When people complain about the writing in fantasy–even if it’s a legitimate complaint–but they seem to be relatively clueless at the hellfire-and-lightning storm-plagued mountain ridge the fantasy writer had to go through to even finish their book–I feel like throwing things.
It’s not that readers aren’t allowed to complain about things. They’re allowed to–it’s your right, as a consumer of media, to respond, whether favourably or unfavourably. Having our own thoughts and reactions to things is half the beauty of being alive (the other half involves melted cheese).
But occasionally, it’s nice for people to understand that writing in fantasy, in particular, isn’t always so easy. Especially when it comes to worldbuilding. You usually get two different types of complaints about worldbuilding: either it’s not enough or it’s too much. Either readers couldn’t picture the world or they get bombarded by worldbuilding from start to finish.
Striking a balance to this is one of the first things a fantasy writer must learn to do. We figure it out in different ways, at different rates. It’s really hard to paint the picture of a world with nothing but your own imagination (and incoherent notes) to fall back on. Submerging a reader into a culture means you actually have to create the culture in the first place. What do these characters talk about, when they’re not talking about the plot? No wonder you have pages and pages of exposition in a lot of fantasy. Sometimes this is about the only content the writer can think of at the time. It’s not an excuse, but it is a reason.
Then you have to make sure you’re being consistent all the time, which is easier said than done when you have thousands of pages to sift through. How are you supposed to remember something that was said in a single page? Even multiple rounds of editing made by different people doesn’t always work. This is even more true for a series, which is written over the course of several years and published as you go through.
Then you have the actual narrative itself. What do you focus on, what do you describe? How do you maintain the flow while balancing plot, character-development, and worldbuilding? Maybe you’ll just rant for five pages about lemon cakes and hope nobody notices! Heck, maybe you just stop caring about flow altogether! (Note to fantasy writers reading this: for the love of eyeballs, please don’t).
I guess what I’m trying to get at here is that a little compassion for your not-so-favourite fantasy author can go a long way. Unless they’re an asshole. In which case, fire away…
Bla bla bla The Agartes Epilogues bla bla…
I really relate to this. I often feel like some of my chapters are too sparse and some have too much exposition/description.