I love fantasy books, and I love adventure so, put those two genres together, and I get very excited! I was, therefore, delighted when I was offered the opportunity to review this book. The author sent me a copy in exchange for an honest review. The book can be purchased here. Summary Matthew is an average boy who doesn't realise his father is the Blademaster, a title given to one person capable of wielding the sword of the elements. This sword can metamorphosise, depending on what the Blademaster needs. The sword of wind can creating tornados, while the sword of water can manipulate (you guessed it!) water. When Matthew's father goes missing, and is presumed dead, Matthew is given a special book that can transport him to his father's native world. There, he finds out that he is the new Blademaster and begins a quest to seek out the evil Black Knights and hopes to find what happened to his father. Reviewing... The Plot I love stories about parallel worlds, and it's alw...
This week's curator on the @WeeklyScribe account is E.L. Lyons (@Lyons_Pen), author of Starlight Jewel. Here is her writing advice on drawing from history to incorporate into fantasy...
When writing fantasy, the magic system always seems to be at the forefront of attention. Wands and dragons and spells are exciting. But when writing epic fantasy, where you’re creating a whole world different from ours, history is essential to grounding that magic and those cultures to make them seem real. If the history doesn’t feel real, or the world seems like it’s just starting, it gives the entire environment an inauthentic feeling.
Contrast this with the terrible E word… Exposition. The one thing that no fantasy author wants to be accused of. You have to craft your world’s history, lace it with magic, and then you can’t even tell your reader about it. But you also have to make sure they know it’s there.
I’ve learned a lot of hard lessons about this delicate balance with Starlight Jewel. One reason it took me near two years to edit it, is because beta readers weren’t grasping my history. It was there, I had crafted it, I’d even woven it in delicately, but readers were confused about who exactly the “Ashites” were. They were the indigenous people of the country of Norge. Historically, they ruled a small portion of the country, then there was a little war, and the Norgans overthrew them, incorporating the Ashite lands as a part of their pre-existing larger nation. Some Ashites are still living in Norge, plotting to take back their country after a couple centuries of recuperating.
There. I explained it. Quick and easy right? But it’s exposition. Even if it’s not a huge chunk of exposition, the main problem with the terrible E, is that it isn’t memorable. Readers will forget the history if you tell them. If not in the next three pages, they’ll forget it three chapters. If I say something once in a 494-page book, it’s just going to get lost in a sea of words.
So how do you weave in history? I ended up doing it in a lot of small ways—characters talking at the gravesite of a king, books from historical peoples, a painting of a general from an old war, references to what certain buildings or rooms had been used for in previous societies, artifacts, and referencing past events in comparison to current ones. But these can’t just be random snippets, they have to be relevant to the plot and characters. They also have to string together a clear and coherent history that’s interesting, which often means condensing the historical events/people/culture into something a little more tightly connected that real history.
If you can manage this, then your world’s history will be more memorable and engaging. I’m certainly no Tolkien, but if the difference in understanding and reaction from my first round of beta readers to my last round of beta readers is to be believed, I did good sneaking the history in.Starlight Jewel
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