How to Write a Best Selling Fantasy Novel

[Farael]

Ah, excelent fun and entretainment, both the original "rules" and the "quiz". I think it could be a fun idea to try a RPG that will follow the rules and answer "no" to all (or most) things on the quiz... although it would probably prove to be much harder than what it seems, given that you can't make it so bad that it won't even be funny. Hmmmm must thinks about this, my precioussss.

Hey! They forgot one kind of character:

"Evil creature that aids the protagonist out of fear/a personal evil plan/pretty much any feeling other than good will, who in the end starts to become "redeemed" and "good" and yet falls to temptation, abandons the path of redemption and dies tragically, killed by either the protagonist or a cruel twist of fate"

[Oddwen]

I liked numbers 58 & 71.


A couple other things I found wanting in the lists:

The young boy character has no living mother. He may, however, have a grandmother or spinster aunt who is skilled in arcane arts.

Matters of the Birds & Bees will be treated delicately or passed off altogether in the first book, but by the third, anything goes.

A plague must wipe out much of the royal/badguy family either at the time of the story, or in the near past.

The main character must discover a skill in magic early on. The Wise but Useless Guide must always be impressed by the skill level shown from the first, and compare him to famous magicians at the peak of their own skill.

Each person's magic must have their own color. (I hate this!) They may or may have not have eyes or a weapon to match.


And there are a few things in the Evil Overlord List that might be applicable here as well.

[Oddwen]

The main protagonist should have to go to a primitive people because of some

A. An incureable disease
B. His/her wizard mentor told them to
C. His/her girl/boyfriend told them to
D: It was on the way to defeat the big bad dark lord/lady

Said protagonist must incur help from said primitive people, but the help they are willing to offer is never good enough, so Protagonistagon must forcibly bring the primitive people into some form of modernity, just because he/she feels it's best. Any tactic will be used, from threatening the natives with his scorn ("Oh no! Not that!"), to threatening that they will be overcome by the dark lord/lady if they do not do exactly what he says, to killing the people in charge and placing his girlfriend in charge.

Even Tolkien did this, to some degree, though it was needed. Namely, Gandalf casting Wormtongue out.

Oh yes, and

The Wizard Guide has to die or go on some secret quest of his own, leaving the main character helpless at the climax of the book.

[Volo]

We're going to write one with Oddwen pretty soon. Right?

[Oddwen]

BWHAHAHA! I had forgotten about these lists. They will be a very valuable guidebook, methinks.

[The 1,000 Reader]

I have two.

All enemy villains must be afraid of sunlight/wizard character/girls. They must also betray themselves for no reason.

The main Dark Lord enemy is constantly feared and is said to be powerful, when all throughout the book he doesn't do anything other than meet defeat countless times. Despite this, he is supposedly better than his generals who destroy countries and require tons of divine intervention and enigmas to defeat.