In an article for Writer’s Digest, Steve McHugh shares five tips for writing urban fantasy.
- Stick to the Rules of the World You’ve Created. That sounds easy, but sometimes characters want to break the rules. “Whatever the rules you choose for the world you’re creating—even if that world is built on the bones of our world—stick to them, or have good creative reasons why they’ve changed,” McHugh says.
- Research the Details of Your Story. If you’re using a real-world setting, research, research, research. “If you get it wrong, I can guarantee that someone will pick up on it,” McHugh warns. “Also, researching is fun and can lead to a bit of a rabbit hole of new topics, creating new ideas for future books.”
- Watch Movies and Anime for Magic and Action Scenes. “Both are wonderful for giving creative uses for fight scenes and using the environment in action, but anime especially will help with ideas about how to incorporate your magical system into any action scenes,” McHugh writes.
- Merge Fantasy With Reality. “Being able to write about crimes and investigations while adding magical and fantastical elements to them is great fun,” McHuhg says. “But being able to write about mundane stuff and add those same elements no matter how small they might seem makes the world feel lived in.”
- Write the Story. An obvious, but important tip. Worldbuilding is fun but A – you need a story to show it off and B – you need to actually write it.
