Author Chad Corrie: Making Fantasy More Believable

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Author Chad Corrie: Making Fantasy More Believable

07/13/2020 3:28pm

For as long as I can remember I’ve enjoyed fantasy. There was just something intriguing about it that continually called me to it. And when I was growing up it was just about everywhere. It was almost impossible not to explore some part of that incredibly varied landscape. Growing up at the dawning of our new media age also provided a front row seat for all the new ventures that emerged. I watched some of them rise to great success and others tumble into obscurity. It both inspired and instructed me on what made fantasy work—made it more believable.

Using what I’d learned helped in the development of a system for creating my own story universes. And I have certainly put it to good use when writing Return of the Wizard King, the first book of the Wizard King Trilogy. With a story universe like Tralodren (which includes not only the planet of the same name but the cosmos in which it resides) it can be fairly easy to get lost amid all the various details. Having a way to keep things consistent and on hand for any needed reference proved invaluable during the series’ creation.

At its most basic the system contains a historical overview, glossary, nomenclature, and pronunciation guide.

Historical Overview

No matter the story universe’s size it’s always wise to have a working historical record in place before anything else. It not only helps with a consistent chronology but provides a common connection point for any forthcoming stories.

Just how in-depth the historical overview is can vary, but even a simple summary can be helpful. More often than not as more stories are created the overview will expand. The insight created in a story often informs the overview, which can further inspire and inform additional stories, and so forth.

Glossary

Fantasy is notorious for creating new words. After a while keeping track of all of them can become somewhat daunting. And if more people get involved creating and/or overseeing things the greater the need for a uniform source of reference.

The glossaries I create are pretty simple affairs with the newly coined title, name, or phrase listed alphabetically followed by a definition. How large this glossary gets can vary. My preference is to put every new word into it but others might get by with only documenting the major words instead.

Nomenclature

Part of keeping fantasy believable is a uniform approach to how language works—especially when there’s an introduction of several new words into the lexicon. What sort of grammar rules do these words follow, if any? Is there an adjective form of this creature’s name? What do you call a citizen from Kingdom A? You get the idea.

Overall, I tend to keep things simple. Each word is listed alphabetically and has a space for the plural and adjective forms where applicable. For example, Tralodren is the name of the world in the Wizard King Trilogy. It doesn’t have a plural form but does have an adjective form: Tralodroen.

Pronunciation Guide

While this might be an afterthought for some how things sound is a rather important matter. Important because you can give insight into aspects of the various languages used in the setting but also provide other fun ways to bring things into play. Crafting lyrics for epic poetry or songs, for example, could benefit from a clear understanding on how any new words sound. Making a play off of two words that sound similar but have different meanings is another possibility.

The biggest benefit, of course, is when it comes to audio ventures. If you want any narrator or voice actor to be able to say things “the right way” then having a document defining that “right way” is always good to have on hand.

As already hinted, these four documents aren’t an exhaustive list. Depending on what the world setting is about or how it will be developed other documents will be needed. But hopefully you can see how making use of these four simple documents can help a story universe become better interconnected and consistent, making such a fantasy universe more believable.

The first volume of Chad Corrie's Wizard King trilogy, Return of the Wizard King arrives September 16, 2020 and is available for pre-order now.

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