February is Fantasy Month Week 3// Plots

So yeah, this is a little last minute. When I tried to start writing this post yesterday, my page wouldn't load and then I forgot. *coughs* Anyway, welcome to week three of February is Fantasy Month. Congratulations to everyone who made it this far.

This week I will be talking about plots. As a character driven author (I think I mentioned that once or twice during my last post about characters) plots take a bit of a back seat for me. But that doesn't mean that they aren't important, because it most certainly is not. There are many great plot archetypes so I guess we'll look into some of them, eh?

Lots of fantasy plots are overused, sometimes it is hard to find an original one in the midst. Some fantasy plots could be: defeat the dark lord/dragon/tyrant, hunting monsters, saving a village/town/country from destruction, become/dethrone ruler. Trying to stop a war, trying to win a war, there is even trying to start a war. Actually, that's the plot of My Time in Amar book 3 A Season of Subterfuge, Courtiers, and War Councils.

The quest. Ah, the great pinnacle of fantasy plots, the great and terrible and impossible quest. Obviously the best example here is Lord of the Rings.


via GIPHY

A small band of friends, an ancient evil, a grueling journey, several battles along the way... Tolkien did it all. Which makes it a little hard to write this type of story without it being considered "cliche". In fact, I have all of these elements in my own My Time in Amar series. What did I do differently? Well, I made it so that my characters don't know what the quest they are trying to accomplish is. They don't actually know for some time, in fact, the first type of their journey is just them trying to figure out what they are supposed to do. They didn't know anything about any ancient evils.* They were just unwitting pawns.

*they still don't so shhh, don't tell them

Which brings me to the real main point of this post. I think that really, to make your story all the more developed and unique that you have to divide your plot into two elements. The character's goal, and the actual story plot.

And they do not always have to be the same thing. Frodo's goal was to destroy the ring. The story plot was him trying to destroy the ring. Your story can branch away from that. In fact, my character's goals rarely ever coincide with the main story plot. They are trying to do their own thing and the story plot is what naturally arises from that struggle.

For instance, in My Time in Amar my characters just want to go home, that is their goal. However, in order to get home, they have to first accomplish a quest, and in order to first accomplish that quest they need to learn what it is. In the companion series Return to Amar my heroine Alicia is trying to save her mother. In order to save her mother, she has to steal something from the faeries then I get a story plot because she has to find people to help her steal from the faeries and then survive the faerie world. Similarly, in Of Gold and Iron Jaye wants to save her brother, but in order to do that she must become an assassin because #reasons#spoilers.

See, you knew I was going to turn this back to having to do with the characters. I always do. Figure out your character's goal. The story plot is what is standing between them and that goal.

That's enough from me. For more February is Fantasy you can read these posts here and here. You can find the whole schedule here. Don't forget to check out our amazing prize because... DRAGONS!

What about you? Do you have a favorite fantasy plot archetype? Writers, what is something that you do to avoid the cliche in your plots? Readers, what is a book you read that took a cliche an twisted it on its head in a new and unique way? Comment Below!