Fantasy=/="Things don't have to make sense."

There is a common misconception that if you write fantasy, nothing or not everything has to make sense. In essence, the idea is that you can write whatever you want and get away with it because "There are no rules." 

That's an incorrect statement. Fantasy does not mean there are no rules. It means there are different rules. The rules of the real world can be removed, altered, replaced, or supplemented. In that sense, yes, you can write whatever you want.

However, once you've instituted these new rules, you as a writer have the responsibility to adhere to them. Anything that you write that does not follow the rules of normal reality must be explicitly explained or at least easily inferrable from existing explanations, and then anything that doesn't follow your invented ones will be seen as a logical error on your part. If you write something inconsistent with the conditions that you have set up for your story, then that means you were either careless or didn't fully and deeply explore the implications of your system.

The more you change the rules of reality, the more you will be forced to think outside of your habitual and instinctive perspectives. Also, a single change can have many and/or large-scale implications, so you have to be careful. For example, most people do not understand what true "weightlessness" is. Literally removing the gravitational force would dramatically alter the entire universe, and any astrophysicist will be quick to tell you what the implications of that would be.

If anything, writing fantasy means you have to be more vigilant about your writing, otherwise you might run into a convoluted mess of contradictory and illogical situations.

Comments

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bohubear
#1
I think that it takes more time and creativity to make a whole new world that actually makes sense than to write a simple romance story. I'm not saying that some romance stories aren't deep and complex.
E_magine
#2
Yeah agreed to be honest I think it's a lot harder to write fantasy than drama or solely romance. I guess if we look at Tolkien's work and how much detail there is involved in creating the societies for the different races as well as the politics involved then it's enough to make the heads of people spin.

It's hard because you have to be abstract but also have realism involved it's like a hybrid painting (LOL when did i get so smart XD)
StrongBabyPanda
#3
This blog post is beautiful.
YooniqueDJ
#4
Great blog unnie ! <3
I wish to write Fantasy (my first favourite genre) but yeah ... not too sure about how I am to bring the characters and the 'world' that I will invent to become more logical and explained. However, thanks to your blog, it helped a great lot. Thanks unnie ! ^^
(If I do write fantasy, it is only light - not like Harry Potter or Narnia or any of those .. Twilight ... erk, idk >.< LOL XD)
missAminor
#5
This is a good note for those who intends to write in this genre.
baboracoon
#6
agree with you! i just got an idea for a fantasy story and till now i still can't write it well since i need much planning of it ~~
summerxblessings
#7
I hate it when people say that fantasy doesn't need to make sens! -.-
It requires a lot more planning and thinking than realistic fiction in most cases...
(that's why I'm not going to bother with fantasy until I improve more xD)
Yet again, your blog post is meaningful and worth reading! :D
staticdream
#8
Actually, for me, fantasy has even more rules than non-fantasy. It's harder creating a fantasy world than just using the one that we already have some form of understanding of. But fantasy is still the best brain exercise for me. Nothing beats a good world building session.
Sucheon #9
WOW. I agree actually. Fantasy can be imaginary, but still has to have some (imaginary) logic rules.
Like if she is a vampire, and she doesn't drink blood, doesn't actually make sense, right?
OtakuKuroba #10
Thank you so much for this blog post! I am actually planning to write a fantasy fanfic and I'm certainly quite confused about several aspects of such a genre. However, this cleared up a lot of things for me personally.
Once again, thank you C: