We have talked about reading and writing Fantasy. I am excited to bring to you another activity related to Fantasy to broaden our perspectives. I have Jo Narayan with me today and she recently taught a class on Fantasy. I have taken comparative literature courses myself and they are so much fun to learn about a genre or set of books. Let’s hear from Jo about her experiences in teaching Fantasy.
Jo, welcome to Creator’s Roulette. Before we dive into Fantasy, tell us about your journey as an educator and author.
Hi Kriti! I’m so happy to be here. As an educator, I took extra creative writing and literature classes in high school and college and naturally gravitated toward the writing intensive courses. I found essay writing and creative writing both very easy–I’ve been a bookworm since I was small and a writer since I was about twelve. Because of my ease with this I ended up tutoring others throughout my education.
As an author, as I said I’ve been writing for a long time. It was only a few years ago that I decided to take it seriously and work toward publishing something. My debut novel The Wraith’s Bargain will be released on Tuesday July 28th, 2020. It’s a dark fantasy with a focus on the paranormal. If you like magic, demons, and dealing with complex issues–check it out!
How did you come to teach Fantasy?
Recently the CEO of Paperback Kingdom reached out to me and asked me to participate in an online summit for teaching various aspects of fiction writing. Because my current work was in paranormal fiction, we decided that I would teach the basics of paranormal writing for anyone who wanted to get into the topic. I worked a lot about Fantasy writing in general into the class though–after all, paranormal is a subgenre of fantasy!
What did your course about Fantasy teach?
My class started with defining the different genres and subgenres of Fantasy, leading toward the paranormal aspect that the class was to focus on. We discussed how to research fantastical creatures and elements and make them your own, important plot and character development points, and why the darker genres of fantasy in particular are so beneficial for readers.
Which aspects of your experiences as a reader and writer in Fantasy did you bring to teaching it?
I think my experience with the genre was very useful – I was able to draw on lots of examples from different types of Fantasy books. With so many examples, I was able to find something that just about everyone could relate to and understand.
With my experience writing Fantasy I was able to talk about more in depth topics that newer writers may not think about — nuances of character development, plot, and pitfalls to avoid at all costs!
Are there certain questions that students were curious about in Fantasy?
I had a student ask about making creatures the same or different as what we commonly read. For example, the vampires in Twilight are way different from the original Dracula. What is right? Does it matter? Is there room in the genre for variances or do you need to stick to tradition? We discussed these topics in depth and I was very pleased with all that came up.
Another point that was brought up was about how to go about getting ideas–I really enjoyed that section as well!
What is your favorite part about teaching Fantasy?
In this particular class, I loved the bit about where to source ideas. We discussed drawing ideas from media, legends, and myths. I went on a bit of a tangent about making sure you’re being respectful if you use something from an indigenous culture, but then we were back on track and also talked about taking something you love and putting a twist on it.
For instance… many people who like fantasy enjoy the Harry Potter series. Let’s take this idea – a young boy going to a wizarding school – and give it a twist. The muggles know about the wizards. What’s more, the muggles are afraid of magic and wage war against the wizards. How would this twist affect the story? This boy who discovers he has magic may have been raised to hate it. Or he may be afraid of it. Would he be willing to cross to the ‘other side’ of the war? If he did, what would happen with his family? What would growing up as a hunted person do to you?
If any of you just got an idea from that – great! Go write it, and send me a link when you’re done. I’d love to read!
Are there books you would recommend to gain a wider understanding of the Fantasy genre, whether to hone the writing craft or to read more?
Absolutely.
For the craft and information about character development I would recommend Sacha Black’s Better Writer series. The one I picked up is called 13 Steps to Evil: How to Craft Superbad Villains.
On plotting and pacing your story, I recommend Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody.
For understanding Fantasy in general, my best suggestion is to – you guessed it – read Fantasy! I like to support indie authors – not only do they need the support more, they also have more creative freedom and you see a lot more experimenting in self-published novels. In particular, I’d like to recommend the following books to see several different ways fantasy can be done:
- Ember Dragon Daughter by Rebecca K Sampson
- The Nameless by Allison Rose
- The Stolen Kingdom by Bethany Atazadeh
- Lanterns in the Sky by P.S. Malcolm
- Amethyst by Heather Bowhay
- To Dream is to Die by Sarah Lampkin
Have you ever taken a class to help with your craft? If not, what’s stopping you?
I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Jo where we explored the teaching side of Fantasy. You can find Jo on Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about her on her website.
Banner image from Unsplash.
This is so interesting, made me want to attend one of Jo’s classes 🙂
I know, right?! Me too! We will go together!