Born Free and Equal:Writing Convivial Fantasy Worlds

When people run their own lives in self-organized ways, when society is woven together by deep, cooperative relationships that keep the whole thing humming—how exactly does that look like in a fantasy novel? How do we capture that reality in a bustling port city? Or write it into the quiet rhythms of a farming village?

We might move beyond the old tropes where the sword, gold, or the lone hero rule the day, and instead travel to fantasy worlds where life is made possible by thousands of people cooperating on thousands of days.

How could that happen?
I’ll offer thoughts, examples, and concrete suggestions for writing convivial fantasy societies in an upcoming article. Please subscribe to my newsletter if you’d like to hear about it:

This blog is just getting started, and my plan is to keep it slow and thoughtful, with perhaps one deep-dive post every month or two.

For now, have a look at my introductory essay, “Fantasy: Utopian, Kind, Visionary?”—a rallying call, a research quest, and an introduction to what matters most to me in my novels.