With a sword in your hand: All About Epic Fantasy

Everyone Dreams about taking on an epic quest that solves the worlds problems. This has been a staple of human imagination since the beginning of human imagination. After all the oldest known written work in existence today is the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Since the beginning of time mankind has made up epic fantasy stories in the form of myths to reflect his role in the universe. The oldest piece of written work is the Epic of Gilgamesh. It was inscribed on stone tablets a thousand years before the Iliad was written and it is in the genre of epic fantasy. Since this piece was written many more have followed.

We are all familiar with the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece, or the story of King Arthur and the Holy Grail. We are also all familiar with the quest of Bilbo Baggins. Why have these stories and others like them survived for so long? Why are they so fully engraved in our psyche as a race? Is it because they are fun stories? It is true that they are good stories and grand adventures but they also convey a deeper meaning about what it is to be human. And this search for a deeper meaning has been with humans since the beginning of time.

DONT DO THIS IN YOUR WRITING!

Epic Fantasy is overloaded with massive tomes that hash out the same formula. This goes against the spirit of the genre. Here is the formula and I'm sure it will be familiar to you.

1. Create a bunch of interesting non human characters like orcs, dragons, elves or dwarves; of course your hero should be human or nearly human

2. Put them in a fantastical world filled with magic and secret places

3. Open up your novel with something exciting to get the reader hooked

4. Keep the action moving - insert a series of small obstacles that need to be overcome

5. foreshadow something really big that will happen (won't happen in this novel though -if it ever happens at all)

6. Come up with two big things that will happen and when they are resolved they cancel each other out so the plot hasn't advanced at all

7. Make a big lead up to the next novel (promise the moon)

8. Repeat steps 3-7 in the next novel