The 5 Types of Fantasy Writers - Which One Are You?

Discover the 5 types of fantasy writers, learn which one you are, and unlock the secrets to enhancing your storytelling skills.

WATCH MORE:

00:00 Types of Fantasy Writers
00:42 The Quest for Writer Identity
01:40 Writer Type 1
04:29 Writer Type 2
07:38 Writer Type 3
10:55 Writer Type 4
13:57 Writer Type 5
17:41 Embracing Your Writer Type

[yeenbeans]

You’re forgetting type 6!

Unmedicated ADHD: the ability to synergize and rapidly develop the skills of all 5 categories but the physical inability to see any story through lol

[dpolaristar]

I think you can further generalize these things in just writers in general outside of Fantasy.

Setting (What you call Worldbuilding) - Focused on the particulars within the setting.
Characters - Focuses on Fleshing out the Actors
Plot - Focuses on the structure of the Narrative
Themes (What you call Myths) - Focuses on symbols and iconography
Mechanics (What you call Magic Systems) - Focuses on the minuate details of a process, hobby, study etc can also apply to technology, whodunnit mysteries, or politics.

I'd add a 6th category.

Aesthetics - Focuses more on the "vibe" or the feel of the work, the atmosphere etc

[axaverse]

fantastic explanations - i love your use of the 5 characters you created to make the abstract information land easier. thank you!! subscribed!

[theneelay]

There’s a sixth option: the prose demon. Patrick Rothfuss is a way better example of this than he is of a character-driven author. Also, you can point to folks like Guy Gavriel Kay or Susana Clarke.

There’s fantasy authors out there that spend weeks and weeks fixating on every word, trying to make it sound perfect. They don’t write “fantasy, ” they write proper literature, just with fantasy elements. At some point, it seems more likely that they’re writing narrative poetry, than a fantasy novel.

The big issue with them is that they’re perfectionists and don’t finish projects because they get too deep in the weeds. See Patrick Rothfuss’s Doors of Stone or that Susana Clarke has only ever published two books.

That said, when they do finish something, it’s beautiful. It might be a bit strange, content-wise, and the worldbuilding might be a bit shallow, but the words are magnetic.

[davidnystrom]

This really helped me settle on a direction for a story I’ve been tinkering with for months. I can leverage my world building and love of myths to create an anthology of shorter fantasy tales that eventually may (or may not) tie together. Thank you!!

[twilightguardian]

I'm Jack, the trader who never got his master's degree

[sspectre]

I’m a lot more character focused. The way I’ve gotten myself to world build is to write something about the world as if written by a character of the world. For me the world serves the characters

[Dragonmoon]

Definitely number three, the plotter. Really appreciate this breakdown.😁

[fatalblue]

I'm definitely #2 with a dash of #5 and a pinch of #3 lol

I highly value structual integrity in narrative and can be a bit of a stickler for logic and internal consistency with my stories, but more than anything, my stories are driven by my character.

[KalpanaWorlds]

I'm definitely a world builder, I do like creating stories of key events in the world's history though.

[polodhtip]

So basically learning to use all these in the right amount to balance your strengths and weaknesses is the key to great storytelling. Even great writers tend to be off balanced and suit only their target audience

[hikarihitomi]

Anyone else watch this and feel like they should be part of a team of five authors to write their next epic?

[fernandogarcia]

You treat us writers with so much kindness! 😂 very positive approach.

I'm definitely a type 4 symbolist-mythological type, trying to get everything not so tight as not to make it boring while having plot twists and progression well planned, so a bit of type 3 too.

[jpickens]

What is more interesting to me than finding how I fit into this is how you are constructing your perceived limitations of fantasy as a genre within a set of archetypes.
A person who is fascinated by narrative themes can be working from mythology, or they can work from philosophy, personal experience, or even just a sense of curiosity and experimentation. A person who is interested in magic can do so through systematization and explanation, or they can do so through expression of emotion, cultural history, spirituality and belief, or just as an analogy for experiences and practices that have defined their life.
To me, this demonstrates the way that fantasy as a genre has been reified by a fandom who unreasonably elevate the work of a few authors seen as foundational to its identity.

[TedMattos]

This was beautifully done, Sascha. You put a lot of work into this video and it shows! :) Thank you.

[punkmoose]

Mix of #2 and #4 for me. Love telling sagas about epic, complex characters, with tons of references to old myths, eastern ideas, and classic western literature.

[StarlasAiko]

I am very much 1 and 4, but am trying to learn more about 2 and 3. I have put developing my skills at 5 on a backburner by focussing on low fantasy for the time being.

[ashalindrose]

100% I'm a character driven writer. My first drafts are always centered around the characters in the scene. Afterwards I have to flesh out everything else to add sensory information and create a sense of place. I get complimented a lot on my characters feeling real and engaging. Conversations and arguments? I've got a knack for those. It's the things that no one comments on that I know are my weaknesses.

I'm realizing I need to pull back and think of the world, its magic, and its political structures as their own characters that interact with and profoundly shape the people I'm writing about. I have to think about the specific arcs I need characters to experience and how they will intertwine with each other.

If I don't, it's all too easy for me to get sidetracked and let a subset of characters go off and bond with one another. Often, they end up finding connection and resolving emotional issues in interesting ways. But, they don't advance the plot at all. Planning the story beats ahead is turning out to be of paramount importance so I can carefully choose moments for this emotional bonding and growth so that it coincides with key moments in the bigger story. I need to choose who learns what and when ahead of time so that all the secondary characters can grow alongside the main characters without constantly splitting the narrative in opposing directions.

[wilddragonsong]

I'm a mix of #5 and #2 with a dash of #1. I love to come up with fun characters that can showcase different aspects of my magic systems, while also having complex relationships with each other (that are often heavily affected by the magic system as well). I often have trouble with coming up with actual plot events and pacing within the broader story arcs though. Also I spend way too much time on politics.

[mayorathfoglaltvolt]

I'm Tzeentch, the everchanging. I'm sometimes like this, sometimes like that. I get lost in small details which I get facinated with in the heat of the moment. Sometimes it is a quircky dialogue between my weird characters, sometimes a certian aspect of the world, sometimes some unexpected plot twist, or it is just some fun fact which I learn about the daily life of the medieval people trough my writing journey.
I'm prone to get lost in one aspect of the writing and I tend to forget about the others. So I need to revisit what I wrote regurarly to fill the missing details. I'm slowly getting better at it though.