Looking for ideas for my fantasy novel

[CallyLee]

Hi, I’m new around here so I don’t know if this is the right spot to post.
I’m looking for help with ideas for the fantasy novel I am writing.

My story is about a young magical boy who is on the run with two warriors, a warrior mage and a healer, from an evil queen who has taken control of the world they live in.
The queen wants to kill the boy because he is the only one who can find a specific number of special items that can defeat the queen.
The items have been lost or hidden and the boy doesn’t know where they are.
The novel is more or less about finding the items and defeating the queen, while evading her soldiers and hunters and other obstacles.

I’m looking for ideas of where the boy can find the items and what obstacles he and his friends must overcome to get them.
Each item is located in a separate place. No item is located with another.
The queen is also looking for the items.
The boy and the queen don’t really cross paths until near the end of the novel.
The queen’s people are hunting the boy as well as other bad guys.

The world they live in is vast, with many different races, terrains, religions and cultures.
There are people and creatures with magical abilities, and the world is set in a LOTR, Eragon, Medieval sort of era where swords, arrows and magic are normal.

If anyone can help, it would be very much appreciated.

 

[R M Tobias]

have you drawn a basic map of your world yet?
I found that helped me alot.

 

[digs]

If you want the reader to experience the breadth of the world you've created, you could say that each magical item was given to/hidden with a different race or in a different land. David Eddings does this a lot.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

The terrain itself should provide plenty of obstacles.

As R M says, if you don't have a map, this might be a good time to make one. Then think about which places will be the hardest to reach, the most remote. Not necessarily far in distance, but isolated, perhaps, because of natural features that provide barriers difficult to cross (mountains, deserts, forests, etc.). If you want to make collecting the items difficult, put some of them in those difficult to reach places, or among those races less likely to cooperate in terms of finding them, or the most reluctant to give them up.

Because ideally, the world, the history, the cultures, should all come together in such a way that you should find the answers to your questions within -- that is, by looking long and closely at what you already have -- rather than by seeking outside opinions.

 

[R M Tobias]

Something else I thought of. Putting the items under the care or guard of people/groups who use it for something other then it's intentional purpose

Like a glowing orb that holds mystical power that a group of halfling miners use to light their cave. They don't care for it's greater significance (being halflings) and only want something that can light their cave endlessly like the orb.

 

[CallyLee]

Thankyou for your replies.

I have a map drawn with the different Kingdoms, terrain, towns, names etc. It's a pretty big place.

I guess I'm looking for a variety to where the items are located. At the moment three are located with a person/ people and the group have to steal them. But I keep thinking up ideas that the remaining ones are also with a person/people which to me seem repetitive, and to put them in a cave with a big nasty beast... well that's kind of been done before.

My imagination is on a bit of a low at the moment.

 

[CallyLee]

That's a good idea, but these items are more like seals to a prison. They have no other use except the one they were created for.

 

[Deathfrommassive]

R M, I really likes that idea it's very interesting moral dilemma. I think that is the key to a truly interesting story, the hero over coming moral complications.

 

[HareBrain]

Having them hidden rather than lost sounds more interesting, because then there is a puzzle element, to get into the minds of those who hid them.

Have you thought of relating them to another collection of things or ideas? Say there are seven of them, each one could be hidden in a place that relates to one of (for example) the seven deadly sins. (Don't know why that example occurred to me .) Or if there were four, to the four elements, etc. This linking isn't necessarily something you have to make explicit in the story, but it might give you ideas.

 

[Toby Frost]

I think if it were me writing this story, I'd ask myself where I could put the items to allow the maximum amount of entertaining stuff to occur when the characters find them. (Up a mountain! In a desert with warring bedouin tribes! In jungle caves with giant fish people!) But perhaps that's not the ideal way to do it, although it could make the book pretty good fun.

One option is perhaps to sit back and have a very good think about what you want to do with your ideas. How long a book do you want to write? Will you describe the journeys between the places? What will happen to the characters on the way? Is item-theft acceptable, or morally dubious? Perhaps, like in many computer games, getting the item will be dependent on doing missions for the person who controls it. And so on.

Oh, and one more thing: when the characters start to collect the items, they really ought to hide them somewhere instead of carting them around. Perhaps they should hide them in different places, because as soon as the evil queen captures them, the game's up. You could have a sort of underground organisation to hide the objects, or.... well, whatever works.

Good luck!

 

[CallyLee]

Thankyou again for all your help. They are all good suggestions. I've gotten some ideas from reading them.

If I were to explain the situation with the items in more detail it would easier for you guys to relate to them, but I don't really want to because I don't want to post my story details and have them stolen by the internet users that aren't very nice people, if you know what I mean. Nothing directed at you guys.

 

[Dozmonic]

What makes the queen evil? If she naturally like that or has she become like that? Does she view herself as evil?

The hero's companions, are they trustworthy? How well does he know them? Could/should they be used to add a twist such as pretending to have found an item but haven't, or stealing an item for the queen?

Can the queen destroy the items if she finds them?

I think the moral complications adds a good element. Do some of the items have to be stolen? Does he have to do something darker such as kill or torture to find them? Does he lose hope because of what he's done? Does he succeed but feel he has failed because of what he has become?

Can I add more questions? Certainly; but I won't ;-)

 

[paranoid marvin]

MAy help having the items interlinked ; so that as a whole they combine to make a weapon , or staff - or perhaps the dificulty will come with knowing what do DO with them when all collected. Also are these unique items; can both sides acquire the same things ?

Plot-wise , may be a good idea for the evil queen to be the one to get all of the items first , but not actually knowing how to use them. Then the young hero somehow retrieves them from her and uses them against her. Another alternative plot may be for the queen to actually be in possession of one of the items ; but not actually realise it until it is too late - maybe you could combine these together?

Be carefulof a story where the main hero has 2 powerful allies ; you dont want to detract from his hero status by making his magicians the main reason for his success. Look what Tolkein did with LOTR ; Gandalf was too powerful , but Tolkein's storyline kept him away from all but the climatic battles as otherwise the sense of peril for the rest of the group would have been so much less.

 

[R M Tobias]

Thankyou again for all your help. They are all good suggestions. I've gotten some ideas from reading them.

If I were to explain the situation with the items in more detail it would easier for you guys to relate to them, but I don't really want to because I don't want to post my story details and have them stolen by the internet users that aren't very nice people, if you know what I mean. Nothing directed at you guys.

Now I am afraid to post

 

[Toby Frost]

A lot of books are broadly pretty similar, to be honest - how many fantasies involve a great quest? - and plagarised ideas aren't worth much if you don't have the skill to use them properly. But anyhow, I'd be inclined to wait a bit before writing anyway. Useful as other people are to help springboard ideas, sometimes it's best to let them simmer away in your own head. Or fester.

 

[Scott R. Forshaw]

An idea!
Not necessarily a great one... but an idea nevertheless.
I'm thinking magical artefact, protected by a banshee. The artefact is worn by the banshee around its neck, and is also the source of its power. If anyone hears the scream of the banshee, they will most certainly be killed.
There in lies the conundrum - The boy needs to gain possession of the magical artefact, without being killed whilst attempting to steal it. But his enemies are on his tail, and time is limited.
How can he avoid hearing the banshee scream? And could he possibly use the creature as a weapon against his enemies, by using his cunning and guile perhaps.

If this hasn't helped in the slightest... Sorry!

Best of luck, and happy writing!

 

[grimorian]

Time for a twist...

What if your main protagonist is actually the last item...? You said they're seals to a prison. What if the boy, unknowingly, is the guardian of said prison? Reincarnated, re-born, memory wiped, [insert random idea for him not knowing here].

Perhaps the queen knew all along, uses him to gather items, or something... That's one way I would roll with it.

Maybe even have the queens guys that are chasing the boy, not really chasing, but making the boy think he's being hunted, keeping him on track to gather the items so queen can turn the boy/guardian evil.

 

[CallyLee]

Now I am afraid to post

If you wish to post anything, do so it's up to you. But if you don't want the world to see it then don't post it.
I only meant by my earlier post is that I'm not going to write to much details on the internet about my plot, characters, creatures, etc.

Sorry if I gave any wrong impressions

 

[CallyLee]

Thankyou Scott and grimorian those are very interesting ideas. And thankyou to everyone else for yours as well.

The banshee idea is a great one, I might be able to find a place for it.

And as for the twist, that is also a great idea. It probably wouldn't fit with my current plot, though I hope to write a sequel, if I ever finnish the first lol.

Thankyou again

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

If I were to explain the situation with the items in more detail it would easier for you guys to relate to them, but I don't really want to because I don't want to post my story details and have them stolen by the internet users that aren't very nice people, if you know what I mean.

Anyone capable of taking your details and turning them into a finished story has plenty of ideas of their own -- and no need to steal yours. Plagiarism is extremely rare, and people on the internet who are not nice have easier ways of creating havoc than taking somebody else's details and writing a book ... which takes a lot of work.

The fact is, you are asking other people for their ideas. If you don't want to wake up some day and find that someone has written a story very much like the one you are working on, then don't ask for suggestions so early in the creative process. (I you don't know where the items are or what your character must do to obtain them, it sounds to me that you don't even have a complete outline of your plot. And that is early to be asking for advice, if you are looking to write something that is truly your own.) As it is now, the danger is not that anyone will steal your ideas, but that you may be relying too much on theirs.