My Seven Keys to writing a successful fantasy novel

This is an excerpt from my Tips For Writing A Fantasy Novel article at Helium. You can read the entire article, and more of my writing articles, at Helium by clicking the link to the right.
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1) Don't write what you know, write what you want to know. Few of us know how to fight a dragon or ride a magic carpet, but wouldn't it be wonderful to know those things? Study and learn about the things you want your reader to experience, then write with the experience you have gained. You might not be able to go out and fight a dragon, but you can research what it took for prehistoric man to bring down a mastodon, or to fight off a pterodactyl. Maybe you can't ride a carpet, but what about trying to sit on a partially deflated inflatable raft in your swimming pool? That has to be similar to trying to sit on a carpet floating above the ground.

2) If all else fails, chase your hero up a tree and throw rocks at him. I forget just where I got that bit of advice from, but it is a good one for combating writer's block. Drop your characters into a situation that they can not run from and see how they defend themselves. Other ways to get past writer's block include any easy routine task that lets you think about your novel as you do it (I.E.: washing the dishes by hand), and skipping from where you are in the novel to somewhere you can't stop thinking about. I have a lot of areas in my rough draft that say "Come back and fill this scene in!" or "Need more to this scene".

3) Outlines are our friends. It might be annoying to tell your story before you write it, but think of it not as a road map, more like a explanation on what your original idea was. Write a one page summary that reads like you have described your novel to a friend, then refer back to that summary when you loose focus and are not sure where to go.

4) When the characters take over the story, let them run only so far before you take drastic action to reclaim it from them. I enjoy letting my characters have some control over their fate, but there comes a time when you have to toss one over the side of the ship into monster infested water to catch the attention of your hero and make them do what you want them to. Don't be afraid to wander, but don't be scared to make the story go back to your outline.

5) Buy several packs of 3x5 cards, blank card dividers, and a card file box. Label the dividers 1-20 (or however many chapters your novel has) and then start writing scenes on the 3x5 cards. Slip the scenes into the box according to the general chapter where you think that scene should take place. When finished, remove all scenes, review what you have and sort them back into the card file box divided by what scenes work in what chapters. Add or remove scenes as you feel necessary.

6) Make rules for your world. Every world needs rules to define it. Rules on how magic works, who is in charge, what laws are used to keep the peace and what happens if you break a law. Define the rules for your world in a notebook and don't feel bad about changing them to fit your story.

7) Buy two sketchbooks. One is your known world handbook for maps and floor plans and anything else that would be needed for navigating your story, the second one is your scrapbook. The scrapbook is where you put character sketches, information on races, drawings of buildings or landmarks. Your scrapbook holds pictures of lanterns and information on how they are lit in your world. It is the most invaluable thing you will have and you should scribble in it, paste pictures and dried flowers in it, write recipes for ink or stew or how to cast a magic spell into it. A step past this is to take the plunge and create a website for your novel, websites such as Emergence of the Fey and Heir to Magic weave the process of creating a novel into writing resources that fantasy writers can share.