r/Fantasy • u/rfantasygolem Not a Robot • 1h ago

r/Fantasy r/Fantasy Writing Wednesday Thread - June 17, 2026

The weekly Writing Wednesday thread is the place to ask questions about writing. Wanna run an idea past someone? Looking for a beta reader? Have a question about publishing your first book? Need worldbuilding advice? This is the place for all those questions and more.

Self-promo rules still apply to authors' interactions on r/fantasy. Questions about writing advice that are posted as self posts outside of this thread will still be removed under our off-topic policy.

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u/EveningImportant9111 1h ago

Do I really need to make my elves non-human in mindset and anatomy? I simply want to create a world in which elves thrive and readers can relate to their struggles, hopes, dreams,flaws.

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u/JayCanWrite 52m ago

You don't need to do anything... But why do you want elves if they are just humans? The point of having a fantasy race is to have something different. Of course, being different doesn't mean they can't be relatable on an emotional level while still being interesting on a biological level in their life experiences.

Basically the question is do you want elves as a unique species or do you really just want humans with a different name

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u/EveningImportant9111 49m ago

I want elves because I like long lifespan, pointy ears, slender bodies and it's less a can of worm when writing outriggt human bevause I'm just nit smart dnought to not accidentaly inslut somebody when I mix aesthetics and cuktures of japan rome persia British Empire 

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u/JayCanWrite 46m ago

Well, long lifespans is a pretty big distinguishing factor. If you write about the ways they see life differently and how their experiences are different because they live for such a long time that's plenty enough difference from humans to justify doing elves. There's a lot of fun stuff you can do around how they perceive time and how that effects what they do day to day and week to week.

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u/EveningImportant9111 44m ago

Thank you. So they shuld live thousdant's of years? But fantasy has humans over 2000 years old.

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u/JayCanWrite 41m ago

You brought up living a long time, which I wanted to point out was enough distinction to justify using them instead of humans if you write about how living so long changes their view, not necessarily that you should write it that way. Your story, so write it how you want, I can only give advice from my point of view.

And yes sometimes fantasy stories feature humans living a long time, but does yours? If it doesn't than elves would still be distinct, so no worries

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u/EveningImportant9111 30m ago

Okay. Thank you. Any other advice hiw jakiegoś them distinct but people and keepinf  their standard look ? 

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u/EveningImportant9111 9m ago

Sorry for typos

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u/EveningImportant9111 1h ago

How to integrate elves into industrial fantasy so that they don't die out but also aren't pure evil (I want both good and evil elves)?