Of course you can have life experience in Fantasy, what a load of rubbish. Interactions with other people for a start, how people treat others, goals in life, aspirations, failing to do something, even crappy jobs can go down to life experience. Unless everyone in your story is a merry do gooder and you only have one bad guy who is the most evilest guy in the world, go ahead.
I'm talking about kids who write in fantasy. THEY don't have a ton of life experience, so they find the genre easy to write in, given the stories often do not have many normal things going on. Epic battles, towers of doom, dragons, and knights aren't things anyone interacts with today. You CAN have life experience in fantasy. Kids who want to write stories at the age of 14 don't have much to draw on, but have plenty of experience using their imagination. This isn't why I shy away from the genre though. The reason is sequelitis. Book 1 of X is all too common in fantasy.
I don't think anyone said you couldn't have life experience in fantasy. It has been suggested - with some agreeing and some not - that extensive life experience is not needed to write fantasy. I think real life experience is always helpful to good writing, because the more life experience you have the more (at least, we hope) you will understand the subtleties of the human condition and human interaction.
In that regard, I agree. Are you thinking of Eragon, perhaps? I haven't read the book but I heard it was written by a 14 year old and wasn't very good. (nevertheless it had a good fan base somehow).
I do think there's a place for younger writers to have influence though. The young have a fresh perspective, and can see things from a more innocent, and oftentimes very different way than those of us who have some experience. 14 may be stretching it, but certainly there are plenty of people who have too many bad (or hopefully good) life experiences from an early age. They may often not know how to put pen to paper to describe them though.
It was terribly written. I think the notoriety of the age of the author helped sales. That said, technical writing ability is trumped by story-telling. Maybe he was able to tell a good tale and pull the reader along. Whatever the reason for its success, I didn't make it very far into the book at all.
My brother bought me the boxed set of Eregon and Eldest because he knows I love Science Fiction. No, that's not an error. Those were his words to my mum before he gave them to me. Mum told me later. He also got me the entire hardcover boxed set of the Twilight books for the same reason, because of my love for sci-fi. They're still shrink-wrapped in my closet somewhere.
At least with Meyer, you can say the quality of writing was about mediocre. Not terrible, not stellar. Paolini, on the other hand, makes Meyer look like a Nobel Laureate
That, and both his parents worked in the publishing industry. Don't forget that vital detail. Anyways, I sympathize most heavily with this post; Quality fantasy work is as difficult as any other genre, possibly even moreso. But lousy, lazy fantasy? That's easier than lousy, lazy historical fiction, for instance. Also, it's amusing that the only/main fantasy work people claiming to dislike the genre mention is Lord of the Rings. Nevermind that there are hundreds of completely different fantasy tales out there, told in wildly divergent styles, that couldn't be more dissimilar to LOTR.
I think developing writers like fantasy because they see it as having no rules. It would certainly be appealing to feel as though you don't have to conform to 'literary' rules when you don't have experience in the writing world. I also think that people see it as a stable genre. I kind of see it as being like this... Create a world? Check. Does it have an evil Lord? Check? Will my character have some special ability all other characters don't? Check. Okay, now I'll just throw these ingredients together and add a wizened old man to explain the rest!
Then what's the point of the thread? It seems to me your thread boils down to a simple sentence: I think fantasy is super easy to write and only really young writers do it before moving on to more intellectually stimulating genres. There are many reasons for fantasy to be popular. I'm just unsettled by your assumption that it's easy. But I suppose, if you're not a fan of the genre, then you wouldn't be able to identify any good reasons why it's popular. Needless to say, although I'm young, I've always liked fantasy. Before I picked up the Game of Thrones or Harry Potter or even The Hobbit. I can still remember my father's volumes of David Eddings in the living room. Everyone's entitled to their opinion! Honestly, I feel exactly the same way about your favorite genre, Sci-fi, as you do about fantasy. So to each his own. It gave me a headache everytime they forced me to read Ray Bradbury. I would never call him a bad writer, of course, but even this rock star of the genre could not lure me in. All the space, future and scientific components of the genre left a bad taste in my mouth. Even in film, while friends around me raved about star trek and star wars and [insert random movie involving space here], I could never GET it. And that's the good stuff! If we were to talk about the BAD writings from the genre, like you spoke of, I can't even think about it without giggling. My mind instantly drifts to sci-fi channel movies were there's always giant bugs or aliens bent on our colonization mixed with porno grade acting and, of course, horrible writing.
Another example of having such a limited experience of the genre as to render commentary on it pointless. It's one thing to have personal preferences one direction or another - we all have those. But if you're going to take the time to offer specific criticism of the genre, you should at least know enough about it to make a good point. This doesn't begin to cover even a small fraction of what is out there.
I've quoted the original post for clarity. Please show me where he made the assumption you are claiming? Is there hidden text to which I don't have access?
Yes. The secret text is called taking out of context. After the original post a quick number of replies asserted fantasy to be easy to write and required no planning or forethought. To this many replies ventured that this was, indeed, true. Including the OP, who pondered if fantasy is just a phase in which a writer passes through before writing more...intellectual...genres? My assumption is sci-fi would be considered preferable. Seems to be a sci-fi beat down of "I don't like fantasy" to me. Of course, I always consider the fact that I could be wrong....it's possible. I simply fail to see the assertion that fantasy is more popular now than 10 years ago. Or is it possible that sci-fi is LESS popular than it was years ago?
I was actually trying to make a sarcastic joke here but I guess that didn't come across - lucky I don't write comedy! I read a lot of fantasy and I know the genre is as diverse as the human race. I was simply making an observation that a lot of developing writers think there's a criteria to writing fantasy and that's possibly why people can see it as derivative. I was in no way implying that that's how the genre should be approached as a reader or a writer. At university, a lot of the workshop pieces I read were deliberately addressing the things they thought had be included in fantasy writing because a lot of the popular lit out there had those elements. That's not at all how I view fantasy as the very essence of the genre is not to constrain oneself.
OMG! The irony! I... can't.. breathe... for all... the irony! What he actually said was this: A question, not a statement being made by the OP, which, yet again, tsunami of irony, was the opening question to a discussion about thematics, not the "simplicity" of the genre you claim he is claiming. All of the assuming is on your part. The OP has gone out of his way to be polite and not condescend. He doesn't deserve your smarmy snark.
This, and the natural corollary that you don't have to do research. Everything can come straight from the imagination, and no one can say, "Are you kidding? Bramsprites wouldn't be caught dead in a desert, and there are no deserts in West Ardlund anyway!"
As a teen writing a fantasy novel right now I agree with the those above me I like being able to write freely not limited by reality. Most of my motivation was from video games I never watched LOTR and only just a week ago I started reading game of thrones.
[MENTION=54545]archerfenris[/MENTION] - actually, I've said nothing about fantasy being easy or difficult to write. In fact, the only things I've stated about fantasy is that an inordinately large number of young writers seem to be writing it and that I don't particularly care for the genre. Most everything else I've posted has been question.
Taking out of context and assumption are two different things. You're the one taking my comments out of context...and I'm assuming! But then, I'm pretty sure my assumption is right. Hence why it's...ASSUMPTION! Maybe the OP isn't agreeing with those that reply about a topic, they then admit, they don't read. But, my original post was to convey what this thread has become...sci-fi bashing fantasy, since that's what it's degraded to. Feel free to disagree, I'm sure you will.
Really, this is a perfect explanation to the OP's question, since it offers such an accurate look into a typical teen mindset. (I'm dead serious) She/He sees fantasy as a way to write about something "not limited by reality". For him/her, this is an additional avenue of creativity. Personally, I would note that most good fantasy is heavily based on reality, and that conjuring up logical, self-consistent make believe is extraordinarily difficult, often much harder than reality, but that's a completely different mindset/perspective. And forget books or those LOTR "movies"; his/her inspiration comes from video games. In other words, we were wrong thinking that it's solely the influence of Harry Potter and the like.
Your questions lead somewhere. Your comment/question that young writers tend to lean toward fantasy (a fact I do not agree with) before moving on to other genres makes me ASSUME that you're not a fan of the genre (as you've stated) and that you find it to be easier than other genres that the better, older writers find more fulfilling (Even though I assume it, granted, I can be wrong. I always consider the fact I may be wrong. It's a good quality I possess). Even the title "What is it with new writers and fantasy" hints an aggressive tone. The title isn't "new writers and fantasy?" or "Fantasy draws new writers." Come on, everyone here writes. Surely we know language. And, as I stated, I may be wrong. Maybe that wasn't your intent at all. But it's the fact of what the thread has degraded to is plain to see. A flame war & fantasy bashing.
Well, it gives an insight into one teen's mindset. We have no idea how typical a teen nightbane is, assuming there even is such a thing as a typical teen.
