Michael Simms: Writing Prompts #9 and #10 | Find Your Inner Dragon

For the fantasy writer, the challenge is in using some (not all) of these characters, settings and props, so the reader can recognize the familiar tropes, and yet and yet… we need to use them in new ways. So in genre fiction, whether it is fantasy, sci-fi, crime, suspense or horror, the art lies in balancing the familiar with the creative. Originality is essential, but only within the boundaries of the genre. Fusing two genres, such as sci-fi and western (think Firefly and Cowboys and Aliens), or coming-of-age and fantasy (Harry Potter and Earthsea Trilogy), or apocalypse and steam punk (Mortal Engines), or mystery and steam punk (Infernal Devices) can work, but the writer needs to pay attention to both genres while mixing them; otherwise you have a mess.

In this session, we’ll experiment with employing familiar tropes in new ways.

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Writing genre fiction:

My first novel Bicycles of the Gods: A Divine Comedy, published by Madville in 2022 when I was 68 years young, is a mix of two genres — apocalyptic fiction and urban fantasy. The title received favorable reviews and acceptable sales, so in 2023, Madville began publishing my trilogy: last year The Green Mage; this year Windkeep; and next year The Blessed Isle. With this trilogy, I’ve employed the tropes of the fantasy genre while attempting to make them new. The novel uses a standard plot device: a conflict between an evil wizard who is destroying the kingdom and a girl-hero who is trying to save it. There’s a dragon, a sword, and a magic stone. To freshen these tropes, I endowed each character with unusual traits that make them both sympathetic and well… insufferable. Tessia is a gifted seventeen-year-old swordswoman who is stubborn, impatient and prone to violence. Norbert, her advisor, is a wizard who wisely fears magic and thus is something of a coward while the dragon is a ten-thousand year old lesbian who’s very pissed-off at humans because we’re destroying the earth. And for good measure, the castle has a two thousand year old curse hovering over it. I also tried to fill out the settings of the kingdom, the castle, and the cave with enough detail so they seem like real places. 

Inventing a fantasy world is fun, but let’s keep in mind that the key to writing an enjoyable novel is the art of storytelling which depends on a surprising plot. Characters and settings are important to flesh out the narrative, but readers want to be held in suspense, not knowing what’s going to happen next. 

In this workshop, we’ll do a warm up exercise followed by two writing prompts in order to stimulate your imagination as you write your first — or next — fantasy story or novel.

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Warm Up:

Choose one of these standard fantasy tropes and write a short description of it, mixing the expected with the unexpected:

Now take one of these stock characters and describe the relationship between the character and the trope:

Writing Prompt #1:

Write the beginning of a story in your favorite genre (e.g. steam punk; gaslight, sci-fi, western; detective, police procedural; crime; mystery, suspense, horror, boarding school…) using fantasy elements. If the first one comes easily, then write more of them.

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Writing Prompt #2:

Use one of these three original fantasy novel opening passages to help you get started. Change them however you like.

1. A magical beast crime story:

“I heard you the first time!” Harold growled. He hated the way Crow came to his bed each morning insisting he start the day.

“Then why don’t you get your lazy ass out of bed? AWK!” Crow snarled back.

Harold swung his feet to the floor and reached for his first cigarette of the day.

Unless Crow started paying rent, Harold was going to have to make a score today.

2. A coming of age hero’s journey:

The two boys had brought a flashlight this time.

The day before they’d found their courage and stuck their heads in the dark cave. They hadn’t been able to see anything, but a cool breeze brushed their faces, and they thought they’d heard singing from deep in the bowels of the earth.

“What do you think is down there? Jimmy asked.

“Dunno,” Jason answered. “Maybe nothing. Maybe everything.”

3. A time-travel cowboy detective whodunnit:

 Lois noticed that The Gray Mule saloon was pretty much the way it’d been since she’d started coming here with her dad, a hard-drinking Fort Worth police sergeant who hung out with his cop buddies here. This evening, seeing all the hats, boots and spurs, she just thought it must be cowboy night at the bar, but she wondered about all the six guns on men’s hips, perfectly legal in Texas, but considered bad manners. She always kept her .38 in a shoulder holster well hidden inside her blue blazer.

            “What’ll it be?” The bartender asked her.

            “Double whiskey,” she said, pulling out her Visa card and handing it to him.

            “What’s this?” He asked turning over the card in his large hands and examining it. “This ain’t money.”

Note: Be sure to use dialogue. We need to hear the characters speak!

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Copyright 2024 Michael Simms

Michael Simms is the founding editor of Vox Populi, an online forum for poetry, politics and nature, as well as the founding editor emeritus of Autumn House Press, a nonprofit publisher of books. He’s the author of three full-length collections of poetry published by Ragged Sky Press: American Ash, Nightjar, and Strange Meadowlark. Simms has three novels published by Madville: Bicycles of the Gods, The Green Mage and Windkeep, and another novel The Blessed Isle is scheduled for release in late 2024. His poems have appeared in Poetry (Chicago), Poem-a-Day published by The Academy of American Poets, The Southwest Review, Black Warrior Review and Plume Poetry. In 2011, Simms was awarded a Certificate of Recognition from the Pennsylvania State Legislature for his service to the arts. He lives with his wife Eva, a philosopher and psychologist, in the historic neighborhood of Mount Washington overlooking the city of Pittsburgh.