Do you have any advice for fantasy writing? Not, like, the story, but the language. I’m writing a high fantasy story now, but all of my writing just sounds very modern. I don’t know how to make it sound older. Or, just, more fantasy-like I guess? Do you have any advice/tips here? It would mean a lot to me!

knightedwriter:

Great question! To be honest my very first caution to you is:

Don’t try to make it sound too old. Not in the sense that you’re in the wrong era, but in the sense that, as a reader, I really don’t want to go through a whole book where people use ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ in every sentence. The point is, if you try too hard to make your fantasy writing sound old timey, you might end up strangling the writing. It’s okay to have characters use more modern ways of speaking for the reader’s sake. It’s also okay if your story sounds a little modern–as long as the setting and characters are well established, your reader most likely won’t fault you for it. It makes reading it easier.

Given that, under the cut are a few tips that I can think of to make your language more fantasy-like.

Keep reading