How To Write a Fantasy Novel

Join our SFF writing group today

Our online fantasy writing course program

Write an outstanding science fiction or fantasy book with our specialist SFF team for adult, middle-grade, and young adult speculative fiction and we’ll help you find a literary agent too.

How do you bring a sense of true wonder to your story? How does your fantasy novel become a bestseller loved by writers of all ages? Where do you start if you want to write an epic fantasy or a fantasy series? How much should remain familiar and how much should be magical or speculative for a transporting but ‘feels real’ reading experience?

If you’re beginning to write in the fantasy, science fiction or speculative genres (SFF) or you have novel in progress, our expert SFF department will help you structure and write your story in manageable chunks to spare you from feeling overwhelmed.

Your year with us begins with our famous Classic Course to give you a foundation in world-building to develop your plot. You’ll write your story with coaching from our team of expert enthusiasts who will be delighted to work with you on all things speculative – whether that’s horror or cyberpunk, magical realism or gothic, classic dystopia or epic fantasy; we love it all. We’ll bring magic to your science and science to your magic.

Our fantasy and science fiction offering at a glance

The SFF department

With award-winning speculative fiction authors and SFF editorial team.

The Classic Course

55 lessons for the ultimate world-building learning experience.

The community

Enjoy the company of your online SFF writing group and special SFF and YA fiction workshops.

Flexible plans

Access to the course and coaching with SFF authors and editors when you join as a member.

Learn from exciting fantasy and science fiction writers

We’ll look at the fantasy novels that have become some of the most enduring works of fiction ever published and you’ll learn how to use tropes to engage your reader while avoiding clichés, how to pace your writing, and how to move the story along with conflict as the prime mover of plot.

Choose your writing coach from our authors who have been published to great acclaim in fantasy fiction, science fiction, Gothic and dystopian novels writing for adults and children.

As Stephen King put it, books are portable magic. Starting with The Classic Course, the first phase of our 3-stage program, we’ll show you how to create magic in fiction. Discover the secrets of world-building used by classic and bestselling authors J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman, as well as the contemporary fantasy and science fiction novels shaking the industry.

The Classic Course – your fantasy story starts here.

When you join us for The Book in a Year ® plan, you’ll go on to write your novel with expert coaching in the second phase of your year with us with The Ninety Day Novel Course, and then on to revise and edit it to publishing standards with our SFF editorial team in the third phase of your year with The Big Edit.

Our SFF Team

Tasha Suri

Fantasy

Epics

Series, Sagas

Young Adult

Tasha Suri is the award-winning author of The Books of Ambha duology (Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash) and the epic fantasy The Jasmine Throne. Empire of Sand was rated by TIME magazine as one of the best fantasy novels of all time.

Katie Khan

Science Fiction

Young Adult Fiction

Katie Khan is the author of two novels. Her first novel, Hold Back the Stars, was published in the U.K. by Penguin Random House and in the U.S. by Simon & Schuster, and has been translated into twenty-one languages around the world.

Piers Torday

Middle Grade Fantasy Fiction

Piers Torday is the award-winning and bestselling author of seven books for children, dubbed ‘the new master of children’s fiction’ by The Times.

Craig Leyenaar

Formerly Titan Books, Orion Publishing

Editor. Before joining The Novelry, Craig Leyenaar was a Commissioning Editor at the famous Titan Books, a publisher specialising in science fiction, fantasy, horror, crime and thrillers, and home to authors including Stephen King, V.E. Schwab, James Lovegrove and Mikey Spillane.

Krystle Appiah

Formerly Pan Macmillan

Editor. Before joining The Novelry, Krystle Appiah was an Editor at Pan Macmillan, home to authors including Marcus Rashford, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Tomi Adeyemi and Julia Donaldson.

Fantasy Writing Prompt

This is useful because we find it helps writers immerse themselves in a dynamic world, where they have to think about the realities of a setting and also how their characters actually function inside of it.

If you’re struggling to world-build and bring a location to life, place your protagonist in a market. Is the market outdoors or indoors? What is the weather like? Is it a bustling village market or a chaotic bazaar in a city centre? What kind of wares are being sold? What kind of people are buying them? How are the people dressed, and how do they behave? And what is your protagonist doing? What do they want to buy? How do they navigate their world?

—Tasha Suri

Frequently Asked Questions

See all FAQ’s

Where can I find more articles and information about SFF writing at The Novelry?

What’s the learning format and access period?

Your year is structured in 3-stages to create, write and edit your book, allowing you the chance to work step-by-step through each phase and take any breaks you need between them. You will begin with The Classic Course to come up with the idea for your novel and plan your story, then you will write your first draft with The Ninety Day Novel Course. Finally, you will be guided how to raise your book to publishing standards with The Big Edit.

This is a self-paced program, with over 200 lessons served on our beautiful online platform by video and text. Enjoy the lessons on any internet-connected device. Watch the video, read the text and use the ‘speak aloud’ feature to listen. You’ll need 30 minutes for each lesson and probably some thinking time to capture your thoughts and ideas as you start writing. This might be a good opportunity to start setting aside an hour a day just for you and your writing, and you’ll come to love this special time. One hour? You deserve it.

We suggest you allow 1–2 months for The Classic Course, 3 months for The Ninety Day Novel Course, and the remainder of your year, 6 months or more, for The Big Edit. But as the course is self-paced, you can take each phase at your own pace, according to your lifestyle, holidays, vacations, and commitments.

You can book your coaching sessions at any time during your year on the program.

This is a flexible writing course you can take at your own pace around your other commitments. We suggest you consider taking 1–2 months over the first phase, The Classic Course, then setting aside 3 months in which you’ll be writing for an hour a day for the second phase, The Ninety Day Novel Course. The remainder of the year will be spent raising your novel to publishing standard with The Big Edit process in which you’ll want to work in longer chunks of time, when convenient to you.

The time it takes to complete a book depends on the time you can set aside, but with an hour a day we know it’s possible to comfortably complete your book in a year.

However, we fully understand that sometimes life can get in the way – so if you need more time, you can extend your course and roll over your coaching calls with our affordable extension plans. We make it easy and affordable to extend your access to the plan on an annual or monthly basis for just $55 / £45 pm.

Or you can extend just your membership for as little as $29.99 / £19.99 a month.

Relax and enjoy the courses at your own pace, knowing you can get on with the writing without the worry of losing access to the course. You have as much time as you need.

How To Write a Fantasy Novel

Our online fantasy writing course program