Have you heard the old adage “a picture is worth more than a thousand words”? If you’re an aspiring fantasy writer, that saying might make you breathe a sigh of relief. Most fantasy novels are, after all, at least 80,000 words long. This length gives authors plenty of time to engage not only in plot and character development, but also in expressive world-building.
Some readers love to immerse themselves in long novels with plots supported by rich verbal world-building, but make no mistake — plenty will feel more at home in your novel if you feed their imagination with vivid images.
Read on to discover how illustrations can liven your fantasy novel up, and build a loyal audience if you’re planning to pen a whole series.
Feeding the Visual Thinkers in Your Audience with Illustrations
Have you never even considered adding illustrations to the fantasy novel you’re in the process of writing? Do you suspect that illustrations may even rob your audience of the ability to form their own ideas about what your characters and world look like?
In that case, you may be what’s referred to as a verbal thinker — someone who primarily processes ideas through language rather than pictures. Many of your future readers will be visual thinkers, however.
Famous autistic scholar Temple Grandin explains that visual thinkers come in two further sub-types in an interview with the Guardian newspaper. Object visualizers think in concrete pictures, while spatial visualizers think in abstractions.
These are precisely the types of readers who readily agree that a picture is worth a thousand words. Rich illustrations help them understand what your world, and its characters, really look like. Illustrations help these readers connect with your characters and ensure that your world is fully immersive.
Allowing Your Readers to See Your World Through Your Eyes
Authors who write rom-coms about characters working at a bakery in New York won’t have too much trouble getting their readers to imagine what that world really looks like. Even if they don’t happen to live in New York, they’ll definitely have seen the city in TV shows and on the news.
Fantasy authors are different in that their worlds have sprouted entirely from their minds. Admit it — you have a mental image of what your protagonist looks like, and you know exactly how you’d paint that meadow or elven city if you had the skills to paint.
Adding illustrations to your fantasy novel allows your audience to see the world not just through their eyes, but through yours. You’re the author, so why shouldn’t you get a say in how your readers picture your universe?
Don’t worry if you can’t draw or paint. You’re a talented writer. Working hand-in-hand with an equally gifted illustrator is a dream. The fantasy illustrator you hire can run with any short but vivid description and send you multiple mock-ups, allowing you to decide which direction to take with the illustrations.
Illustrations Can Explain Some of Your Book’s More Complicated Ideas
You can’t explain everything with words — no matter how talented you are. The popular novel Metro 2033 is a great example. Primarily set in the winding, twisting, and interconnected Moscow metro network, it is impossible to visualize the route protagonist Artyom takes on your own. You need a map for that, so the novel offers one.
Complex family trees, tribal affiliations, or past wars may benefit from being illustrated, too, because illustrations allow the reader to understand what’s going on at a glance more readily. These illustrations can be basic and text-based, or they can be visually beautiful.
Not all illustrations in fantasy novels serve merely as decorations, in short. Some have a practical purpose. If your novel is calling out for something like that, hiring a talented fantasy illustrator could result in an illustration that’s not just useful but also striking.
You Have to Have a Book Cover for Your Fantasy Novel
Have you already decided that your fantasy novel isn’t going to have any illustrations? OK. You’ll still need a book cover. A boring text-based cover won’t cut it if you’re a first-time author, and a rich illustration that conveys your fantasy novel’s setting at a glance will increase sales even if you’re an experienced author.
What image perfectly captures the spirit of your fantasy novel? You may not, in fact, know until a talented illustrator shows you. You may know whether you want to portray a key place in your novel, or show your readers what your main character looks like, but you won’t truly feel it until you see for yourself.
When the right illustrator runs with your world and visualizes it, something clicks in your mind. “YES!,” you’ll think, “that’s her.” Or maybe “that’s what my underground city feels like.”
Potential readers will see that image before they open your book. Your book cover plays a critical role in helping them to decide whether your novel is worth reading. Once they decide that it is, that image will always influence how they think about your world.
Who knows? Once you see what an amazing book cover does to contribute to your world-building efforts, you may decide you would love to add more illustrations to your fantasy novel. Don’t underestimate their power.
How Illustrations Create an Immersive Environment: A Final Word
Here’s a little challenge. Go to Google and look up written descriptions of the Mona Lisa. Try to immerse yourself in the experience and form a mental picture. Even try to draw or paint it if you can. Is she anything like the real thing?
Fantasy novelists have a hard job — they create a world from scratch. Including illustrations in your work allow your readers to see your universe and characters through your eyes, and talented illustrators can make it happen for you.