money. There is no deeper moral. It is just, pure, sales. And it's not good literature.

>>8492532

the saints europeans pray to help them in battle as if they were jojo stands

>>8495394
I mean yeah there's reasoning behind why they're going to die, but i'm not going to spill out the entire plot of my book on an anonymous website for anyone to just pick apart.

So jeez laweez goose, give me a break

And of course I'm appealing to something to a fault. I'm writing for a setting that I dont belong in, trying to be in the leagues of those who were. Yeah, I'm going to be at fault, anything that I would write that I'm not immediately familiar with is going to be at a fault, but that's getting into another subject.

I mean, fuck, Harry Potter was decent considering that Rowling isn't a spell flicking wizard but damned if she's not a best seller.

>>8495394
For starters, you're assuming anon's only in it for the money, which he established in his first post, is not true.
Secondly, so what if there's an extra book on the market? If you treat books in such a way that taking an artistic risk is disrespectful to the arts, you're taking your literature a little too seriously

>>8495420
>>For starters, you're assuming anon's only in it for the money

I didn't suggest that. I suggested that people who publish it aren't publishing it for the reasons the author might otherwise respect. Marketing also factors into this.

And the fact is we have enough fucking fantasy novels with knights and dragons and castles on them at this point.

>>8495434
But you stated that it was cliched and pointless because of people in it for the money.
Are their boring and uncreative works somehow going to taint his book due to being in the same genre?

>>8495447
>But you stated that it was cliched and pointless because of people in it for the money.

Yes for all the people but the author. But the author is somewhat at fault for putting their story in such a setting, if it isn't used within the realm of mature YA genre fiction, that isn't handled with care.

What you do if you ever want to respect the material you're using, you don't automatically go for the setting in order to respect it. You use its morals, and I would say even then this would be a novel more suited to YA fiction. A good example of YA genre fiction that actually has a point to instill would ironically be The Hobbit. I find myself leaning towards Secret of Nimh, with its setting unfamiliar to that of castles but original enough to be relatable in a separate context

But the thing is it doesn't have to be. You could have the same themes set in rural 1937 Alabama with characters who are farmers. There's no reason to have fantasy tropes to get the message across. It works far less for it.

That said I would find it more of a challenge as a writer to create fiction that would have the same themes, but not have a fantastical setting that is otherwise uneeded, and otherwise cliche and hopelessly tied to sleezy publishers who pump out garbage and market it worse. It associates you with it.

Try to not go for the obvious, challenge yourself to adopt it into something new.

>>8495467
>The setting doesn't matter as long as the morals and theme are good.
>But if the setting happens to be one that I think is used too much it's automatically cliched and pointless.

>>8495480
>But if the setting happens to be one that I think is used too much it's automatically cliched and pointless.

That isn't why I said it was cliched and pointless. I said it was cliched because it was cliched to a fault, and there being consequences stemming from that to the author.

Do ancient roman based fantasy instead senpai.

>>8493002
I think one should only use magic if it serves at least two purposes besides plot. For example to set tone, themes or characterization.

>>8495480
>>8495487

You guys are mean. You're going off on a tangent far from what the OP intended. If it's my fault for getting you both so off topic then I'm sorry.

My main point was that you don't necessarily need to add multiple races into a medieval setting, rather just something as equally intriguing and mysterious because that's a fairly central theme in the genre. My example being the presence of magic--something that nobody reading knows or has experienced and thus innately intriguing.

Or, fuck, just create a world very similar to our own, such as politics and government systems, but add in your own ideas such as kingdom identities, religion, and interactions.

>>8492532
>>>/tg/ they're better fantasy writers than /lit/

>>8495487
>Or having other authors rightly criticze you on being an unorginal talentless hack
Sure ya didn't

>>8495505
This thread has gotten hilariously off track

>>8495511
Perhaps...someone was meaning to through...shitposting...?

>>8495517
I am of the opinion that shitposting has become the dominant mode of post production

>>8495505
>You guys are mean.

Tbh senpai I was being a bit harsh but for a point. I was trying to be helpful to explain, why that setting isn't a good idea if you want to be a professional author.

I was trying to present an idea to challenge you in writing a bit. Try to separate the themes of the novel you're writing into another setting entirely. I'm saying this because it's challenging and challenge always allows you to adapt. You can create a spoof of arthurian fantasy fiction without the context of fantasy within it, say have it set in a different historical time period altogether, and you have an interesting novel. Albeit it isn't as exciting as you might like, you give it heart to make your ideas otherwise come across.

I'd rather nobody have Microsoft come to them asking them to write the new Halo or Gears of War novel.

>>8495509
Everybody's a snob jerk here when it comes to their ideas. People exaggerate. That said I agree to a degree, I mean there's no reason to blatantly use ideas within the timeframe and context they were in. Sure that makes it easier and more simple, but it also loses ideas along the way adapting it in the process. This leaves the material in such a state it has been done too many times to count before.

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>ctrl+f "demigod"
>no results

Come on, OP, think on this. There's more than enough stuff to draw on if you want superpowered beings. You don't need elves or dwarves or dragons at all.

>>8495528
That's soooo 100 A.D.

Honestly why not take up the challenge and just make fantasy based off of the mythology of Hatian voodoo.

>>8495528
I liked Warbreaker

>>8495536
Hatian voodoo isnt as interesting as you might think. Nor are the people that practice.

They're basically an underdeveloped civilization who scream at any particular 'happening' as unique because they've nothing else to entertain themselves with

>>8495546
>Will this dumbass board ever recover from the fact that their politics will never amount to anything now that the Bern's over and that the alt right

That's the challenge. You shouldn't have to easy mode fantasy literature. It's fantasy.

Use the mix of Christian allegory, esoteric ritual, danger, and polytheism, to create something interesting. I know plenty about Hatian voodoo, the problem is that it's mostly a blank slate. That being said sometimes a blank slate is all you need.

You shouldn't have to judge the quality of basis for work on whether a culture is undeveloped or not. Sometimes it's best to pick ideas from various places. Othertimes make use with what you have and create something interesting with it as its structure.

>>8495558
Well then you go on the risk of bastardizing another's culture. I suppose you could make something similar of that culture, maybe creating a tribal culture that practices with dolls, but never directly saying, oh its haitian voodoo. That way you can avoid the SJW backlash for trying to impose what their culture is because you cant because you're a CIS privileged white male

>>8495565
I don't see the point of making it grounded in reality anyway, you loose so much creative license

>>8495565
>>Well then you go on the risk of bastardizing another's culture.

You don't make it directly about Hatian voodoo, you set it in a setting otherwise unfimiliar to the philosophies. Say for example if you want to be witty and prove a point, a setting with dragons and castles in it. That sells you on one idea and it quickly becomes apparent it's something else altogether. This could also work with anything set in historical time, just with characters acting out drama within its context.

That's what I mean by picking ideas from this way or that. It's far better material to work with, it's more dynamic, than just relying on conventional and comfortable settings tied with familiar themes. You never take too many ideas you risk not being coherent, you always have a moral, you just don't allow yourself to become trapped by it either. It's a balance, but then again so is writing most of genre fiction that becomes cherished.

>>8492626
Read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel.

>>8495394
O look, it's a huge cunt
Hello, you huge cunt

>>8495828
Hello. Hows your day going total dumb ass

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>trying to come up with name for a place in novel
>think up a really good one
>google it because its too good to not have been used before
>its the name of a school
what an absolute fucking waste

>>8495565

You can't get anything done with this kind of thinking. It ties you in knots. Somebody's going to get pissed off no matter what you do. If enough people enjoy it, it just plain doesn't matter.

>>8492532
>eldritch abominations
>no elves, dragons or dwarves to save the day
>humanity perishes at the hands of these abominations
There you go.

I want to write psuedo-gothic medieval fantasy story about a Teutonic Knight. He goes alone to a town infested with succubi who have turned the local men into husks, captured and rounded up all the women to keep them in bondage for the men to use in any degenerate and satanic way possible; the Knight spends the story trying to locate the Church Belltower in order to call in his Brothers to purge the town. Most of the story is his fighting off the men and freeing any bondaged women he can, while also resisting the temptation of the succubi to abandon Christ and live in degeneracy with the other men.

>>8495528
>Demigods being non-mainstream
>After the popular trainwreck commonly known as Percy Jackson
Fuck Rick Riordan. He did every goddamn religion with Gods worth making demigods of.

>>8496042
Let him give in a few times as part of the struggle and you've got yourself a fantasy erotica. When those things hit they can do decent numbers.

>>8496042
That isn't the plot to a novel that's the plot to a video game on steam greenlight

>>8496047
I'm being an idealist in that I believe I might be able to write a more serious piece out of it. But the chances of it being smut and higher.

It came from a I dream I had where I saw a Knight with a bull horned helmet out-debate some naked women covered in tattoos, makeup and fake-implants - she was the definition of a bimbo. She was trying to convince the knight about the futility of chastity and virtue in the world, and wanted him to live in please. It was quite surreal and I woke up mystified.

>>8496055
>please

pleasure*

>>8496047
Don't fill the kid with bad ideas, he probably wants to be a genuine author trying to say something

>>8496055
It's shallow shit don't write it.

>>8496066
I disagree, but I'm too immature to write it yet.

>>8496066
Nah it actually has potential, but I doubt he would do it justice.

>>8496081
>>Nah it actually has potential

It really doesn't. It hides its intent and politics right on its sleeve, it's not subtle at all. It reminds me of fucking Lifeforce in a bad way

>>8496042
I'd read it

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What are some great series that dont use the whole elves and dwarves and dragons cliche?

A series with its own set of species and races

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=barnOPlVsg4

>>8492532
you should write a homosexual fiction about elves.

>>8492532
Gormenghast

>>8496046
No one cares, he doesn't own that shit, and if you start writing today he'll be ANCIENT history by the time you get published.

>>8492532
do a borges

>>8496036
From Tolkien to Lovecraft

>>8495938
Who gives a fuck about a school?

>>8492532
Deconstruction of the genre

i.e. A Song of Fire and Ice, Berserk, etc.

>>8496169
Zelazny's Amber books

>>8496169
Most fantasy recommend by lit desu.
Tolkien isn't cliched since he made it all up, Wolfe did science fantasy, greeks and Arthurian stuff, T. H. White also did Arthurian, Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock... There's tons of stuff Sanderson reading philistines don't know of.

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>>8492637
nailed it

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>>8492532
Pic related

>>8496169

None of you faggots have played Planescape Torment ? The most unique world I know.

>>8499925
Are you serious?

>>8499952

why not anon

>>8492532
>>8492532
Baudolino by Umberto Eco, nigga