Rules of Writing Fantasy
It had been a really long time since I’d seen Holly Black, so it was great to see her again at the SCBWI-WI fall retreat this weekend. You all know of her, through her Spiderwick and Faerie Tales series or her other works. She’s hilarious and very friendly and was a big hit at the event.
Holly presented her ten rules of writing fantasy. I won’t give them all here (let her reveal them to the world as she wishes), but I will point out one rule which really spoke to me: Fantasy needs to be rooted in a sense of place. To further explain, she continues, your world has to be real enough so as to allow a person to “walk” into it. She recommends knowing your world so thoroughly that you can detail a great deal more of it than what you necessarily include in your story. For example, what is the primary form of communication, transportation, business, etc, in your imaginary world? Furthermore, she emphasizes that both the fantastical and the real must be described equally to distribute their weight throughout the book.
Holly also gave some funny anecdotes about her childhood. Apparently, her mother was quite convinced of the supernatural. Her mother’s childhood stories of playing in the attic with ghosts naturally made Holly a wee bit tense, especially living in the “creepy” house that they inhabited. The dangling branches of a large tree regularly scraped against her bedroom window, so, whenever forced to pass said tree, Holly would flat-out sprint past them. She confessed to her mother her fear that the trees would reach down and snatch her. “Don’t worry,” her mother replied. “That probably won’t happen.” Nice.
Pictured here are my husband Jeff, Holly, and me. It was a good time.
Soooo good is time spent learning and laughing with other authors and illustrators! My husband and I are back from a fun and informative weekend in Racine at the Fall Retreat for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Wisconsin Chapter.
As many of you know know by now, 
I’m not sure if her husband really feels like a two-month road trip will be a punishment, but 
“I just did it,” she said, about writing her first novel, without regard to publication. “I didn’t think about it that much.” She’s glad she didn’t; finding an agent and navigating the publishing world can be a nightmarish proposition.
She read from Chapter 1, which is a wonderfully rich description of character and world, and then took questions from the audience. There was several writers in the audience, myself included. Lesley was quick to tell everyone that she doesn’t write from an outline or plan of any sort; rather lets the characters react organically with each other. Of her characters, Lesley says, “When you get enough people together, somebody’s gonna start trouble.” So she sits back to let them do that until she’s got the necessary conflict for a story.
Where there’s less conflict for her now is in the business end of publishing. See, now that her books are selling, Lesley’s got a lot more say in the final product. Go figure.
I adore Bella Swan. And I’m so sad to read the end of her story. 
