: Re: Where's the middle ground between genre conventions and originality? I've long been interested in writing a fantasy novel. Over the countless iterations I've gone through, one thing has remained

@Steve161

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Originality isn't contained merely in what populates your fantasy world. In fact, I'd say that's one of the least important elements to an original story. You can have a new, fresh, original story in a setting with the old tired elves, dwarves and orcs (look at JourneyQuest, for example), and you can have an old, predictable story in a world populated by nothing out of the old bestiary.

Originality can and should come in the plot itself: what happens, why, how, the way your characters think, the way they interact, the way they respond to situations.

Take, for instance M.R. Carey's "The Girl with all the Gifts". In terms of what populates his world, you've got the standard zombie apocalypse, with the experienced soldier, and the inexperienced rookie, and some civilians, and zombies. What makes this book stand out is the main character: a bright, intelligent, kind girl,

who is a zombie.

So you can have elves, they can be pointy-eared, they can even be vegetarian if you like. The question is how you use them. What's new about the story you're telling - that's the important part.

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