WORST Modern Fantasy Trends!

My take on what the worst modern fantasy trends are for the genre today.

[skzip]

Modern Fantasy fans be like: "Breakface McMurderstab is one of the most morally subtle characters in all of western literature"

[Gnagniel]

I know what you mean, but "Dragons are having a renaissance right now, " is the funniest mental image

[zdf]

"We are seeing low fantasy, focusing on just humans, but dragons are a big deal"

I think we can all agree that we can pinpoint Game of Throne's success for this

[dawnrigel]

When I studied Creative Writing at college, my school and professors were super against "genre fiction, " meaning fantasy, sci-fi, horror, pretty much anything that isn't non-fiction or realistic fiction. We were allowed to delve in "magical realism" a little bit, but no one wanted to because our syllabi pretty much said we'd get a zero if our stories had magic, talking animals, etc. One professor I took near the end of my degree didn't care and told us to write whatever we want and encouraged us to write fantasy and magic.

But all of that is to say, I feel like education can play a factor into some of the changes in writing we're experiencing. We were told things like "you aren't popular enough to break the rules" and "fantasy/magic is just a cover up for bad characters and writing." Like what you said about there not being enough narratives being driven by the fantasy and magic. That's exactly what I was taught NOT to do. Everything has to be character-driven, everything in the story has to be pushed forward by the character (because clearly in real life, things don't just happen to people amirite lol). In reality, they should have taught us more about how to balance action-driven and character-driven plots in our narrative instead of just telling us we can't do it, or it's not "serious" writing, or you can learn to write fantasy after you master writing non-fantasy.

Getting a degree in creative writing made me more uncertain than ever about writing, in fact lmfao. If anyone's doubting themselves as a writer, just take your time and get to learn who your writer is.

And check out Brandon Sanderson's lectures on yotube, they're waaay more valuable than my degree lol!

[toychristopher]

I'm just tired of the torture porn.

[wingcastlereads]

I really agree with you about fantasy being more a setting instead of having any impact on the narrative. I feel like I see that a lot

[magnoliadrone]

I realize that this was only a small remark, but some fanfiction pieces are as beautifully and skillfully written as good original fiction. It's also a great training ground for writers, especially in the fantasy genre.

[dimielgo]

I absolutely hate stories where the main character/characters never have their morality put into question or challenged in any meaningful way. It's even worse when the authors write a hypocrite that lacks any moral sturdiness but still play that character as if they are in the right. Even more so when said character moralizes to other characters that do the exact same thing, but the author paints them as the bad guy/girl/men/lady.

[dylancrespo]

When you read a 14 book series that’s supposed to be all about some reborn dragon, yet there isn’t a single dragon in it except on some dumb farm boy’s arms. :(

[GalacticReads]

"Lowered bar for prose" – I'm so glad you went there. I'm also not a snob when it comes to prose, but bad prose can be distracting. And it's so preventable. Get an editor or some beta readers. Watch some Sanderson creative writing lectures. There's no such thing as perfect writing, but that doesn't mean writers shouldn't take the time to improve their craft.

[userJohnSmith]

The lack of hope. We used to focus on heroes now they're just always taken from us. It's ok to believe in, and have people live up to, our expectations.

[dutchsgirl]

For me the biggest problem is lack of proper editing. Especially when it is self-published. My cousin wrote a fantasy novel and she clearly did not have it edited by anyone. It really showed. Maybe just because I was an editor, but it annoys me when, as you said, the author uses the same words over and over again. Or when the first nine chapters are full of useless nonsense before the author gets to the actual story. For instance, my cousin's novel had the protagonist shower over twenty times in just one book. Not a joke. And it really had nothing to do with the story, it was just filler. I agree with all the points you made, but lack of editing is definitely my least favorite thing in modern writing.

[samhess]

Possibly a controversial opinion: Game of Thrones (the TV show, not A Song of Ice and Fire the series) is to blame for a lot of this. Over the last couple decades with Harry Potter, LoTR movies, etc. fantasy has become more and more mainstream. GoT firmly planted fantasy within mainstream media. Now, publishers are looking to cash in on the GoT hangover. Thus, they can take more risks with bad prose because the possible reward is much higher than before.

Also, what did people love so much about GoT? The characters. The show has white walkers, dragons, and magic, but the characters battle over the iron throne drove the story. The fantasy elements did not. So now people are looking to copy GoT's character-driven story instead of Tolkien's style where the fantastical element drove the plot.

What doesn't GoT have? Non-human races with developed cultures and mythologies. Sure, there's the children of the forest, but they don't have a developed culture or mythology and barely make an appearance.

I think A Song of Ice and Fire is really excellent. Other than the poor prose trend, the others all appear in the GoT show.

Tl;dr Everyone's trying to copy GoT

[meganjohnstone]

My creative writing teacher in college HATED fantasy and anything that couldn't have plausibly happened in real life. It made my grade suffer because I am exclusively a fantasy writer. I wouldn't have signed up for her class had I of known that I'd be docked points on my creative writing homework for "being unrealistic"...

[matthew_thefallen]

You know what i would like to see more: Mediterranean settings for fantasy. I am tired of "tavern tolkien d&d" like northern Europe fantasy stories, and would love to see more new mythological creatures trend, rather than dwarves, elves or dragons...

[laxmastiffgaming]

This video kind of encompasses one of my biggest anxieties as a writer. It feels like all fandoms these days are demanding more and more from people, and literature fans are no different. I don't read a whole lot, but I love literature, and I will just dive into a book every now and then. I write as a hobby, but I hope to someday publish some of my stories, and I just know that I am going to hear critiques claiming that I am copying authors I have never heard of or comparing me to the highest echelon of literature when I am just like, "Hey. I wrote a story. I put years of work into it. I hope you like it." There is almost this expectation that all authors think that their story is the best thing in the world, or that publishing your story is claiming something. And that's not always the case.

[jesscl]

I think saying that some prose has fallen to the level of fanfic writing is an insult to fan fiction. I read some fanfic in my middle school years with better prose than some actually published books

[ricekrispies]

The How to Train Your Dragon Books by Cressida Howell were incredible in terms of World Building and creating a new variety of dragon species. When you discovered a new species, it was like if Pokemon and Animal Planet had had a baby it was so satisfying. The format is also super creative, as it's told like a series of entries long after the main story actually took place

[GiveMeYourEyes]

The one thing I've always adored about Tolkien's books is the fact that the world feels like it's alive. Like he'll spend pages talking about Ents and Entwives, but he'll give us nothing about why Galadriel giving Gimli some of her hair was such a big deal. He treats that like as if it's common knowledge, but that the whole Ents isn't. That sort of thing makes his world feel alive when you compare it some modern day fantasy books. Like for example, the Hunger Games comes across as a very empty world unless the characters are directly interacting with it.

[joewar]

I think my main gripe against the modern fantasy is the over use of the "___ was the best thief" or "___ wanted to be the greatest assassin". Roguedark I would call it