How to Write a Fantasy Novel: 9 Steps for Beginners

What Is a Fantasy Novel?

A fantasy novel is a work of fiction built around magic, invented worlds, or supernatural elements that do not exist in the real world. The genre spans several subgenres, each with different reader expectations:

High or epic fantasy: entirely invented worlds, often with large casts and multi-book arcs (The Lord of the Rings)
Low fantasy: our world with hidden magic woven in (Harry Potter)
Urban fantasy: modern city settings with supernatural elements
Dark fantasy: fantasy blended with horror tones and morally grey stakes
Grimdark: bleak, morally complex worlds with few clear heroes

1 Choose Your Fantasy Subgenre First

Subgenre shapes everything that follows: how much worldbuilding you need, how dark the tone can be, and what readers will expect from the ending. Deciding this before you outline saves major rewrites later. A high fantasy story needs an invented world built from scratch. An urban fantasy story only needs to explain how magic hides inside our world. Pick the subgenre that matches the story you actually want to tell, not the one that seems most marketable.

2 Build a World with Rules, Not Just Ideas

Worldbuilding fails most often not from a lack of imagination but from a lack of limits. A magic system without cost or boundaries removes tension from every scene, because characters can solve problems without real risk. Decide early what your magic cannot do, who can use it, and what it costs the user.

Avoid opening your novel with pages of worldbuilding exposition. Readers do not want a briefing document. Reveal your world through a character's daily life: how they eat, travel, work, and interact with authority. Small sensory details, the smell of a market street, the sound of a specific dialect, do more work than a paragraph of history.

3 Create Characters with Clear Motivations

Fantasy readers stay invested in characters, not settings alone. For each main character, define:

What they want (their external goal)
What they fear (their internal obstacle)
What they are willing to do to get what they want
How the story changes them by the end

A useful exercise many writers use is interviewing the character directly, in their own voice, before drafting. It reveals inconsistencies early, before they become chapters you need to rewrite.

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4 Outline Your Plot Structure

Fantasy novels tend to be plot driven, so a clear structure matters more here than in some other genres. A simple three act structure works for most beginners: setup and inciting incident, rising conflict and complications, climax and resolution. Decide whether you are a plotter, someone who outlines chapter by chapter before writing, or a pantser, someone who discovers the story while drafting. Neither approach is wrong, but plotting in advance tends to prevent the sagging middle that derails many first fantasy drafts.

5 Write a Complete First Draft

Realistic targets help beginners avoid giving up partway through:

High fantasy: 100,000 to 120,000 words
Low or urban fantasy: 80,000 to 100,000 words
Young adult fantasy: 60,000 to 90,000 words

Write toward the ending you have planned rather than editing as you go. A finished, imperfect draft is easier to fix than a perfect first chapter attached to no book.

6 Avoid the Most Common Fantasy Writing Mistakes

These recurring problems show up in nearly every unpublished fantasy manuscript:

Info dumping: explaining world history in narration instead of revealing it through the story
Inconsistent magic rules: letting the magic system's limits shift to fit whatever the plot needs that chapter
Too many POV characters introduced too early, before readers care about any of them
A flat antagonist whose only motivation is being evil
A slow second act, where the middle of the book loses momentum after a strong opening

7 Revise for Pacing and Consistency

Once the draft is finished, step away from it for at least two weeks before revising. On the first revision pass, focus on pacing and consistency rather than sentence level line editing. Track character names, magic rules, timelines, and geography in a simple spreadsheet or document as you reread, since fantasy manuscripts are especially prone to small continuity errors across a long draft.

8 Get Professional Editing Before You Publish

Self-revision catches some problems, but a professional editor catches the ones a writer is too close to the manuscript to see. Fantasy manuscripts typically benefit from two editing passes:

Developmental editing: addresses plot structure, pacing, worldbuilding consistency, and character arcs
Line and copy editing: addresses prose style, grammar, and consistency at the sentence level

Mojopress offers both stages as part of its book editing services for authors who want a professional pass before querying agents or self-publishing.

9 Prepare Your Manuscript for Publishing

Once your fantasy novel is edited, the final steps before publishing include cover design, formatting, and choosing a publishing path.

Cover design: fantasy covers follow genre specific visual conventions that signal tone to readers at thumbnail size
Formatting: print and ebook formats each have their own technical requirements
Publishing path: traditional publishing, self-publishing, or working with a ghostwriting and publishing team for full support

Authors who want support at this stage can review Mojopress's book cover design services, professional ghostwriting services, or full book publishing services.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should a fantasy novel be?

Most first fantasy novels fall between 90,000 and 120,000 words. High fantasy with multiple POV characters and an invented world tends to run longer, while young adult fantasy is usually shorter, in the 60,000 to 90,000 word range.

How long does it take to write a fantasy novel?

A first draft typically takes six months to two years, depending on weekly writing time, outlining approach, and the scope of the world being built. Revision and editing add several more months before the manuscript is publish ready.

Do I need to finish designing my magic system before I start writing?

Not entirely, but you need the core rules and limits decided before you draft any scene where magic is used to solve a problem. Fine details can be developed as you write, as long as the fundamental limits stay consistent.

Should I hire an editor for my first fantasy novel?

Yes, if you plan to query literary agents or self-publish. A developmental edit in particular catches structural and worldbuilding issues that are difficult to see from inside your own manuscript.

Getting Your Fantasy Novel From Draft to Published Book

Writing a fantasy novel is a long process, and finishing a first draft is a real achievement on its own. The steps after that, revising, editing, designing a cover, and choosing how to publish, determine whether that draft becomes a book readers can actually find and enjoy. Mojopress works with fantasy and fiction authors across the full process, from ghostwriting and developmental editing to cover design and publishing support.

Get in touch with Mojopress to talk through where your fantasy novel is in the process and what kind of support would help most.