Quests are widely recognized as part of the fantasy genre. In fact, they’re SO widely recognized that I find it difficult to base a story on them. It’s like flogging a dead horse.
For some genres, having your characters stay put can benefit the story. In a dark fantasy, your story gains suspense if the characters are trapped and cannot escape a horrific menace. Military SF isn’t my thing, but I could see a lot of tension if a group of soldiers were pinned down in a location where they could neither advance nor retreat.
Travel across lands and cultures involves a certain amount of work as far as world-building goes. Some of that creative energy might be better spent on deeper characterization or tighter plotting.
For me, personally, having my characters travel has become redundant. Of my 11 books and novellas, 8 of them involve a journey for at least part of the story. That includes my current WIP. I really feel that I’m repeating myself, and that doesn’t make for an exciting tale.
The irony is, my current series, The Minstrels of Skaythe, involves a group of mages who scattered for their own safety. Each one of them has to travel away from where they were. This means I’m going to have to be creative in how I show them dispersing. Which is fine — if nothing else, authors should be creative.
What do you think? Are quests still cool, or are they more meh?
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I think you came close to the bullseye. We need whatever adds stress and tension. Trapped on a ship far at sea is great for one story. Fleeing through the wilderness is better for a different kind of tale. Quests are great if there is a compelling reason for them.
I just chuckled remembering that your story Serang, which you just finished, involves a long journey.
It’s a huge journey. I usually have a journey in my story. In some ways it’s a reflection of her life… a journey to something bigger. I’m a lover of journey’s. Will O’ the Wisp takes place in a small town, and I still managed a road trip for a chapter or two. (Working on one now that all takes place in San Francisco, but I made them leave the city to interview a witness.)
I could have sworn I left a comment on an earlier posts on this topic, but can’t find it today. I suspect I must have entered something, then navigated away before submitting. It’s been that kind of week! At any rate, yes I think quests are cool. I also think you should do what serves the story you want to tell best. Don’t start by the plot element “characters are on a quest.” Start by asking what you want to do with this story, then ask what kind of plot serves that story.
One of the reasons I’ve always found quest stories cool is that they create a way for characters to meet people who are different from themselves and offer new perspectives. In recent years it seems like fewer people I encounter value that (although many of them also don’t seem to be readers). That said, you can still explore this element with stationary characters by having someone from “outside” arrive at the location where your characters are.
I think quests are cool. To me, quests present an opportunity for characters to be taken out of a comfortable box and learn about other places and cultures. Of course, you could do something similar by having people staying put in one setting and meeting a person who arrived — either as an immigrant or on a journey of their own.
As for determining whether or not your story should have a quest, I think a more important question to ask at the outset is what do you want your story to accomplish? What do you want your characters to learn? Does a quest help or hinder that outcome? If the quest gets in the way of telling that story, maybe the characters should stay put. That said, a quest that hinders an outcome could still be good for dramatic tension.
I think quests are cool. To me, quests present an opportunity for characters to be taken out of a comfortable box and learn about other places and cultures. Of course, you could do something similar by having people staying put in one setting and meeting a person who arrived — either as an immigrant or on a journey of their own.
As for determining whether or not your story should have a quest, I think a more important question to ask at the outset is what do you want your story to accomplish? What do you want your characters to learn? Does a quest help or hinder that outcome? If the quest gets in the way of telling that story, maybe the characters should stay put.
I think quests are most definitely cool. One of the things they show is how going outside of your comfort zone and traveling to new places and meeting new people can change your perspective. That said, if you want this aspect in your story, it’s perfectly valid to turn that around and bring in a character who is traveling, on a quest, or simply moving to a new community to stir things up with their perspective.
Before asking whether or not your story should involve a quest, perhaps you should ask what you want your story to accomplish? What do you want your readers to get out of the story? Does a quest accomplish that goal? If so, do it. If you can accomplish the goals without a quest, maybe that’s the time to see if there’s a different way to tell the story.
I think journeys are cool. Among other things, they show how people can learn things by visiting new places and meeting people with different life experiences than their own. That said, you can accomplish much the same thing with characters who stay put in one location if you introduce a character who has just moved to the town or is just visiting — perhaps that side character is on a quest!
Perhaps the first thing to decide is what you hope to accomplish with the story. Is the story best served by a quest or by characters who remain in one place?