From Office Drama to Dragon Wars: Write Better Fantasy Using Real Life

Have you ever felt that you really want to write—a novel, a short story, an epic fantasy series spanning five books you’ll publish and two you’ll keep promising but never write—but just didn’t know what to write about?

As counterintuitive as this may sound, it’s an affliction many writers struggle with. It’s even stranger when we talk about fantasy—possibilities seem limitless, and yet, keying in on one theme or topic seems impossible.

But what if I told you there was an ever-available, easy-to-identify source of inspiration and ideas all along? In fact, you’ve been in it, perhaps sometimes wondering if it’s there—your life.

It might seem that your ordinary, modern life, and the mundane experiences it is filled with—like doing the laundry, going to work, and trying to find time to work out now that you’re back in the office three days a week—don’t belong in a fantasy novel, but you couldn’t be further from the truth.

Stories—whether they take place in a modern city or in a castle that dragons like to decorate with their droppings as they soar above it—are about the same thing: people, experiences and the feelings that they evoke. And your life is filled with those.

Moreover, writing about fictional worlds and mythical creatures which you’ve never encountered in real life doesn’t mean you have to start from a blank page.

Your personal experience—yes, even walking your dog in the morning—can be a pool of material to draw from when writing a fantasy book.

Mining Your Past for Story Gold

Books are not so much about events as they are about people. This is true for the most epic fantasy ever written, with the biggest armies, meanest villains and shiniest dragons.

While the large scale events give your writing the setting and style, it’s the individual characters and their personal lives that keep the reader emotionally invested and engaged.

So while the war for the Plains of Truffelia rages in the background, your heroes still experience personal victories and losses, develop relationships, and overcome obstacles.

This is where your personal experiences come in—that failed relationship, the rivalry at work, and the surprising allies you found in the waiting room during your latest dentist appointment—all of these could be woven into your writing.

Not only does drawing from your personal experience make these events more believable, it just might make your own life easier as you process and experience these through the eyes of your characters.

You might not know much about grand wars, and will need quite a lot of research to figure out the structure of your armies, armor and weapons as well as fighting styles. But you do know about frustrating conversations with your superiors at work, developing feelings for the wrong people, and being forced into bravery while investigating that strange noise at night.

Your characters can share these experiences—the manager at work can turn into a high ranking officer in that great army your hero is a part of, a member of the court or a sage spiritual guide training your hero on their path to forbidden knowledge.

The love interest can become a member of a race your hero’s people have prejudices towards, or simply belong to the opposing team.

And there are plenty of situations in a chaotic fantasy world, filled with magic, evil forces and mighty swords to instill fear into the heart of your characters—fear you can easily identify with and pour your emotions into describing, making your characters’ achievement of overcoming it read all the more realistically.

When you write about experiences similar to ones you’re familiar with, or observed up close through the eyes of someone close to you, you can describe them more deeply, and with a level of detail that only a close perspective can provide. This will translate into more believable, complex, and interesting reading.

Real-Life Traits in Made-Up People

The easiest way to incorporate your personal experience into writing is by enriching your character descriptions.

There’s nothing more annoying than being introduced to a new character only to learn about their eye color and the oaky shade of their hair.

At times, especially when writing about characters of less familiar races or cultures, we tend to resort to the characteristics that stand out. But then again, there’s a limit to how oafish an orc can be, or how blond and slender elves are.

But your personal experience can make things more interesting.

Think of the people in your life—friends, family, colleagues or just people you see on the train or bus as you commute to work. What makes them interesting or unique?

Perhaps other than having brown eyes, they have a small birthmark at the corner of their lips that makes it seem like there’s a perpetual hint of a smirk on their faces. Or maybe there’s a strange scar on their pinky finger that makes you wonder what unfortunate and bizarre experience might have led them to obtaining it.

So yes, your main hero might be a high elf—a race you know little about—but maybe she also shares the annoying-throat clearing habit of that person that sits across from your desk at the office, a habit you have much to say about and can describe in detail that feels raw, annoyed and real.

Adding these types of descriptions makes your characters stand out, become memorable, and pique your readers’ curiosity about them.

Bureaucracy, But Make It Fantasy

The one aspect of fantasy writing I find particularly challenging is large-scale systems. This can mean anything from the structure of an army to the king’s or queen’s small council.

I can spend hours researching numbers, ranks, roles and the ways these social ecosystems interact with one another.

And avoiding those is nearly impossible, since every character lives inside a society with structures, roles and rules—rules you might think you know nothing about. But yet again, your personal life can come to your rescue.

The important part to remember here is that regardless of time, culture and access to magical abilities, people are just people, and they build their societies in approximately the same way. Yes, there are different nuances, but ultimately it comes down to hierarchies, group dynamics and power struggles.

What this means for you is that your corporate structure can be the blueprint for the hierarchy of your palace: the CEO becomes the king or queen, with the heads of departments as their council.

The numbers, titles, and names can change, but the idea is the same—there’s a leader everyone pretends to like and has fake conversations with, then gossip about behind their back.

And while I like to use the corporate world as an example, it’s not the only place to draw inspiration from. You can analyze the structure of the local Starbucks to see how it operates, who gives orders to whom, who chats to whom and how power struggles are resolved.

You can draw parallels between a sports team and a small army, or use a movie about cheerleaders to get ideas about power dynamics in a highly competitive group.

Considering the groups and structures you know might show you that you know more about palaces, armies and secret societies than you think.

Conclusion

You need to know something about everything you’re writing about, and there’s nothing you know more about than your own life.

Add your experiences, observations, and feelings into your stories as much as possible. This will take you further away from cliches and stereotypes and closer to real, powerful, and emotional writing that your readers will love.

These sources of inspiration are at your fingertips at all times—all we need to do is pay attention. So pause, observe your life, and I’m sure you’ll quickly think of a few people or situations you could use as inspiration for your writing.

And now close this tab (though, if you found the advice helpful—consider subscribing) and get to writing!