World Building and the Art of Fantasy

All of us have our favorite fantasy novels, both High Fantasy and Low Fantasy.  Here at THE DARK SIRE, our favorite, go-to High Fantasy author is J.R.R. Tolkien for his body of work which includes The Lord of the Ring series, the Simarillion, and the Hobbit (just to name a few).  Low Fantasy would definitely include the Harry Potter series, Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files, and Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon Riders of Pern series.  As diverse as all these books are, they have two things in common: 1. Great characterization and 2. Unique worlds in which those characters live.

Characterization deserves a blog all its own and it will get one in the near future.  But, today, I want to delve into the concept of World Building, the chief cornerstone of both High and Low Fantasy.  It’s what makes the genre work.  Without it, your story will crash on the rocks of the readers’ disbelief. 

Simply put, World Building is creating a locale where your story takes place.  A locale that your readers MUST believe in if they are going to believe in your characters. The challenge with World Building is recognizing that your world must function by a specific set of rules.  It is your task, as the author, to establish those rules and map out how your characters will follow them.  The secret is in the details.  Everything – person, animal, or creature – you write about must follow those rules down to the last letter.  This is key in giving your characters a landscape in which to develop. 

Your characters cannot exist in a vacuum.  They have to move, eat, sleep, and perform all the functions that their kind of character must perform to live.  They must have some place real to live.  Not real in our every day existence, but real to them.  And since your story’s world may be different than your readers’ world, it is your job to make the reader understand how your characters can function in a realm that the reader could not.

Think about questions that could guide your world building:

What are the conflicts in your created world?  Does it only rain once every six months?  Are there other species of humanoids and do they require a special environment to survive and if so, can different kinds of humanoids survive in each other’s environments? How do your characters communicate?  Are there different languages?  What do your characters need to do to understand one another?  What is the landscape in which your characters live?  Do different characters need different landscapes? 

Then, set up the boundaries.  Who is in charge?  Do they use magic like in Harry Potter?  And if so, who gets to use the magic, and can others see it?  What is the tone of the atmosphere?  Is this a dark and stormy place or bright and sunny; or is it a landscape covered in ice? 

Define the culture.  What do your characters believe in?  Is there a religion?  Are there several religions? What are the sacred customs?  What is the history of your characters’ interactions? Is there war, peace, tension between peoples? What is the culture’s folklore and mythology?

Don’t forget to use all five of your senses when creating your world.  You need to make your reader feel as if they are right there standing next to your characters – experiencing everything, feeling what they feel, smelling what they smell.  They need to viscerally inhabit your world no matter how fantastical it is.  Your world needs to feel real and functional to someone who could literally not function in it.

Remember, this is a fantasy world created by you, the author.  You need to know how it all functions and be able to pass that knowledge on to the reader without being didactic. Most importantly, you will have to guide the reader seamlessly through your world without breaking the tone or pace of the story. Any note of straying from the story, just to explain an aspect of your world (exposition) will distract the reader – and that’s game over for your story.

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Here are a couple of exercises to help you along the creative way:

1.  Interview your main character.  Ask them questions.  Get to know how they will react to the environment/problem that you have created for them.
2. Map out your world. What does everything look like? What is where in this new world?
3. Write a paragraph on each type of being used in your story. List the attributes of the peoples in each group: appearance, language, fighting abilities, magical abilities, spiritual abilities, clothing, food, shelters/lodgings.
4. Describe the places in your world either to a friend or in a journal. What’s the scenery, weather, animals like? Be detailed in your descriptions so that a person can imagine it in their own thoughts.
5. How will your story end?  Write the final page.  What are you going to have to do in this created universe of yours to get your main character to that point? Who or what will your character have to face? Are these obstacles part of the world building? Describe them in detail.
6. Now that you know how your story will end, how will it begin?  What incident starts your main character on his/her/its path of self-discovery? What will your main character reveal on page one that will make your reader want to turn to page two? And most importantly, how will you convey your world building without heavy-loading exposition? For help on this one, read the first few pages of Tolkien’s The Hobit.

We would love to see what you can do.
Show us your world building in the comments!

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We’re always looking for good, high-quality fantasy short stories, novellas, poems, art, and screenplays. If you have a piece ready for publication, please submit it. 

The Dark Sire presents The Jon Meyers Dark Humour Prize for Gothic Literature

New Philadelphia, OH— Tuesday, May 4, 2021 — The Dark Sire Literary Magazine (TDS) has been in search of ways to further uplift writers, poets, and artists. More than just a publish-and-done process, the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Bre Stephens, wishes to do what most magazines do not: go “beyond the page.” This motto has transformed the magazine into a beacon of opportunity for creatives, and thus Stephens continually searches for ways to uplift creatives beyond the black-and-white page.

The next step in going “beyond the page” is creating an opportunity for creative writers, poets, and screenwriters to join a professional writers association by way of winning a major writing contest. Any horror writer who wins a $25 cash prize and publication from a writing contest is eligible to join the Horror Writers Association (HWA; horror.org). Although TDS already runs a small all-encompassing free contest, Stephens wanted to introduce a much bigger contest that would center on one particular genre. The first of four writing contests to be introduced is the Gothic.

After deciding on the Gothic genre, Stephens then searched for the right candidate to be the face of the contest, and by being the face would give the contest its name. “I wanted someone with the respect of his community and preferably an educator with a literary background. The ideal candidate would be able to contribute to the judging of the contest, as well, so a creative writer and/or screenwriter was a must.” According to Stephens, it was not difficult to find the right person with the right heart. “Jon Meyers embodies everything that this contest stands for: equality, inclusion, advancement of literature, the uplifting of creatives, the progression of careers. He is an educator who has the respect and loyalty of his students and colleagues and thus understands the true meaning of selfless giving and leading by example. It was icing on the cake that Jon also had a keen literary sense.” In fact, Jon Meyers not only is a screenwriter but also a US Moderator at Into the Script, UK’s foremost online screenwriting advice/writing craft hub. In addition, he is a screenwriting panelist for LitCon in New York, where he has been named the 2022 Literary Fiction Genre Manager.

The new writing contest will take Jon Meyers name, officially called The Jon Meyers Dark Humour Prize for Gothic Literature (The Jon Meyers Gothic Prize, for short). Meyers was humbled by his selection as the face of the contest. “What an honor it is to be asked to judge at an annual literary contest named after me. I’m actually amazed we were able to work out an agreement in one day. Bre Stephens handled the entire process smoothly and professionally. It’s an interesting choice to have me judge. Gothic Lit isn’t known for its comedy, but I guess I am. I’m fairly well-known for my upbeat positive energy, not normally traits ascribed to Gothic Lit. Must be all the black I wear.” The humour Meyers touches on comes from the 18^th and 19^th centuries when Gothic authors crafted literary works by using aspects of the comedic fool and, in greater extent, the art of wit. It is the latter that will be emphasized in the works submitted for the Jon Meyers Gothic Prize.

The Jon Meyers Dark Humour Prize for Gothic Literature will officially open for submissions in September, running the whole month, with the winners announced in October – just in time for Halloween and The Dark Sire’s 2^nd Anniversary celebration. Winners will be awarded a cash prize (1^st place – $60, 2^nd place – $25, and 3^rd place $15) and publication by TDS; the top winners will be eligible for HWA membership, a step in advancing their professional writing careers. In-depth submission guidelines will be announced in August. However, writers can begin crafting their gothic tales now. The contest will accept adult short fiction (500-7k words), poetry (1-3 pages), and short scripts (5-12 pages). Works must use dark humour and Gothic storytelling devices/elements and can include monsters, creepy crawlers, werewolves, vampires, supernatural phenomenon, ghosts, and castles; witches, sci-fi, cosmic, or weird elements will not be considered at this time. Those who wish to delve deeper into what dark humour in Gothic literature is can read Amanda Drake’s 2011 dissertation for University of Nebraska – Lincoln, the brainchild for this contest: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1063&context=englishdiss

To stay informed about The Jon Meyers Gothic Prize, follow @DarkSireMag on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as save the TDS contests page. More information coming in August.

Reality Meets Fiction

by Maureen Mancini Amaturo

Introducing REALITY MEETS FICTION, a new addition to The Dark Forest blog.

To kick off our Spring issue (launching April 30) and to honor the lore, legends, and influence of all things gothic, The Dark Sire will spotlight the continuing fascination gothic holds in the contemporary world by sharing experiences from modern life that mirror the haunting nature that defines gothic. To unveil our series of dark, true stories, we are honored to partner with well-established, highly respected paranormal investigator, Barry Pirro.

Ghost hunting since the age of 12, and professionally for almost 20 years, Barry has encountered the unimaginable, unexplainable, and unholy first-hand. “There are particular physical sensations you get when you are in a haunted house, areas that feel off or make you feel ill. Names pop into your head for no reason. You experience sudden pains in parts of your body, or you suddenly feel very hot or cold. The tools I use are for the benefit of the homeowner. They corroborate or expand on what my intuition is telling me.” The tools in his “ghost bag” are remarkably low-tech: digital recorder for EVP (electronic voice phenomena), EMF (electro-magnetic field) recorder, camera, and a vibration sensor, not unlike what pet owners may use to keep a cat off the couch. Barry not only conducts investigations but also does clearings. “A clearing attempts to rid a house of negative energy and encourages spirits to vacate the premises.”

Now, Barry will be sharing true stories from his experiences in all their eerie, mysterious details. Every 4th Friday of the month, one of Barry’s articles will be available to read. He will discuss Shadow People in his first article, out this Friday, and then for May he’ll discuss demons. You’re not going to want to miss it!

Writers and artists: Since truth is stranger than fiction, what Barry has to tell will be as inspirational as it is fascinating. Could reality inspire fiction? We hope so, as that’s the goal of the “Reality Meets Fiction” series. Imagine the stories, poems, and images lurking in the dark waiting for a bite of inspiration. Write a fictional piece based on Barry’s real-life encounters and then submit it to The Dark Sire for special publication consideration. And, if you have a non-fiction story to tell that aligns with Barry’s paranormal series, send it directly to the EIC of TDS by emailing darksiremag@gmail.com. Your story may be published on The Dark Forest blog, too.

Barry’s book on his life as a paranormal investigator that features expanded stories and experiences is forthcoming, and we will keep you posted on when it’s available. Until then, look forward to the articles that Barry will write for The Dark Forest. And if you’re hungry to find out more about this paranormal expert, be sure to visit his website: connecticutghosthunter.com

EXTRA, EXTRA!
As an extra treat, I’ve interviewed Barry about his collaboration with The Dark Sire, which will appear on The Dark Forest blog tomorrow. Watch for The Creative Nook with Barry Pirro beginning at 11 AM (EST).

What supernatural experiences have you had? What subjects do you hope Barry will write about? Have you already written fiction based on reality? Tell us about your stories in the comments below.