My migraine medication is so strong it makes me feel all weird, so I thought now would be the perfect time for the Fantasy rant. Because it just makes sense to me right now. Fantasy is weird. My head is all weird. It'll be great. 

Fantasy is one of those genres that is so big, it's hard to narrow down specifics for tips, but I'll do my best. Honestly, it's hard to even talk about fantasy, because it's one of those anything goes genres. So instead of doing my usual "this is the most realistic path", let's just have a discussion of important elements in fantasy. Sound good? Sounds good.

This may end up needing more parts, but here's our list for today:

1. World building

This is, to me, one of the best, yet most daunting parts of fantasy: you have the option of creating an entirely new world. It's seriously a free for all, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. A lot of times, I just see people build worlds that are almost on par with medieval Europe. You guys realize you don't have to have your own world, right? You can totally just set it in medieval Europe. That's fine. In fact, that will save you a lot of useless description. I mean, you can add magic or fantasy elements to anything. Hell, I can write a novel set right here, right now, and have magic, or dragons, or different races/languages/societies. And it would work. Because absolutely anything can happen in fantasy.

But, if you are going to build your own world, here are some really, really important things you have to keep in mind:

Patriarchal or Matriarchal: Is this a patriarchal society? Matriarchal? Have they established an equality? Are there more than two sexes? That's something that bothers me a lot in novels: people don't want to have to deal with these topics, because they don't want to perpetuate sexist or racism or whatever. But those are the topics that need explored the most. I hate when people comment on a novel saying "as a feminist, this drives me crazy that the girl isn't allowed to do what the guys do". I'm a huge proponent of fairness too, but c'mon. Sexism is something we face today. It's something that you will inevitably come across in your own world (especially if you base it off medieval Europe). So, don't be afraid to tackle these topics.

Religion: I'm a firm believer that ancient civilizations are fantastic resources to help you start building your world. And in all ancient societies (okay, let's just say 99%, since people on Wattpad hate generalized statements like that) the number one questions is: What happens when you die? Some form of burying ritual is found in the overwhelming majority of ancient civilizations. Arrays of worshiping rituals to all kinds of gods are found in all of them to. So, this is something I think you should really consider. How do people in your world deal with these existential questions? Do they turn to religion? Do they turn to science? Is there something else that they cling to?

Think about it: religion is the root of almost all the wars and conflicts this world has seen. That means it's a pretty powerful force, right? So imagine what it can do for your world. Just think about it. Even if you don't have a huge religious theme in your world, it's still something really interesting I think you should consider.

Customs: Here, I'm talking about how this society functions. What kind of rules are there regarding manners? What about courtship? What is their class system like? Do they have upper and lower? Is there royalty? Is it a run by some form of military? Are there conflicts between races, species, or even geographic regions? Is the society superstitious? How does this society function? What keeps them running?

Rituals: What are the marriage/courtship rituals? Is polygamy practiced? How is premarital sex viewed? Is monogamy even a thing?

What about burial rituals? I mean, not every society buried bodies, you know this, right? Some burned them. Some left them out for animals to eat.

How are rulers (if there are any) decided? What do people do during times of conflict? What kinds of things cause conflicts?

All these things are really important to consider with planning your new world. And there is A LOT more to is, but I just decided to end it there. But we can come back to this in a later rant or something, if you guys would like. And if you've build your own world for your own fantasy story, tell us about it in the comments! All ideas help!

2. Language

Aside from education, my English degree has a strong basis in linguistics, so this is one of my favorite topics. My best friend actually totally focused on linguistics for his English degree and that's his nerd thing. Like, I'm a firm believer that everyone has at least one nerdy aspect to them and that's his. He loves etymology. So much so, that I buy him dictionaries that trace the history of words. And he reads them. Cover to cover. But that's neither here nor there. We have to move on.

Language is one of the tools that can tells us the most about a society. Why? Well, for starters, societies only have words for the things they value. Like, if an ancient society had a world for "cow", we can deduce that they had at least a mild farming background. We can tell which societies traded with each other based on the words they borrowed from each other's languages. It's actually so cool, and my best friend can actually tell you the proposed origin of "fuck" and how it came to its current meaning. I'd tell you, but it's much better when he does it.

My point is, we can tell a lot about your world based on the kind of things they have words for. So, say your MC is travelling and she sees white, powdery stuff covering the ground, yet she doesn't know what it's called. From this, I can infer that she comes from a region where snow is not common/never happens. So I can predict she's used to warmer weather. And with warmer weather comes things like, more prevalent agriculture. So you can use language to tell your readers about your world, without actually telling them everything.

How boring is it when you have to sit through pages and pages of an author just telling you everything about their society so you understand? That's hella awful. So my suggestion is, use your characters to explain as much as they can about the world through their actions and their language.

Also, remember that modern language probably shouldn't be used (as in, maybe they don't say "fleek", "baller", "salty", etc). And I see authors that a lot of times think that fantasy dialog should be more flowery. So they say things like "On the back of a sure footed steed, she rides through the darkness of nights, like an angel floating on the wind." Honestly, I'd suggest staying away from that. It's totally okay to say "She's riding on a horse." Your readers would probably enjoy that more anyway.

Don't overthink it. If it doesn't feel natural, you know you have a problem. Also remember, that as an American, using British phrasing doesn't make it medieval. It makes it British.

And last thing under the language heading: unless you're a linguist like Tolkien was, don't make up your own language. Especially if it's just you slapping your hands down on the keyboard. Instead, just describe the language, without using specifics. Say that two characters are speaking, clicking their tongues, or rolling their "r's" or something, but don't give them actual words. It'll make your story go smoother, I promise. And it'll be a hell of a lot easier for you.

3. Races

I always see people come up with their own races of people and they always end up being elves, dwarves, orcs, or fairies. Except these have different names, so they must be different, right?

If they're tall, good archers, peaceful, and keepers of some kind of magic, they're probably elves.

If they're short, angry, good fighters, and super feisty, they're probably dwarves.

If they're the bad guys that may have once been good, but have been cursed by evil and now serve as the main villain's army (aka "the bad guys"), they're probably orcs.

Fun fact: fairies were actually considered evil until Shakespeare. I read one of my professor's dissertations one time and he argued that fairies were most likely real (except not magical). He made this really compelling case, stating that they were probably gypsies, and I love that idea. I love the thought of taking different types of peoples (like gypsies) and making them their own race. Like, these people were so afraid of the gypsies they most likely believed they were evil fairies that would steal their children or kill you if you didn't give them milk. Seriously. I thought that was so cool.

But my point is: if it's been used, twist it. Okay, so you have a tall race of people, but why do tall people always have to be associated with nature (aside from the fact that height and elves have become somewhat synonymous). What if you have a tall race of people that are really into...I dunno...like astronomy? Like, they're totally into stars and whatnot.

And instead of making your shorter races feisty like dwarves, why can't they be into things like exploring? Like, they just want to find new trade routes and things and people?

And I'm just going to end this rant here, because you guys have no idea how out of it I am. If none of this makes sense, oops. It'll be fixed eventually.

Until then, tell us all about your fantasy stories! In the comments (or even just PM if you don't want to share everything, I promise I won't steal your ideas, I have too many of my own that y'all can just have) tell us about your setting. Your characters. Your races. Your conflicts. Villains. Language. Customs. Rituals. Everything! Tell us all about your fantasy and give us some ideas and pointers. The more, the merrier!

Seriously, though. This is your chance to shamelessly plug your own work under the pretense of just wanting advice or to give other people inspiration. That's what the comment section of this rant book is for. Every little bit helps someone, I'm sure.

Also, and this is a total side note, I've decided that I'll answer a few of your burning questions (as in questions, I get a lot), so if it's one I get emailed/PMed/see in the comments more than two or three times, I'll try to answer them (did you notice the issues with my parallelism? No one comment on it or you lose ten points). I'd do a Q&A, but I've done them on the other site I frequent and they always end up being about my sex life and things you all don't need to. So without further ado, the first burning question, which is oddly enough about my sex life, but work with me:

1. What happened when your dad caught you and your best friend making out together in his room?

Actually, it wasn't my dad because we would both be dead. It was my best friend's dad and when I said we were together, I didn't mean making out together. I wish we had only been making out. That would've have been significantly less awkward. But, I dunno what else to say about it. I begged his dad not to tell my dad, and he didn't, surprisingly. If he had, I'd still be grounded, all these years later. And my best friend moved out, like, two or three weeks later, so I didn't have to go back over there for a long time. Like, I'm pretty sure I didn't look his dad in the eye for a good year and half. That was mortifying. But we're back to being cool, obviously. Because I still talk to him. But the moral of the story is: if you use that in your own story, realize it's maybe worse than walking in on your parents doing it. So maybe just don't do that.