An underwater world run by tiger sharks?! OMGosh, I’m definitely checking that one out!

Oh my gosh. College! I can’t even imagine. But then, five years ago, I couldn’t imagine a day when both of my kids would be in school, and that day’s coming in August. Enjoy your spring break! And I love the iceberg analogy. James Scott Bell is AWESOME, isn’t he? 🙂

You’re right. Build the world carefully and slowly introduce the key concepts or risk losing your reader.

I usually don’t read fantasy, but your ideas apply to contemporary as well. James Scott Bell calls it the “iceberg” technique. We should just write the tip of the iceberg at first, then get to the rest later. Not always easy to do, though, when we feel the reader needs to know everything right now!

I think your approach can work, Robert, depending upon how it’s handled. If it feels like the tales only exist as a clever way to impart backstory the reader might become impatient and/or annoyed. On the other hand, if they’re shared with a sense of mystery it might work. “Mystery,” I think is the key word, for your MC not knowing his true place in the world is a mystery and a great gift for you as a writer. There’s much that can be done with that and it’s a great hook for readers. Good luck.

You know, this is an important thing to remember about fantasy, too—that even if you have a completely made-up element, you don’t have to explain the whole entire thing. Just give them enough to go on, enough to put a scaffold together, and they’ll be able to figure out the rest.

Yay! I hope you’re able to make it work!

Thanks so much, Donna! Openings are so hard to get right, and they really are critical to a story’s success. I figured, if I could figure out some things that didn’t work and share them with everyone else, maybe it would give us all a leg up. So glad you’re finding these posts useful 🙂

Iola, your mention of awaking in a different world on a regular basis sure sounds familiar, or perhaps it’s just overdone. Either way, I completely agree. Too, when I read fantasies where the protagonist travels between worlds via sleep I always feel like I’m going to be sucker punched at the end when the narrator tells me “it was all a dream.” It cuts into my suspension of disbelief. To me it’s lazy world building (until someone figures out how to do it well, that is).