My fellow wordsmiths,

I have recently started working on a fantasy piece. Mainly due to my girlfriend going through my collection of personal writings and finding a short story that I had written back in high school.

I come to you for tips. I've never written a serious fantasy piece but have always wanted to and am enjoying working on this one. The problem I'm having is making the unreal feel real, so to speak. I've read Tolkien and a few books from the "A Song of Fire and Ice" series and I am amazed how real those worlds feel, especially that of Middle-Earth.

Just yesterday, I spent a good two hours outlining an imaginary sport for my story even though it's only briefly mentioned in a paragraph. Whether it was out of sheer joy (which it was fun) or just for the sake of having it on file to come back to if need be, I'm not sure, but it's there. The same goes with a language I am attempting to develop for one of the races, as well as a creature type that is a mixture of flying squirrel/possum (yes, it does sound silly.). The problem I'm having is how do I approach explaining these instances without jamming it down the readers throat or making it come off as a bit ridiculous.

Though, very rough, I'll provide an excerpt. Mind any mistakes and poor choice for words, I shall go back through with a thesaurus.

The foreigners called them giant squirrels, but they were more than that to the Fidori. They were the great gliders of the forest. Used for their quick speed and ample climbing abilities. Though they did resemble squirrels, they had extra skin that hung from their front legs to their back. The doanai could stretch out their long legs and soar between the trees for miles. Upon their heads and between their giant ears were small antlers, like that of deer. They adorn large claws and from their backs sprout long, skinny rat like tails. The only beasts that could match them were the hanjanni, the great desert bison from the east. However, when pitted against each other in the forest the doanai would always come out ahead.
Riders were bonded to their doanai at a young age and only separated from their forged brotherhood by death. It is said that doanai know when their Fidori brother has died and sing out to them in sorrow. The prisoner who was being beaten in a dark, damp cell somewhere by strangers he could not understand wondered the same and what song his doani brother would sing.

Also, keep in mind that "doani" is the singular and "doanai" is the plural. I want to convey the structure of the language, the tongue of the Fidorai, but help readers be able to pick it up and understand it on their own without having to explain it continuously. There are other bits where the language comes up as well, so I'm hoping that people will get it though uses of the word "nili/nilai" (child/children) and such through context. But any help is greatly appreciated.

So what have you, friends? Any other fantasy writers out there that might have some advice for making the line between imagination and reality less abrupt?

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Lucif3r!sJeRyhJJww 11/08/14(Sun)13:41 No. 212 ID: d27172 File 131334366136.gif - (220.53KB , 800x555 , kazam.gif ) I'm not a fantasy fan. I try to read works that can show me something about the world, something that lets me be John Malkovich, so to speak, and see through the eyes of the character/author so that I may gain some perspective and spend my life being a tad less ignorant. However, realistic fiction and fantasy fiction share the same struggle: attempting to craft a world so believable that the reader may immerse themself and see something beyond their sphere of influence. I've always really loved this C&H comic because I identify with it. Calvin lives totally in his imagination and loses himself in daydreams and fantasy. That's what I try to do when I write, and that's what you should do. Don't leave any stone unturned when you're constructing your universe. The worst thing you can do in any sci-fi or fantasy is to create a logical fallacy or a continuity error. You can stretch reality within reasonable means, but it's vital to create another world that can actually exist. It's a fantasy, but that doesn't exclude it from logic. Are the doanai herbivores? If not, then if they're so quick, nimble and yet mighty, how have the Riders been able to tame them? If the Riders existed, would they have chosen to ride the doanai? Does it make sense that an animal that could probably overrun the Riders (I'm imagining them as pretty much humans) would be dominated by them? God I love Adderall. SAGE has been used.