So I'm attempting to write a fantasy adventure novel. I know that most of these stories have the same basic layout: A big bad villain is bent on world domination/destruction. Group of adventurers come together to stop a big bad. Some of the group may or may not turn. Hero wins in the end. I have been reading these types of stories since I was a kid and I've noticed that a majority of these stories all have stuck to the traditional guys is the warrior hero trope. Also the group usually is made up of mostly male characters with only one or two female characters added either later or by accident they join. So I would like to get some opinions on my ideas so far. In the novel I am writing I am thinking of making my "party" more or less equal amount of male and female characters. My whole party would be considered the main character, but I have noticed that there always seems to be at least one character that is a bit more central than the others. I am going to make this character female (based on one of my daughters). There will also be an elven character that has close ties to her, he feels he needs to protect her because he loves her, but it isn't a romantic love, it is more of a brother/sister bond. Of course she doesn't feel that she needs to be protected since she can take care of herself. Her character arc will include her coming to terms with the fact that she can't protect everyone and that eventually you need to learn to count on the help of others. His arc will see him overcome a bit of racism against elvenkind, also learning to live with the fact that he doesn't always need to be the protector. The other half of the group are twin brother/sister (based on my other daughter) half demons, the older(brother) has been involved with some pretty shady activities since they were children and of course his sister has accompanied him since they only have each other. Their arc will see her step out from behind her brother's shadow to try and bring away from some decisions that could ultimately ruin him and by connection, her. I have quite a few of their histories written already (just for my own reference) including the big bad villain and some of his followers. I am going for themes of redemption, family and loss, as well as trying to make some strong female characters that I hope would be a nice change from the usual male wizard and warrior heroes. But I would like to get some of your opinions on my ideas so far. Any input and advice would be very welcome as this is the first time I am ever attempting to write something this big.
What is your audience aim? Because like you said most people tend to stay with the big bad villain trope, however for me this is too overly used and something I no longer find interesting. I think for YA this wouldn’t matter.
You've basically written the plots to Mass Effect and Dragon Age, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. They clearly have a successful style of storytelling. The things people remember and love most about those stories are the characters. I suppose the only advice I could give is to make sure the ending -- the payoff -- is worth all the buildup. It's a pretty tall order. I don't really read fantasy though, so I can't advise on how to do it. I just thought it might be helpful to mention two huge stories that share your plot structure in case you aren't familiar with them.
Tropes are not 'bad,' but you need to put your own original flair to it (which only you can do.) Some of the best villains are 'heroes' in their own minds. Actually -and this is just my opinion- the best villains have 'noble' goals (like ending world hunger) but their methods of accomplishing said goals are so horrible (like ending world hunger through mass genocide) that the MC(s) have to rise up to stop him or her from killing everyone they love. In fact, that might be my new awesome villain formula: Noble goals + horrifying methods =awesome villain/anti-hero.
Indeed. It's hard to say whether something will be good just from a summary of the elements, because while originality is good, gratuitous originality seldom adds anything to the story and might just come off as distracting. And even your "original" elements have probably been done before by somebody--there is nothing new under the sun, after all. That's not to say that breaking the mould is bad, just don't assume that it's all you need to do, or waste too much effort on dodging tropes when the trope would get your point across more effectively than a subversion. Anyway, your premise and the arcs for the characters sound interesting. My advice for writing a big novel would be first, keep a steady pace of writing. Think of it as a marathon rather than a sprint, and a steady pace may help guard against burnout. Second, one possible risk might be that the personal issues of the characters seem irrelevant and distracting if, you know, the world's in danger of ending. A way to avoid that might be to tie the villains into the same themes of "redemption, family and loss", to clearly relate the individual struggles of the characters to the bigger issues facing the setting. Good luck, and remember to have fun!
People have been trying to get females into fantasy for decades. You are far from the first. Don't you mean racism against humankind?
I just hope that I can make my female characters feel real and natural. As far as the racism is concerned, there is racism on both sides. The elven society in my story looks down on humans and the human society feels as though the elves think they are above them. My elven character is of the belief that there isn't one race above the other and he will be trying to prove this to both races. Hopefully it isn't too deep of a meaning for my target audience.
