Fantastical Plot Ideas and Why
by JL Nich
Fantasy is a genre everyone can relate too. Magic, fairy tales, superheroes are just the start.
Fantasy is escapism into the unlimited world of the imagination. The genre brings to life elements that do not exist in the real world. Think of conceived weapons such as the StarWars lightsaber or The StarTrek phaser or Wonder Womans Lasso of Truth. Or go much grander as fantasy worlds are imagined in such grandiose details such as Westeros from Game of Thrones or Dunes Arrakis.
But fantasy is not new. Most children are brought up on fairy tales and sing-song rhymes of fantasy. One of my favorite Mother Goose rhymes was Hey Diddle Diddle in which a cat plays a fiddle. Or even Humpty-Dumpty, the egg that sat on the wall. The fantasy plot has touched everyone.
So here we will cover a few plots that went above and beyond to make their unique mark.
This fictional story of a girl who dreams of falling into a rabbit hole and discovered a wonderland of fantasy is one of the most read fantasy books of the ages. The title itself lends to the fantasy taking the reader into an exciting new place. Even today children still get sucked into its thrall of talking animals, growing, shrinking, madness, fun, whimsical riddles, nonsense, and mockery. The masses agree this has its appeal to the sense of ridiculousness, turning logic around and freeing the reader between its pages.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950) by C. S. Lewis.
A personal favorite of mine, I always look at that title and say to myself, “one of these things is not like the other” with that singsong Sesame Street tune ringing in my head. And perhaps that is why I had to find out. This book tells the adventurous story of four children who discover a wardrobe that leads to the magical land of Narnia. Again, the fantasy of a land of talking animals, mythical creatures such as centaurs (horse/humans) and giants, and an evil witch. Where societal changes of war in England are taking place, a relatable buildup of a battle between the witch and the creatures of Narnia is construed.
The Hobbit (1937) or The Lord of the Rings (1954) by J. R. R. Tolkien
Both novels reside in the fantasy creation of Middle Earth, an imaginary continent filled with elves, man, hobbits, dragons, Ents, Orcs, Trolls, and let’s not forget some of the nastier magical beasts balrogs, wargs, and Ringwraths (black riders). Wizards run amuck and life is not easy in Middle Earth once the Ring of Power turns up once more. This author included so much detail for his work the readers fell into this world that had religion, myths, history, strong evil and strong good.
Other great fantasy works would include:
Sing the Four Quarters by Tanya Huff is a fantasy world where the bards of Shkoder sing to the spirits of earth, air, fire and water into doing their bidding. But singing begins to cause strange reactions when the main character bard becomes pregnant.
Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey has Talia becoming a Herald of Valdemar after she is chosen by a Companion named Rolan, a mystical horse-like being with powers beyond imagining.
Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey where deadly spore named Thread falls from the sky onto the beautiful planet Pern, the last refuge for some colonists from Earth. However, through genetic manipulation and science a small dragon of the planet is enlarged big enough for a human to ride and intelligent enough to work as a team with a rider to fight the threat.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling is a fantasy world of muggles and wizards, a separatist world of magic and non-magic. Young Harry soon travels to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft to begin his training as a Wizard, a world he never knew existed and one he never realized he was destined to champion. Whether it be as a seeker in a quidditch match or earning points for his house of Gryffendor over the house of Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.
Well this article is gone on quite long. I’ll just end that fantasy is only limited by a person’s imagination. The main idea behind plotting fantasy should always include elements that do not exist in the real world whether small or galactic. Fantasy differs from Science Fiction by the idea of magic or powers and usually has less of a technology basis. The intricate plots of great fantasy provide surprise and adventure and impossibilities that are possible in that fantasy world. And I want to say the list of fantastic reads/movies/plays/works that are fantasy based are endless. None of the reading examples I gave are authors of a single book. Some others that I’ve loved would include Piers Anthony, Orson Scott Card, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Margaret Weis, Raymond E. Feist.
The LGBT books or books with very strong female MCs that I recommend are The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon, Monasco Passage to Anathema by Carole Wolf, The Three by Meghan O’Brien, The Cage by SM Stirling/Sherry Meier. I love to see how polyamory is sometimes fed into the plots of some of these authors works.
Hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed reminiscing. Give me a few awesome books of your favorites. Perhaps we are fantasy historians together.
