What are Some Fantasy Characters You Should Never Write About

April 9, 2009 |

Author M. Lori Motley

: Image via Wikipedia

Fantasy fiction is one of the most popular speculative genres available. Store bookshelves, movie marquees and Internet fiction sites are full of tales of magic and surrealism. When learning how to write fantasy fiction many people start with the old standbys of Tolkien-esque and Dungeons & Dragons lore. If you find yourself reaching for the monster manual in order to come up with characters for your fantasy fiction, it is time to pour some figurative gasoline on your brain and set it alight.

I’ve come across multiple sites on the Internet to tell you what the worst clichés of fantasy fiction are. If you were wondering what are some fantasy characters you should never write about, you might like to start with one of these lists. However, once reading a few of these lists you come to realize that they contradict each other and, in fact, it would be nearly impossible to write any fantasy fiction without using some of the supposedly chaise listed within. For example, one list mentions you should never use elves, dwarves or wizards. Another list states you should avoid writing about humans.

What are some fantasy characters that you should never write about?

Is it possible to determine what are some fantasy characters you shouldn’t write about?

Is anything in fantasy fiction possible?

Humans are not fantasy creatures. However, it is difficult to write a piece of fantasy fiction without humans in it at all. Scratch that. It is perfectly possible to write fantasy fiction about elves or a society of dwarves or even merfolk. When it comes down to it, they will have the same desires, fears and conflicts that humans do. If you write a piece of fantasy fiction that is in no way recognizable by humans, you will lose an incredibly large chunk of your reading audience.

When trying to figure out what are some fantasy characters you should never write, the only thing you really have to worry about is whether the character is believable, interesting and not a direct copy of some other character already written about. No plagiarizing and no making your fantasy fiction boring. Anything else goes.