Nix (Creative Work) & Creating Place in Fantasy Fiction: Understanding the Role of the Reader When Writing Fantasy Worlds (Critical Essay)

The creative and critical components of this thesis focus on setting, or ‘world-building’, in fantasy fiction. While the creative component also aims to demonstrate a command of a broad spectrum of creative writing skills, a focus on the effective communication of setting is what draws the two components of the thesis together.The creative work in this thesis, “Nix”, is a young adult fantasy novel set in present day Germany that seeks to build a vivid atmospheric story world while weaving a compelling narrative. The novel opens in the town of Issling in 1567, as twenty-six people are burned at the stake as witches. One vanishes from the flames, leaving behind a legacy that will haunt the town for decades to come. More than four hundred years later, sixteen-year-old Freya travels to Issling to stay with her aunt and receive treatment for a mystery illness she has had since childhood. When Freya begins to develop frightening abilities, she realises her condition might not be an illness at all, but the result of an enchantment in the town water. Caught in a centuries-old conflict between those that wish to remove this ‘curse’ and others that fiercely protect it, Freya must sift through the clues left by her ailing grandfather to learn the truth about her connection to the woman who escaped the burning all those years ago—a truth that becomes vital as she decides who she can trust in this strange town, and unearths an ancient evil buried deep beneath its streets.The critical essay in this thesis contends that a focus on the reading process provides useful ways of approaching the communication of setting in fantasy novels. It applies reader-response theories in an analysis of world creation in fantasy works in order to develop a set of principles and techniques to aid fantasy authors in making their fictional worlds more accessible and stimulating for readers. Examples from successful novels that show these techniques and principles in use, as well as a discussion of how these techniques have been successfully applied in the writing and editing of my own creative work, demonstrate that the most vivid and accessible fantasy settings are those where the writer takes into account the temporal and active nature of the reading process.