I recently came across the following list on Amazon: “100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime.”
As a fantasy writer myself, I decided to spend the next few years reading every book on this list and record the lessons I learned from each volume on how to be a great writer.
PLOT: Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.
It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.
One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.
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The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making. – goodreads.com (greatly condensed)
WHAT I LEARNED: Several weeks ago I wrote my first post on Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings. In this post I laid out some issues I had regarding the novel’s lack of focus during its opening chapters. A few weeks later I wrote my second post on this cinder block of a novel, in which I described the strategies Brandon Sanderson used to make his characters intriguing and sympathetic. However, let’s be honest. All the characters in The Ways of Kings are secondary. The real star of the book is the land of Roshar.
There’s a reason why the first two paragraphs of the above plot synopsis are devoted entirely to describing the setting. The novel weaves an intricate plot, but when readers finally close the book at page 1,007 it will be this strange, dangerous, unique world that will really stay with them.
More likely than not, the foundations of Roshar are planted in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Soldiers wear armor, fight with swords, ride horses, serve royalty and live in castles. Tolkien’s universe (which was itself inspired by Germanic and Celtic mythology) is the go-to template for traditional “high” fantasy. There are countless novels set in worlds that are essentially Middle Earth. Sure the names might be different along with the style of magic, but just throw in a couple Hobbits and you more or less have the same setting.
However, while Sanderson’s world does share similar aesthetics to Tolkien’s, he opted to add qualities that gave Roshar its own unique personality.
The two most unique qualities are:
1) The high storms, impossibly fierce winds that ravage the landscape. As mentioned in the plot synopsis above, plants and animals have adapted to protect themselves. Every man-made structure is constructed with the intention of surviving these storms.
2) The Spren, small spirits that appear to be made of light. They embody various emotions and aspects of the human world. When someone is in pain, bright red “pain spren” fly around them. High winds will be accompanied by “wind spren.” You can tell if someone is proud because they will be surrounded by golden “pride spren.”
Roshar has a variety of other unique aspects, such as the Shardblades and Shardplate (mentioned above) and the fact that men are forbidden to read.
Had Roshar simply been another xeroxed copy of Middle Earth, I would have probably still enjoyed the story (more or less), but it would have soon faded in my memory and blended in with all the other fantasies epics out there.
So, the short version of what I’m trying to say here is: give your novel/short stories unique settings.
Yeah, I know. This is much easier said than done, but here are some suggestions as to how you can go about making your world stand out.
-Think outside Tolkien. Instead of simply setting your story in a pseudo-European Middle Ages template borrow aspects of your world from other cultures. There are literally hundreds of cultures throughout human history to choose from. I’m currently reading Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, which is a strong YA novel made all the more unique because of its mythic African setting.
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– Combine genres. Technology may not have moved at the same pace in your world as it has in ours. Certain regions or economic groups may have access to futuristic technology while the rest survive in a pre-industrial society. (Yes, there are several stories that take advantage of this concept but I don’t think it has become cliché yet. There’s still plenty that can be done with it.)
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– Only change what needs to be changed. Set your story in an alternate universe that is very similar to our world (with cars, the Internet, Chia Pets, etc.) but there is one major difference. For example: If your novel is about dragons, set the story in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Only in your version of Green Bay, people have access to dragons (or dragons have become a recent threat). The upsides of this possibility are 1) there is more of a chance that your readers will relate to the characters and their problems. 2) The juxtaposition between the supernatural and the mundane will make the story extra unique. A dragon flying over a castle in a magical forest is fairly “normal” but dragons flying over The Green Bay Packers’ stadium is extra surreal. 3) The juxtaposition between the supernatural and the mundane will also give you the opportunity for humor… If that’s the kind of thing you’re going for.
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– If nothing else change up the architecture. Even if you’d prefer your story to be set in a “traditional” high fantasy setting, at least give us unique/weird buildings. There could be cities carved from the corpses of colossal animals or towers left over from a previous, more advanced civilization that rise miles into the sky. Find some way to make your civilization’s “look” stand out.
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– Simply change up the laws of physics/nature. What if you set your story in a world where: Gravity comes and goes like the weather? Time slows down/speeds up or goes in loops as it pleases? When the sun goes down people’s personalities/appearances change? How would all of these things affect politics? Religion? The economy?
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And it’s these last few questions that are key to making your world particularly memorable. Sanderson didn’t just give us a medieval-like world with a bunch of storms, he created a world where every aspect of life (even the currency) is affected by intense weather. He goes into minute detail to show us how the High Storms have affected both the natural world as well as civilization. However you change your universe you need to think of how these changes will affect your characters’ lives and their worldview. That is what will really make your story stand out among the countless other works of fantasy.
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