📜 Features of writing fantasy

Writing fantasy is harder than it seems. It is not about dragons or elves. It is about building a world from scratch and making the reader believe in it from the first page. One flawed magic law or a flat hero, and the magic falls apart.

And demand for that magic is growing. According to Circana BookScan, Rebecca Yarros's novel "Onyx Storm" sold more than 1 million copies in its first week of sales in 2025, making it the fastest-selling adult title in the service's history. At the same time, fantasy remains a demanding craft where intuition alone is not enough.

Below are specific principles, real market numbers, and techniques used by authors like Brandon Sanderson. No fluff, with examples and tables.

💡 Quick overview: what defines strong fantasy

• The world serves the story, not the other way around: most of the worldbuilding will never make it onto the page.
• A magic system works by rules the reader understands, otherwise it breaks the tension.
• A hero needs a goal, a flaw, and something they are afraid to lose.
• Style and pacing keep the reader engaged, and the final edit turns a draft into a book.

🌌 Why readers need your world

Fantasy is in demand, but not unconditionally. According to Publishers Weekly, in 2025 sales of pure fantasy in the US fell 8.7% to 24.1 million copies, while the romantic side grew 3.9% to nearly 44 million. Readers do not buy "another dragon." They buy emotion and a recognizable hero in an unusual world.

That is why a fantasy world exists for the story, not for display. A memorable universe does three things: it pulls you in so completely that the magic feels real, it gives heroes something to fight for, and it keeps the fantastic within an internal logic. Remove the plot, and you are left with a beautiful but dead encyclopedia.

Market context matters too. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, the share of American adults reading novels and short stories fell to 37.6% in 2022, the lowest point in the survey's more than thirty-year history. You have to fight harder for the reader's attention, and a weak opening is no longer forgiven.

🗺️ Worldbuilding: the iceberg rule

Build the world around the story, not before it. The most common beginner trap: spending months drawing maps and inventing languages while there is still no plot. It becomes a black hole of procrastination, and the manuscript does not move forward.

The working principle was formulated by Brandon Sanderson in his worldbuilding lectures: roughly 80% of your worldbuilding will never appear on the page. You do not need to show everything. You need to build enough depth for the reader to feel that the rest exists off-screen. This is called the "iceberg technique": on the surface, only what serves the story.

Where do you start the framework of high fantasy? It rests on three pillars: the magic system, the political structure, and religion. Then comes the cultural layer: traditions, clothing, weddings and funerals, social hierarchy. These details determine how the hero behaves in a conflict, not the size of your map.

Every added detail makes the system more complex: new magic affects the economy and culture of the entire world. That is why depth matters more than breadth.

🔮 Magic systems: rules instead of miracles

Magic must work by clear rules, otherwise it kills tension. This is Brandon Sanderson's first law of magic: an author's ability to resolve conflict with magic is directly proportional to how well the reader understands that magic. If the hero pulls an unknown power out of nowhere in the finale, the reader feels cheated.

There are hard and soft systems. In a hard system (like Sanderson's own), the rules are spelled out and logical, almost like science, and the reader can predict what is possible. In a soft system (like Tolkien's), magic is vague and serves a sense of wonder rather than solving problems. Both approaches work, but mixing them is dangerous.

"Limitations are more important than the abilities themselves." (Brandon Sanderson, second law of magic)

The second and third laws complement the first: the limitations and weaknesses of magic are more interesting than its power, and before introducing a new ability, expand what already exists. Magic without a price becomes a cheat code that erases the drama.

🎭 Heroes worth turning pages for

A strong hero rests on three pillars: a goal, a flaw, and something they are afraid to lose. The goal must be personal: proving they are worth something, or protecting the only person who believed in them. The flaw creates internal conflict, and the threat of loss sets the stakes.

An antagonist is not a villain for villainy's sake. They have their own logic and their own truth, otherwise the confrontation becomes flat. The best conflicts in fantasy are simultaneously external (war, a curse, a dragon) and internal (fear, guilt, choice). The climax works when both knots come undone together.

Do not forget the secondary characters. They highlight the hero, carry the world's culture, and are often more memorable than the protagonist. But each one must want something, otherwise they are talking scenery.

📚 Subgenres: pick your shelf

Fantasy is not one genre but a family of directions, and your choice determines your audience. According to Wikipedia, fantasy belongs to speculative fiction with supernatural or magical elements, often in entirely fictional worlds. Within it there are dozens of branches.

The most profitable direction today is romantic fantasy, or "romantasy." According to Circana, in 2025 it showed triple-digit growth and became one of the fastest-growing categories in the US print market. If you have been writing for the drawer for years, choosing a living subgenre is not a betrayal of art but respect for the reader.

✒️ Style, rhythm, and point of view

Style in fantasy works as a tool of immersion, not decoration. Archaic or poetic vocabulary creates atmosphere, but in excess it becomes tiring. Alternate long sentences with short, sharp ones to maintain pacing. A monotonous rhythm puts readers to sleep even with an interesting plot.

The choice of person and tense sets the distance. First person brings the reader closer to the hero, third person gives an overview and epic scale. Past tense is familiar, present tense heightens tension but requires skill. Decide this before you write a hundred pages, otherwise you will rewrite everything.

And remember the mobile reader. Today a significant share of books and drafts is read on screen, so dense walls of text are off-putting. A paragraph of two or three sentences is easier to absorb than a monolithic page.

📝 Practice: from draft to manuscript

Discipline matters more than inspiration. Set a realistic daily or weekly word count, write when your brain works best, and do not stop mid-scene to refine the world. Use placeholders and a "fix later" list, otherwise you will get stuck on one chapter.

Draft first, edit later. Professionals agree: the first version exists just to exist, and revision is what turns it into a book. Gather feedback from beta readers, check the logic of your magic and character arcs, and only then polish the style.

Consider the publishing format too. According to Circana via Publishers Weekly, print still holds the largest market share, but audiobooks are growing fast, and that affects rhythm and dialogue, which need to sound good when read aloud.

🎬 Video breakdown: the world is built around the story

It is better to see a master break down worldbuilding once than to read about it ten times. Brandon Sanderson, author of the Mistborn series and one of the most successful contemporary fantasy authors, teaches open lectures on writing craft. In the breakdown below, he shows how to design a setting so that it serves the plot.

The main takeaway from the lecture matches what bestsellers do in practice: the world is not a backdrop, it is the engine of conflict. A detail only makes it onto the page if it changes something in the hero's fate.

📖 What genre bestsellers teach

Study those who have already walked this path. Genre classics are not museum pieces, they are textbooks on structure. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien shows the power of soft magic and a deep world. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin teaches how gray characters and political intrigue work. Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling shows how a hero grows up alongside the reader.

The context of the genre's growth is instructive too. According to industry reports, the science fiction and fantasy segment grew 41.3% between 2023 and 2024, and that wave was driven by BookTok and romantasy. The global fantasy book market is estimated at roughly 17.97 billion dollars in 2025, with a forecast of growth to 26 billion by 2033 (a CAGR of about 4.7%).

"Fantasy is a way of seeing the world not only as it is, but as it could be." (George R. R. Martin)

The takeaway is simple: the market exists, but it is demanding. What wins is not the most complex world, but the most alive story within it.

⁉️🤔 Popular questions and answers

Do I need to fully invent the world before starting the book?

No, and this is a common mistake. Sanderson advises building the world around the story, not before it, and keeping most of the development off the page. First define the plot and the hero, then build out the world only as much as the conflict requires. Otherwise worldbuilding turns into procrastination.

Which magic system is better, hard or soft?

Both work; the choice depends on the role magic plays in the plot. A hard system with clear rules (like Sanderson's) lets you resolve conflicts with magic fairly. A soft one (like Tolkien's) creates a sense of wonder, but it should not save the hero in the finale. The key rule: the reader can solve a problem with magic only to the extent that they understand it.

Which fantasy subgenre sells best right now?

Romantic fantasy, or romantasy. According to Circana, in 2025 it showed triple-digit growth and became one of the fastest-growing categories in the US print market, while pure fantasy dropped 8.7%. An emotional storyline and relatable characters now matter more than the scale of the world.

How many words should a fantasy novel have?

Debut fantasy novels usually fall in the 90,000 to 120,000 word range; epic high fantasy can reach 150,000 or more. But the first goal is not length, it is a finished draft. Set a realistic daily word count and get the story to the end before worrying about size.

How do I avoid cliches in fantasy?

The cliche is not in elves and dragons, but in their lack of function. Take a familiar element and ask "what if it were different": what if magic has a high price, what if the villain is right. Develop the motivation of every character and give the world internal logic, and even familiar images will shine in a new way.

💎 Summary and conclusions

Strong fantasy is built not on the number of dragons, but on three pillars: the world serves the plot, magic works by understandable rules, and the hero has a goal and something they are afraid to lose. The market confirms this: according to Publishers Weekly, pure fantasy dropped 8.7% in 2025, while lively, emotional romantasy surged by triple digits. Readers pay for a story, not an encyclopedia.

A concrete recommendation: if you are just starting out, do not spend years building the world. Take one hero with a clear goal, come up with a magic system with one hard limitation, and write a finished draft to the end. Style polish and world expansion come later. The main pitfall for beginners is endless worldbuilding without a plot, and that is what most often buries a first book.

Want to test demand for your writing and find your first readers? Post your work on an author marketplace and gauge audience response. Tell us in the comments which fantasy subgenre you prefer, and share this article with anyone who has long dreamed of writing their own book.