A Refreshing Break from the Norm in Fantasy Fiction

Do you love the idea of smashing stereotypes and rebelling against tropes in your writing?

I’ve written a lot about how we can defy tropes, but I’ve also questioned whether conventions are always bad. Plus, it’s impossible, even undesirable, to keep your stories trope-free.

Related to this, Jacinta Palmer invited us to the Fantasy This or That challenge. We get a list of questions, and have to decide between two traditional fantasy tropes for each question.

You’ll see from her list just how unavoidable tropes are, but we can use them to write compelling stories regardless. Tropes are fun to play with. Here come the questions!

1. Dystopian or Enchanted

Friends know me for writing wholesome, even sweet and innocent stories. So I’ll choose enchanted, right?

Wrong! I’ll choose dystopian, just to be contrary. My cheekiness aside, you can actually write a sweet and innocent plot within a dystopian tale, believe it or not.

In fact, I wrote about a cute Pomeranian slipping into a time travel portal — by accident, and entering a post-apocalyptic world! He meets a handsome hellhound, and yes, this is a lighthearted gay romance with lots of joy and laughter, despite their harsh environment.

It’s fun to bend the expectations of genres, and this includes putting a near-romantic comedy within a dystopian setting.

2. Vampire or Dragon

Since my main fiction work on here is Anastasia the Nonbinary Dragon, I will be loyal to zir and choose dragon. (Anastasia goes by ze/zir pronouns.) The other reason is an embarrassing one — to my memory, I’ve never written about a vampire before.

Okay, that’s not the entire truth. When the Choose Your Own Adventure collaboration pub first launched, I tried starting my own story arc. It was a paranormal, gay romantic comedy.

The MC is a gay dragon shifter. He and a vampire coworker will meet a unicorn politician for some secret plot. My fellow writers may be relieved that I did not unleash this mayhem onto Choose Your Own Adventures. Or maybe they wouldn’t have minded, who knows.

We won’t be accepting any new story arcs for a while, though.

3. Sword or Bolt of Fire from your Fingers

I’ll choose a sword that can belch out fire. Ok, that might be cheating. But I’d like a magical sword of some sort. Jonathon Sawyer’s Hero of Pendown has an amazing sword that can create ice, attack with a shadowy aura, and more. Jonathon’s answer to this Fantasy prompt question may surprise you, however.

4. Mind Reading or Crystal Ball

That’s really hard to choose. I’ve done some mind reading before, but have never used a crystal ball. On mind-reading, Cathylouise said she might set limits on this power, e.g. creating mental blocks so the telepaths can’t see what you’re thinking.

For a fantasy novel I was writing before I came to Medium, I had ghouls. The ghouls can all read minds. But they can block off mind readers so they can’t read each other. They read the minds of other species instead.

However, they can’t read your emotions, at least not directly. They can only see the words, images, and sensations that are on your mind at this second.

So, some people learned to outsmart mind readers by deliberately thinking about inconsequential things. One character thinks about sex on purpose so that his ghoul lover can’t read his most important thoughts. Not a hard feat, since they’re fuck buddies already.

I have another character who is not a ghoul, but an enchanter. Due to reasons that I won’t go into, he has this fragmented ability. He can randomly read bits of someone’s mind, or get a glimpse into their past or future. It’s an unpredictable power (and susceptible to the whims of the author.)

Thus, choosing mind-reading would imply that I’m staying in my comfort zone. So I’ll pick the crystal ball, just because I haven’t tried it before.

5. Broomstick or Winged Creature

Ha! Guess which one I’ve never written about? Yes, the broomstick. So I’ll choose that one. It’s also because it was such an unpopular choice — only Celia McKinley selected the broom so far. I like picking unpopular options.

And just think about it. Not only can you fly with it, you can use it as an unexpected weapon as well. You could even use it to sweep your house if your vacuum cleaner is broken!

Furthermore, many people think of Harry Potter when it comes to broomsticks. They’re not wrong, though I also think of Kiki’s Delivery Service from Studio Ghibli. It looked so cool and freeing when Kiki rode through the night sky on her broomstick, with her faithful cat behind her. She was even listening to music while she was flying!

6. Runes or Tarot Cards

While I’m not familiar with either, I will choose Tarot Cards because 1) most people chose Runes, and 2) I know a bit more about Tarot than about Runes. I also read Miriam Rachel’s post recently, where she compared the Enneagram subtypes to the Tarot Court Cards, which was really fascinating. (I’m a fanatic of the Enneagram personality types.)

Moreover, a book series I love, The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater, has characters using Tarot Cards to tell fortunes, so that endeared me to them even more.

Paula Shablo wrote a hilarious explanation for whether she would choose Runes or Tarot Cards here. It’s interesting to see how differently we explain our choices!

7. Under an Oath or Stolen Memories

Both are fun, but for this question, I want to choose the hardest one. (If it isn’t hard, it isn’t fun!) JF Danskin and I have talked about how most people don’t understand how memory works. Basically, memories are unreliable and susceptible to distortion, depending on your current beliefs and mood.

If someone asks you questions in a certain way, you may remember events differently, too. Heck, two people could remember things differently as well, even though no one was deliberately deceptive.

Recently, a close friend and I didn’t agree on how we met. My supervisor and I also disagreed on whether we first met by phone or by video chat…

Anyway, I would go for stolen memories and really mess things up for everybody, given that our regular memory is already full of holes, vulnerable to influence, and ever-changing (you could make things up even if you didn’t mean to).

Sometimes I have a hard time telling my dreams and my real memories apart, too, since they look the same in my mind’s eye.

8. Rainbow or Waterfall

I can’t believe so few people have chosen the Rainbow! I’m choosing the Rainbow, not just because I’m gay, but also because it symbolises happiness and fantasy for me. The “rainbow after the rain,” the “gold at the end of the rainbow” tropes.

It’s pretty, too. And yes, I even have a pink unicorn T-shirt with a rainbow on it!

9. Enchanted Object or Cursed Object

Cursed in what way? The assumption is that the cursed object will hurt the user, right? But what if the cursed object hurts your enemy? In Pokemon, you have these orbs that you can toss to your opponent to make them heavier, poisoned, or some other kind of curse. It might be a less straightforward form of attack than a direct enchanted object.

A cursed object that hurts the user sounds like fun to write about. Maybe it prevents or discourages the user from using it beyond a certain number of times.

10. Seer or Warlock

Wow, I don’t think I’ve written about either. Some of my characters have insights into the future, though they’re not seers per se. I’ve never done warlocks before, so I’ll choose warlocks just for kicks.

11. Dungeon or Banishment

I love writing dungeon scenes! It’s such a wonderful fantasy setting. Not so wonderful for the characters, but wonderful for the writer who wants to make hell happen. Prison escapes are also exciting. Mayhaps I’ll try banishment in the future, but I will stick to dungeons for now.

12. Soul Sucking or Demon Torment

What kind of torment do you mean? I can’t stand gore or graphic violence. But I could write about psychological torment. For instance, a demon could turn into your imposter spouse. Your real spouse could be kidnapped elsewhere.

You live with your imposter spouse for years. And then one day, you learn the truth. Screaming ensues. I’ll let you imagine what happens next, but I would like to do an emotional torment rather than a physical one.

Soul-sucking does sound too final to me. But who am I kidding? The ghouls in my fantasy book, suck out soul energy like vampires suck out blood. Meaning it doesn’t harm the victim much. They just shorten their lifespan by a smidgeon (maybe by a day or two.) Well, technically they are sucking out soul energy, not the soul per se, so maybe that doesn’t count.

So I’ll choose demon torment but only if it’s purely emotional or psychological, rather than physical.

13. Portal or Time Travel

I’m proud to say that I’ve written both! Time travel can be such a mess, yes, but it’s also quite thrilling. Thanks to time travel, I made my romances even more chaotic than they already are.

My characters have different relationships with their friends and lovers depending on the timeline they came from. Heck, some of them even swap between timelines and throw things into further disarray.

That’s not the reason why I haven’t finished writing this series, though. The reason was probably Medium…(See Smillew Rahcuef’s humorous story of why Medium makes it hard for us to write our books.)

PJ Jackelman wrote a relatable response to this fantasy question. She said that since she’s already socially awkward, she doesn’t see how traveling to another time period would make it any better, so she would rather portal.

That’s true. I pretend to be socially skilled (online) when I’m not. But wouldn’t it be great for a chance to undo all my embarrassing social mistakes? Even if it will lead to unforeseen consequences? If we mess up, we can just try again until we get it right, can’t we?

Well, I do enjoy portaling, but time travel is nice and challenging. I love it and will choose it. (And because no one else has chosen time travel yet.)

14. Undiscovered or Forgotten

Forgotten…Undiscovered sounds like the staple, expected route. Forgotten sounds less common, at least from what I’ve read. I’ve done both but have done significantly less of forgotten, so I’ll take that. (And remember what we said above about memories being warped anyway by default! More chaos ensues.)

15. Enchanted to Sleep or Cursed to Ride

Like Rayne Sanning said in her entry, I’m not sure what “Cursed to Ride” means. But, since I’m quite adventurous in fiction (but not in real life), I will take Cursed to Ride! And you shall show me the reins, no pun intended. Hope my steed is a cool one, though, like a pegasus or something.

16. Diary or Grimoire

I was surprised that so few people have chosen the diary. (Tovah Rainsong and Celia McKinley are the only ones so far.) Of course, the rarity of the choice, makes me all the more interested in choosing it.

Also, I had to recheck the dictionary for what Grimoire meant. Yes, it’s embarrassing. The only time I recall this word, was in a lovely gay romance called Highfell Grimoires. But diaries do interest me more than magic books of spells. A book of spells seems too straightforward to me. (Unless it bites like Harry Potter’s.)

Plus, diaries are very personal. Not only do you find secrets that may solve your mysteries and save your life, you also get to learn more about the person. Great chance for a character backstory dump!

17. Kraken or Mermaid

Probably mermaid. I don’t dislike krakens, but the stories I write, tend to get tangled up in relationship plots, romantic or otherwise. I’m not saying krakens can’t have relationships, but it’s just a lot easier to write such tales with mermaids. I welcome you to prove me wrong, though! And tag me, please.

18. Haunted or Re-programmed

If you’re re-programmed, wouldn’t you be haunted by your past? Since you’re kind of a different person now, but you still might wonder about the past you? I’m somewhat more interested in haunted, maybe because it’s familiar territory, but I’d be open to writing re-programmed stories in the future.

I’m also thinking of haunted in a psychological sense, where you are haunted by traumatic memories. Or haunted by your guilt about what you did in the past.

19. Historical or Future

I was going to pick future, but so many people have picked it, and I do enjoy reading alternative histories. Years ago, I wrote a story set in ancient China, except it’s much more female-friendly than ancient China (and modern-day China) truly was.

Moreover, I’d love to write an alternative history where LGBTQ+ people are also accepted and respected, whether in ancient China or another culture and era.

It might be fun to write one in Victorian England, since I have a great fondness of it, thanks to Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, George Eliot, and many other authors writing in the 19th century. I know, Jane Austen actually wrote in the Regency era, not the Victorian, but let’s not be so strict, here…

20. This World or Another Realm

My default is to write in another realm. In fact, it is second nature for me to write about worlds we’ve never been before, that it would be more of a challenge for me to write one set in our world.

Some people think high fantasy is harder than low/ urban fantasy, but I feel the opposite. I should do more urban fantasy! So I’ll pick this world.

There you have it! What struck me about this exercise, is the deliberate vagueness of the instructions. We weren’t asked whether we had to choose one because we liked it more, because it’s more practical for our characters or writing style, whether we had any personal experience with it, etc.

We don’t know if these items apply to ourselves, our characters, or other people’s characters, either!

But I assumed they were mostly for my characters. And while some were my preferences, for many of my choices, I chose the one that was harder and more foreign to me, to stretch myself out of my comfort zone.

Speaking of getting out of our comfort zone, I read some very creative approaches to this Fantasy challenge. Bradan Writes Stories included a fantasy tale at the end of his questions using his choices.

Simone Francis wrote her response from the perspective of her character, Mikaela, who is a succubus. Jay C Wells got kidnapped by a mysterious abductor, and was held at gunpoint to pick either one or the other for all of the choices!

Now, I’m especially curious what Jacinta Palmer’s answers will be, since she created the prompt.

Over to You

How about you? Which fantasy items or features would you choose?

Check out Jacinta’s List here for all the responses so far.

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Originally published in The Fiction Writer's Den on April 28, 2023