Building Fantasy Castles Part 1
Fantasy writers learn how to create mood and evoke
emotion with a single structure. A castle. Situated on a
high, hard to reach location above the village, it
presents a looming silhouette. It doesn't matter if it's
situated on a steep cliff, hilltop, or a peninsula point
along a rocky shore, when
writing fantasy build the castle on a hard to reach
location. A difficult to reach location presents magical
moments to introduce conflict and tension along the road
as characters endure hardships throughout the journey to
and from its formidable walls.
Within your storyline, strategic location offers not only
a natural first line of defense but makes for a fantastic
setting. Consider the frozen wonders of the castle
belonging to the witch in The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe or Castle Frankenstein located up on the hill
as the angry torch-bearing villagers stream up the
hillside to storm the castle.
Castle Building Basics for the Fantasy Writer
As a fantasy writer, it works to your advantage that no
two castles are exactly the same. However, it is important
to keep basics in mind. For instance, you'll want to know
the different terms within the castle construct to paint a
clear image that allows readers find their way around as
they follow characters through plot twists and turns.
Dig deep, wide moats outside the castle's curtain wall and
fill them with water to present a habitat for hazards
unique to your fantasy.
Drawbridges raise and lower to gain access to the heart of
the castle, called the keep. (This is where the
lord and his family live.) However, an opened drawbridge
doesn't always mean travelers can get in. Usually, they
would be stopped by an iron grating called a portcullis
which hangs at the gateway as added protection.
How to Lay Out the Grounds--The Castle Keep
When authors write a storming the castle scene, it's
important to know that a castle is actually a fortified
group of buildings. Based on history, learn how to lay out
the castle grounds, so when the action gets heavy the
reader doesn't become confused. What are the outer
buildings made of? It may matter to the storyline.
Woodframe buildings burn, stone buildings will not produce
the same effect.
The keep towered above the surrounding curtain wall. In
the keep, the lord, his family, skilled servants and
craftsmen lived along with some of the lord's best
soldiers. If the enemy breeched the wall, the lord headed
to the security of the keep where twenty-foot thick walls
offered added protection. Such a rich combination of
character possiblities makes castle life a popular choice
among fantasy writers.
Think of scenes where a battering ram pummels a sealed
drawbridge, and soldiers defending the castle pour boiling
pitch onto advancing armies, while archers line the
parapets, and catapults thrust bone-crushing stones into
the horde of attackers. Many of the people protecting the
castle lived there and others gathered at the castle when
war threatened the land. Under the
feudal system, in war, vassals fled to the castle and
helped defend it.
For more, go to part two of Building Fantasy Castles
