By most accounts fantasy fiction should be the easiest one to write: minimal research, nil chances of getting locations wrong, characters which do not really need to tap into everyday life, a plot that is, well, pure fantasy and an audience ready to leap into suspension of disbelief mode with both feet.

So, why is it so hard to write? Why are there so few good fantasy fiction novels, why is the genre facing an identity crisis?

There are many reasons and the first one has to address not why, but what. What exactly is fantasy fiction and why do we read fantasy fiction novels? I might be tempted here to use the clichéd thing about there being as many reasons as there are readers but I would be lying to both you and myself.

Fantasy fiction, beyond any other type of fiction, is leapt into by a reader with two distinct needs in mind: first he wants to escape reality, even for a while (and in that he would be in very good company indeed) and secondly he wants to reaffirm his belief in the working order of the universe (and we all need that from time to time). You see, beyond anything else, fantasy fiction tends to draw on the archetypal stereotypes that govern our psyche.

Wise men, ethereal women, brave warriors and the teetering balance between good and evil all come into the forefront of our consciousness in a fantasy fiction novel. We want, we really want, in real life, to be so good that that those we meet admire us and want to be with us either as lovers or friends, and we can’t. Real life is not like that. But our archetypes drive us into modes of behaviour which, by rejection, become jaded.

Fantasy fiction recharges us. Makes us whole again. Takes us out of ourselves into a world where the different shades of grey we meet in our daily existence no longer apply. In terms of ‘colours’ then a good fantasy fiction novel is overwhelmingly bright to the point that it burns our eyeballs and strips our nerves from apathy and makes us feel alive again. Above all a fantasy fiction novel makes us believe, really believe in the ability of good to defeat evil.

What good would The Lord of the Rings be, for instance, if Sauron wins? What good would the Narnia Chronicles be if the wicked witch is victorious? What good would The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever be if Lord Foul, The Despiser won?

In all of this good triumphs but at a price. Fantasy fiction is, incredibly enough, a reality check. It allows us to reaffirm everything that is good in which we believe and take stock of our own complex belief system and the way it works for us in our world.

You’re reading this, of course, because you want to know just how you could write a good fantasy fiction novel and the answer here is simple enough: write from the heart, write a story that is so big and so grand and so pure that you would want to be in it. Write like you are creating a world in which you would want to buy a house in and bring up a family.

Forget readers, forget editors, forget agents and forget best friends. When you are writing you write for yourself.

I realise that I could have, here, been a little more prescriptive and told you specifically what to write how, how to structure your plot, position your protagonist and antagonist, pick your theme, work in a sub-theme, shape your characterisation and tighten up your pace and in all of this I would be doing you the greatest disservice you can imagine.

You could follow all of these. You could be brilliant at each of them and still fail to write great fantasy fiction. Stick to my first piece of advice however, understand it, internalise it and make it yours and what you write, however flawed, will be memorable and that, beyond anything else, is the hallmark of a good fantasy fiction novel.