Ask anyone about fantasy and most will tell you about wood elves, dwarfs, and wizards. However, fantasy as a genre has so much more to offer. The main aim of fantasy is to sweep you away from the humdrum monotony of everyday life and into sparkling new worlds, whose only limit is that of human imagination. Human imagination can be exciting, romantic adventures or they can be the stuff of nightmare. Exploring peoples fears through the fantastic is a hard task. What makes one person scared might not cause another to even break a sweat. For example, the recent clown outbreak terrified many but amused others. while the mere presence of a spider sharing your bath can upset a delicate few.
So the dark writer has to tap into the more primal, group fears we all possess which have been passed down through group memories since man first evolved on earth. These are the fears a creator of darkness needs to harness in their tales to let their reader ride an emotional roller coaster of fear, tension, terror, and ultimate relief that they survived. This process is actually very healthy, it provides a safety valve for the stresses and strains of life, allowing a focus for people’s everyday worries.
This type of fantasy – horror fantasy is a genre I have been dabbling in for the past few years.
The question I wanted to answer was what primal fear could everyone in the world relate to?
And in answering that question ‘Welcome To Witherleigh,’ my latest novel was born.
See also: https://celthric.com/a-question-of-magic-systems/
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