Exploring the World of Fantasy

My brother, Warren, raised me on the stories that founded the fantasy genre. From Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings to Adams’ Watership Down to Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, we read it all.

Not only was he an avid reader of the genre, but he was a pretty damn good artist, too, bringing dragons to life in jewel-toned oils.

He died nine years ago. I am left with his passions for all things imaginative and creative.

So I guess it doesn’t come as too big of a surprise to me that I’ve immersed myself into the genre like we once did when I was just a kid. My writing has not been too widely accepted these last few years. I don’t know. Maybe I’m trying too hard to push an agenda of love and hope and light. I mean, I do believe in these things, and I do believe they need to be offered to others for what they might need along their own journeys. But it’s just not landing anywhere.

I think the world’s just looking for something different. I get that.

I guess so am I.

So earlier this week I decided to explore world building – a new approach to writing with no expectations, no rejections, no judgments. Just some pure fun that is both challenging and, I hope, immensely rewarding.

For some time, I’ve played around with the idea of building a fantasy world. For both of my novels, Cold Rock and Fossil Five, I had to create maps that allowed me to move the characters from place to place in a believable way (it also helped me keep track of how people got where they needed to go).

But a world all my own? What a wonderful way to play within the genre of fantasy while creating characters, plot lines, and geographical worlds that are filled with magic and wonder!

The world I am creating is called, tentatively, Gaiaverse. It’s a high fantasy world with touches of magical realism. I’ve even created a playlist for it, called Gaiaverse: The Fantasy Universe, that I have been curating all week.

Playing the music keeps me in that space, that world, where I am pondering sub-worlds, magical creatures, and dark twists to an emerging plot.

Like I said, it’s a lot of fun, and it is exactly what I need to course-correct my overwriting and overthinking about submitting my work for publication. This is an entirely different process in a genre I have spent my whole life reading, but not really writing.

Next: Thoughts on world building as I begin to explore the intricacies involved in bringing it all together.