Writing YA Fantasy From the Premise Up
by Mary Kole | Former literary agent, now a freelance editor, writing teacher, and IP/story developer for major publishers and creators.
Writing YA fantasy can be a tricky endeavor in this very competitive young adult book market. You must level up your worldbuilding chops and create a premise that is fresh and unique. You should avoid generic fantasy settings and instead dive into a mythology or magical element that you can make very specific. Then you have to portray all of that information you’ve created in your head without dumping copious amounts of data ungracefully onto your reader at the beginning of the manuscript.
Balancing Action and Information When Writing YA Fantasy
It is essential to provide your eager fantasy readers with enough context to comprehend what’s happening in a world or magical system, but be sure to start in action—ideally by introducing your protagonist and plunging them quickly from their “normal” life to their “abnormal.” This is known as the inciting incident. As you get rolling, you also need to make sure that the structure and special traits of your realm are transmitted in a clear and concise manner. Introduce things before they become relevant but fight the temptation to introduce everything at once when writing YA fantasy. You don’t want to overwhelm your readers right off the bat.
Let’s give an example of writing YA fantasy with a strong story premise. This isn’t the best idea in the world, but let’s see if we can make it exciting. Imagine a world where people can fly! Now, let's suppose you decide to keep this fact hidden and let it out as a big reveal during the inciting incident, when your character learns that they, too, have this power, and that it gives them access to an entirely different world. The protagonist is completely unaware of the flying ability—talk about a thrilling moment.
Pulling Out the Stops When Writing YA Fantasy
Notice that I’m not suggesting that you save this reveal for the climax when writing YA fantasy. If you have good stuff, put it at the beginning. Reveal the power once the story gets rolling. Explore the world. Writing YA fantasy in this market is incredibly tough, so you don’t want to “save the good stuff for later.”
Why not give your character an unexpected experience right off the bat to get more out of the fantasy worldbuilding than you would if you kept it under wraps? Your job is to entice readers with the fantasy premise you have constructed by giving them something that will pique their interest in your novel idea. While you can hold back details and hints, it's best to use that sparingly. Instead of relying on a great reveal to raise high stakes and writing suspense that builds all the way up to the climax, let your readers in on the most exciting facets of your concept from the start.
You’re writing YA fantasy—your readers want the fantasy elements right off the bat and they want to dwell in that world for the majority of the book. Instead of making the fantasy world the climatic reveal, start there, and then ask, “What if?” You might find that writing YA fantasy takes more plot twists and turns and reveals and high stakes scenes than you had originally intended. This is the market now, and it’s best to step up your game.
Entice your readers by revealing the captivating components of your story—let them experience the elements that drove you to create it! Reveal to them the magical world of your own making, where unicorns sparkle in the sky, and a giant guards a treasure trove that only appears once every century. By letting them discover your world for themselves, you'll hook the reader! And that’s one of the thrills of writing YA fantasy.
If you are aspiring to write a one-of-a-kind fantasy novel, keep this in mind: In order to make your readers truly feel a part of that world, providing essential information and unveiling it at the right moments is essential. A captivating and intricate premise, with all its interesting components, is far superior to a haphazard and abrupt surprise at the last minute which will likely leave your readers feeling underwhelmed. But if you’re writing YA fantasy, you already have an active imagination. Use it to reach even higher!
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