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So many people think that if you're writing fantasy, it means you can just make everything up as you go. Want to add a dragon? Add a dragon! Want some magic? Throw it in. But the thing is, regardless of whether you're dealing with realism or fantasy, every world has rules. Make sure to establish a natural order.

— V. E. Schwab

Sentiment: POSITIVE

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✓Similar Perspectives

Realism isn't something most people associate with the fantasy genre, yet it's an essential element of great fantasy writing.

— Lynn Flewelling

I think when writers play with dragons, we are simply doing what fantasy writers have always done.

— Robin Hobb

Fantasy is more than an escape from the truths of the world and the past: it is an open acknowledgment that those truths are complex and morally difficult. It offers a different route to creating something which will resonate with readers, in a way which resists the erasure of privacy and autonomy which pervades our modern world.

— Guy Gavriel Kay

I really can't write fantasy. I cannot invent a world which does not exist. And I can't read fantasy either. As soon as I realise I'm reading a book that hasn't got its roots in a reality I can comprehend, I switch off.

— Michael Morpurgo

Fantasy encompasses a wide, wide spectrum of writing. We have beast fables, we have gothics, we have tales of vampires and werewolves, and we have sword and sorcery; we have epics from Homer, and there is just so much out there that we put under the umbrella of 'fantasy.'

— Robin Hobb

Most of my books have been written in the form of fantasy.

— Lloyd Alexander

My idea of a good fantasy is something that's absolutely grounded in reality. And there's a little element that doesn't belong there - and that's the fantasy element - that you have to react to and deal with in a completely real way.

— Melissa Mathison

✗Opposing Perspectives

I'm going to get hated for saying this, but honestly, fantasy is easy to write because you can do anything. It's like when Raymond Chandler brings in a bloke with a gun when he's stuck - in fantasy, up pops a wizard, and off we go.

— Mal Peet

Fantasy is sort of a blank slate that everybody can project their own culture onto. Everybody can read it in their own way.

— D. B. Weiss

Fantasy is totally wide open; all you really have to do is follow the rules you've set. But if you're writing about science, you have to first learn what you're writing about.

— Octavia Butler