By Sierra Ret
A fine line separates inspiration and imitation, or so the saying goes. Writers struggle to define this boundary more than most artists—they are, after all, rearranging the same twenty-six letters in various patterns judged to be the most pleasing to the mind and ear. The number of plots guaranteed to captivate readers is also limited (falling in love, freeing the kingdom, solving the mystery). Since fantasy writers have immersed themselves in the worlds of their literary heroes from childhood, they cannot help subconsciously modeling their own stories off them.
Thus, it is unsurprising that many books seem to be penned by copycats, or just another Lord of the Rings rip-off. Nevertheless, original fantasy works with fascinating new species are still being written and enthralling audiences. What are these authors doing differently?
To answer this question, let’s examine the staple of high fantasy: the common elf.
How Tolkien Reinvented the Elf
These mythical beings predate recorded history and intersperse Anglo-Saxon, Icelandic, Germanic, and Scandinavian tradition. It is therefore impossible to substantiate their general appearance and character. Some examples include Shakespeare’s tiny and mischievous variety; the huge, "elven" Green Knight of the Arthurian legend, Sir Gawain; and the fair light elves and black-as-pitch dark elves of the ancient Norse tribe. To further complicate matters, the term was often used unchangeably for "fairy."
Professor Tolkien, a gifted linguist and historian (as if being a revered author wasn’t enough), took this miscellaneous collection of myths and epic ballads and contrived his own strain: the Middle-Earth Elf. These beings were tall, angelically beautiful immortals with an unfortunate habit of killing each other over shiny jewelry. They were iconic enough to re-conceptualize our culture’s perception of the species. Whenever you mention an elf nowadays, people automatically picture either Tolkien’s version or the horrid, red-and-green Christmas breed.
The Professor did not create elves. He instead made a legend his own. He developed elven languages, histories, and culture to the degree that one could easily mistake The Silmarillion as an account of a historical people group. His elves have since been replicated by authors such as Christopher Paolini and Markus Heitz, and though their works are engrossing, they lack the novelty of Tolkien’s world.
Avoid this blunder by reinventing the source material instead of simply cloning it. Ways to accomplish this include forming your world’s own religion(s), defining the magic system in place, and expanding your cultures and subcultures.
Introduce Diversity into Your Fantasy Race
Cressida Cowell’s How to Train Your Dragon series also amply demonstrates the principle of making legend your own. Because dragons have existed in mythology since at least biblical times (see Revelation 12), representing them uniquely seems an even greater challenge than reclaiming elves.
Yet, Cowell’s books brim with a myriad of fantastic beasts: colossal sea dragons, lazy little hunting beasts, and pompous macrodragons that feed on honey nectar and the blood of their enemies. Her creativity is only surpassed by our own Intelligent Designer, who didn’t give us just one monkey species, but blessed us with over 260 types.
If you’re struggling to imagine more than one variant of kelpie, searching Google Images for monkeys, cacti, or beetles can offer inspiration. You’ll quickly be reminded of the incredible genetic variety on our planet, while also realizing you’re restricting yourself by featuring only one kind of gnome in your story world. Another option is to research obscure fantasy creatures with the aim of adding diversity to your world’s zoological population. I have, for example, always thought that gremlins (small, mischievous creatures blamed for aircraft engine failure by early British mechanics) would be a promising story inclusion.
Beyond biological variety, enormous potential for cultural variety lies within a species. Look at humans. Our world contains 196 independent countries, 6,500 spoken languages, and approximately 4,000 religions. No author could hope to match that level of world building, but it’s worth keeping in mind.
Also consider the difference in appearance and language between the aboriginals and the first European settlers on various continents. First-hand accounts reveal that both sides found each other so strange that they doubted the other was truly human. This could be depicted in a fantasy setting by showing extreme distrust between two kingdoms of minotaurs, or a more advanced species of dragon mistaking another for a flightless lizard.
Create Your Own Races
You could always opt to populate your story world with creatures you fabricate and abandon the traditional—and possibly tiresome—giants and trolls. Andrew Peterson pulls this off remarkably well in his Wingfeather Saga, delighting readers with memorable creatures such as flabbits and thwaps and toothy cows. However, this isn’t entirely different from what Tolkien and Cowell did—Peterson merely equipped cows with large teeth and carnivorous appetites.
The downside to this route is that readers can be overwhelmed by long descriptions of new characters, places, and species popping up on every page. Since 99.9 percent of all fiction revolves around humans (and we still haven’t tired of reading about them), the risk of boring readers with more dragons and elves should be minimal.
But the threat of getting lost in the crowd of competing fantasy worlds is real indeed. If you’re writing about dwarves, prove to readers that you’ve done more than watch The Hobbit. Your dwarves must be authentic, living beings. The result doesn’t necessarily have to be new, but it must be yours.
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Yes. Thank you! Creature rip-offs are the worst. I’m personally avoiding all semblance of it and creating my own creatures.
A challenging route to take, but hopefully rewarding. I wish you all the best with your creature creating!
I agree, I hate when people rip-off a creature. I personally like writing about elves, or in an elf’s view. I tend to try and avoid the overused old timey elf stories and aim for a more modern time, that way I can still make the elf what people would expect, but still have an original twist. Being a middle-school writer kinda makes writing original work more difficult, as I normally write stories that include Creepypasta or horror.
Woohoo! Someone else who agrees with me! Even though I, sadly, have populated my story with elves, dwarves, and dragons, I am trying hard to make them unique and interesting.
Another example I would volunteer is the Inheritance Cycle, by Christopher Paolini, in which the dwarves are obsessed with stones and jewels, the elves have a problem with their emotions, and the dragons are, well, dragons, but really well done dragons. Plus there are giant snails, werecats (which are exactly what you think they are), Ra’zac, and others.
Yes! The giant snails (Snagli actually) were by far my favorite unique creation of Paolini’s. Though the burrow-grubs that Galbatorix used for torture purposes were also deliciously horrifying.
Indeed. And thank you for the reminder; I haven’t read Inheritance for a while. It’s great to find another fan. Who was your favorite character? Mine was Eragon, Saphira, Arya, or Murtagh. Or Angela. Predictable but true. Again, thanks for the awesome article!
You’re welcome! Angela and Roran were probably my chief favorites, though I did feel a certain fondness for Eragon as he bumbled his way among the wise and powerful of Alegaesia. Saphira though had the best POV by far.
This article cam at a good time for me. I’ve just been struggling with this very thing in my WIP. Thanks for your insight, Sierra!
You’re welcome, Ingrid! Glad to be of service 🙂
I love elves but I see them EVERYWHERE especially amongst young authors fiction. I have been looking for an article like this for a while! My mind is subconsciously brainstorming on how to make elves (and other creatures) different from the stereotypical 😛
Yes… It’s a bit of a problem, especially since my budding novel project heavily involves elves 😀 Glad this article got you thinking at least!
Yessssssss to everything. Besides, picking things apart to find their roots not only gives you a much better understanding of all they can be, it’s incredibly fun. What’s not to love?
Great article, Sierra. 😀 I’m going to be coming back to this one.
Crafting articles worth returning to is what we strive for here. Glad you enjoyed it, Kate 🙂
Thank you so much for this! It’s disappointing how little variety there is in fantasy novels when it comes to animals and different races of people.
You’re welcome, Tatiana! Hopefully we can work towards changing that 🙂
Something I find interesting about elves is that Tolkien’s elf has almost become the new stereotype. Everyone copies off of Tolkien. Elves are tall, long haired, bow-wielding beings. But in a lot of the older books that I’ve read, elves are these tiny midget things that are actually leaning closer to what a Hobbit is than what a Tolkien elf is…anyways. Random observation of mine. xD
This post basically sums up the reasons I don’t write fantasy very often. XD I normally stick with sci fi, but this was still handy for the few fantasy stories I’ve got stewing away. 😛
I think you’re quite right, Jane Maree. Only problem with the new cliché is that… I like it. I don’t have any particularly desire to replace the elves in my own story world with mischievous midgets 😀 Which is why putting the extra work in to flesh out your races is so important.
@sierra-ret Great insight! I’m doing world-building now and I am studiously avoiding cliches. Your article was helpful in reminding me I can create new races-as long as I develop them well! 😉 Thank you so much for continually sharing inspiration with us, Sierra!
Another article worth reading as you’re world-building your fantasy is Gabrielle Massman’s piece “Why It’s Okay to Have Clichés in Your Fantasy Novel” (https://kingdompen.org/why-its-okay-to-have-cliches-in-your-fantasy-novel/). It helped me realize that not all clichés are evil (so long as we don’t use them as excuses for lazy writing).
Thanks, this is great since I’m writing a fantasy series. Funny thing is I was sort of doing this… But then forgot about it. You see I was trying to figure out halflings and made a bunch of different breeds of Jackelopes. After different rabbits and different deer, also how much of each they were. So there’s an idea, halflings that of different breeds than normal. A gryffin that is part Snowy owl and part snow leopard (probably cause snow). Oh the fun I will have!
Thanks again!
I like the griffin idea! Glad you’re having fun with it 🙂
Oh good post, I know I’ve begun to see a pattern and it a slight bit annoying though I have enjoyed the things I have read.
If ever I should endeavor in fantasy I shall keep this article as my guide! 🙂 😉
You’re right. Out of all the sins a writer can commit, adding yet another Tolkien-inspired elf colony is hardly serious 😀 Thanks for reading!
Awesome article, Sierra! I am just loving the fantasy theme this month. SO HELPFUL.
And I have begun to notice some cliches floating around in my story world lately, particularly where different races are concerned. XD This article is a great reminder that I need to dig up my old world-building notes and revisit some of the basics. 😀
Yes, I think the fantasy theme has been a big hit throughout the Kingdom 😀 Best of luck with your world-building!
Interesting, and well done. I agree, I actually didn’t care for Paolini’s Inheritance cycle too much just because the characters seemed too close to Tolkien and, well, I liked Tolkien better. However this reminds me of John Flannagan’s Children’s novels “The Ranger’s Apprentice” series. I think he was able to pull off mythical creatures like the Wargals and Kalkara beautifully, completely unique, and completely his own. I aim to do the same in the sense that I’ll steer my fantasy creations as far away from anything anyone else has written. Anyhow, thanks again for sharing your insights on that most necessary topic. We almost have elves and dwarves to the point of cloying superfluity in fantasy.
My main writing genre is sci-fi/fantasy, so there are many “not-stereotypes” among my creatures. There are sentient beings like the Raptaurs (a centaur-like creature who is part-human, part-velociraptor) or the dragonmen, a species which looks exactly like humans save for the colorful dragon-like wings and long reptilian tails they have; and there are also ordinary animals like the Wolfphins–a creature with the head and front paws of a wolf and the back half and fins of a dolphin, and the metallifish, which are just fish whose colorful, shiny scales are often used as imitation gemstones.