Fantasy Setting

What I want to talk about is the importance of setting. When you read, characters function and the story unfolds within the setting. If the surroundings are not clear, strong characters can usually pull off the scene, but if that's the case, we're cheating the reader. A weak setting throughout the book makes the story less interesting because it doesn't create a complete visual within the reader's imagination. If Dorothy is told to follow the yellow brick road but we never see it, feel it, hear our footfalls click upon it...we feel a little lost.

Along with creating a visual, it's important to engage the other senses. You want to deliver the whole package. To do that a fantasy world needs to be experienced on more than one dimension. As you write ask yourself what makes your fantasy world different than the real world? In some cases it might be fantasy characters like dragons, fairies, elves or other lifeforms walking around in a world much like the one in which we live. Whether or not you've created a whole new world or have decided on a world similar to the one in which we live, there is more than landscape and even creatures and characters. To give your readers a complete experience ask these questions:

Avatar answers these questions in such a way that you are drawn in and become one with the world. Many times these small details play an integral part in the plot, but are so subtle that it isn't realized until the climax and/or conclusion of the story. Without them, it's like a tapestry with threads missing...marred and less than it can be.

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Check out Donna Sundblad's interview at Authors Unleashed

Buy Donna Sundblad's book: The Inheritance