5 Tips for Writing YA Fantasy
I didn’t start off as a fantasy writer—though my work did always have an otherworldly bent (one of my first stories was about The Zefinals, animal-esque aliens I wrote about in gel pen when I was seven). As I developed and defined my craft, I focused on people, places, and the things that happened to them.
(5 Tips for Writing a Fast-Paced Fantasy Novel.)
So when a true fantasy idea came knocking at my door (in what would ultimately become my debut novel Sweet and Bitter Magic), I approached writing about a world of magic and power using my original touchstones: characters, setting, and plot.
Here are five tips that have served me well when writing fantasy for young adult readers.
Start small when building your world
The concept of world-building can be scary—after all, you’re creating an entirely new world from scratch. Not only do you have to sort out the government of your direct setting (monarchy, republic, oligarchy), you have to think about the neighboring countries. Are there alliances? Enemies? Trade routes in danger? How do they get fruit?
While you’ll need to know all this information (even if it isn’t all included on the page), it can be overwhelming to start with the big picture. This is why I start small.
Where do your characters live? What kind of bed do they sleep in? Where do they brew their tea? What does their house look like? Where does that house sit? Where does that land exist?
If you focus on the real, tactile things that surround your characters, you can make sure your world remains rooted in the tangible. It’s an easy point of entry for your audience and you can stop yourself (and them) from getting overwhelmed.
Don’t forget—even though you’re creating a brand-new world, you can’t entirely ignore our own. Include touch points to the known. Fantasy worlds are exciting, but they aren’t without friction. Bring real-world conflict into your fantasy world in different ways. For example, I never include homophobia in my fantasy worlds, but my queer characters still have to find their way through other obstacles. Without tension, there is no story.
Zero in on your magic system
On the flip side, I find determining your magic system from top down to be the most effective. Since magic is ultimately a metaphor, I like to start with the big concept: How does magic affect this world? And then, I work backwards.
In Sofi and the Bone Song, I wanted magic to be commonplace. When it came to creating art, I wanted everyone to have access, using magic to quickly develop artistic acumen—not unlike the role that AI and technology has started to play in our world.
For The Third Daughter, and its sequel The Second Son, I wanted to tackle the concept of emotions. What if, I wondered, a person’s feelings—chiefly sadness—could be magic? This is how Sabine and her magic tears were born.
The more you know about your magic system the better. Is it a hard system—meaning you cast this spell then that happens and has this consequence—or is it soft—where the rules are looser and allow you to move with your character’s whims? Both types of magic systems have their place. You’ll know which you need once you’ve established your world.
Check out Adrienne Tooley’s The Second Son here:
(WD uses affiliate links)
Don’t overexpose your exposition
Once you have a well-defined setting and magic system, it can be tempting to answer every question—even those not being asked—all at once, upfront. The excitement of having created a whole world is palpable, and it can get away from you.
Show, don’t tell. Your book has a narrator, but it shouldn’t need a voiceover. In making your world feel real, it’s important to make it feel lived in. The rules of this world aren’t new to your characters, they just are. Presenting things as simply another facet of their lives is key. Dump too much info without plot context or character viewpoint, and suddenly your story is a lecture, one your readers will likely opt out of.
A fantasy world, by definition, is immersive and exists within a certain suspension of disbelief. Use this to your benefit by teasing out details as needed. This doesn’t mean your readers don’t want answers. In young adult fantasy, information is key—they do want to know how and why the world works the way it does. Just ensure you disperse the information thoughtfully. A little bit goes a long way.
Define your characters outside of their power
In a fantasy world built on metaphor, it’s important that you don’t turn your characters into a metaphor too. Just because a person has magic doesn’t mean that person is magic. Your characters are first and foremost people with desires, dreams, habits, and flaws.
I’ve always been a character-first author and that has helped me ground my worlds in ways particularly important for YA readers. If a reader can see the humanity in a character who is also “the most powerful witch in her generation” they can more easily follow her story. And they can more easily learn from it.
In Sweet and Bitter Magic, Tamsin is the most powerful witch of her generation. But we don’t first meet her as an otherworldly force. We meet her as a broken girl dealing with loss, swimming in numbness, and resorting to stealing other people’s joy and love. We see her at her most vulnerable and least powerful, and watch her grow back to herself by letting other people in.
A self-isolated witch is a common trope, but a self-isolated girl who just happens to be a witch, well, that opens up a whole world for readers to see themselves and their struggles and their triumphs. They don’t have to be magic; they just have to be a person.
With a growing catalog of instructional writing videos available instantly, we have writing instruction on everything from improving your craft to getting published and finding an audience. New videos are added every month!
Cater to your audience
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, remember who you’re writing for. So many of us begin telling the stories we wish we’d had as kids. But it’s key to move beyond personal wish-fulfillment; beyond what you wanted as a child and toward what you needed.
YA exists not just to entertain but to teach. Of course we don’t want to be too heavy handed with our “lessons”—just as it’s important not to be too heavy handed with our exposition. But we are here to help young readers grow and find themselves in ways that propel them forward rather than just reflect their world back to them. It’s why we see 16-year-olds changing the world in books: The reader may not be able to change our entire world, but they can change their own.
If we present a compelling story where kindness and connection save the day, perhaps one day we can create a real world in which those attributes are favored and exulted above brute strength and selfish violence. Does that sound fantastical? Of course. But if we’ve learned anything from these tips, it’s that all good fantasy is rooted in the ways your characters, setting, and plot reflect the real world.