Writing a Fantasy Novel

Find out how Felicity White wrote her fantasy novel “Serenis,” available to read free on Wattpad.

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‘Write what you know’ – What to do when you don’t live in a Supernatural world. 

Dear fellow Wattpaders!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog entry!  I was totally psyched when my YA Fantasy novel, Serenis, was chosen to be on this month’s featured list and hope you all enjoy it.

Now, as a writer I take as much advise as I can get, especially when it relates to creating believable worlds and the one thing I always hear is ‘write what you know.’ But when your main character is the Supernatural equivalent of the Grimm Reaper, living in a country that you’ve never been to before and if that isn’t challenging enough, also resides in a parallel world with amazing people who have a myriad if Superpowers, I was left wondering how on earth I was supposed to write what I knew when my reality was so far from hers!

So I decided to team up my imagination with a very powerful secret weapon – research - and got my Google on.

First step was getting to know my characters so I began to research and when I was done, I researched some more.  For Evie I have a whole drawer of folders and picture books of everything that makes up her physical world.  I online window-shopped for the clothes she would wear (loved that bit); made playlists of the music she listens to (loads of Taylor Swift).  I have pictures of her house, her car, her dog – anything that makes me feel like she is more of a living, breathing person.  

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

‘Researching’ at the Taylor Swift concert.

When it came time to describing the beautiful and perfect world of Serenis, I read blogs and researched anything and everything I could on the Nantahala and surrounding towns.  Even trading in my weekend stilettos for hiking boots to spend some Saturdays in the Blue Mountains, NSW which was the closest place I could find that resembled Serenis, with majestic waterfalls and perfect bushlands.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. 

I didn’t realise just how much all of my research had helped until I sat back down to write the second half of Serenis.  I knew my characters so well, I knew their thoughts, their past experiences, likes and dislikes and how they would react in any given situation.  I knew what Serenis looked like, smelt like and sounded like.  Being armed with this knowledge helped me create a new reality that was very quickly transcribed into the finishing chapters of my story.

So now whenever the imagination is just not as fired up as I would like and I get a bit of writers block, I put on Evie’s playlist, I look at pictures of her house and ‘Serenis’ (AKA print outs of the Nantahala and my bushwalks through the mountains) and I am instantly transported into her world.

Happy reading,

Felicity