Imagine going to a huge farmers market. You enter, eager to see all the fresh produce, certain that you'll find many things you love. And as you pass through the rows, you see table after table of apples. Now, at first, you lick your lips because you love apples and you pick a few of the very finest. But then the sameness of all the booths begins to cause you to hurry along without even looking. Surely, someone somewhere has something that isn't an apple? Finally, you spot a single table with a handful of oranges. Now maybe you aren't even that fond of oranges but the sight of something different is so wonderful that you rush to the table, certain to buy some.

Where Did All The Apples Come From?

In a way, the fantasy editor is much like the buyer of fresh produce in our imaginary scene. Whenever a book comes along that is truly loved by a huge number of people, suddenly the submission piles fill with variants on that book. This happened with The Lord of the Rings to such an incredible extent that the bulk of what is considered fantasy clichés today began right there with Tolkein…they were fresh when he wrote them but today so many people have copied Tolkein that being like Tolkein is the very standard for clichéd fantasy.

"Phew," you say. "It's good thing there are no hobbits in my novel." I'm glad to hear it, but unfortunately Tolkein's books were just one slice of the apple harvest. The next really gigantic rush in children's fantasy began with Harry Potter. And for years (and even today), slush piles teeter to overflowing with kids at magic school who must fulfill their destiny with plenty of magical battles. The very words "magic school" can now make an editor shudder to the extent that even the best magic school books are hard to sell because the slush piles simply contain so many. It's a mountain of apples, and thus very hard to stand out with your beautiful shiny manuscript.

And it didn't stop with Harry. Another apple pile has appeared in fantasy town - this is the noble vampire who is truly dangerous but deeply in love - sound familiar? Right, Twilight has pulled in a new apple harvest. Already many fantasy editors say they are just tired of vampires.

How Do I Avoid Picking An Apple?

One way to avoid creating yet another apple in a slush pile of apples is being certain your story isn't inspired by someone else's story. Instead, begin your story creation with the classic "What if?" That's how those stories we came to love happened. What if there was a classic English boarding school, only instead of teaching boring subjects - it taught magic to wizard children? How would it coexist with the real world? How would it be different from a normal school? What if a kid thought he was perfectly normal kid, but it turned out he was invited to such a school? Or What if sunlight didn't hurt vampires, it revealed them? Where might they choose to live? How would they keep their identities secret? How would they interact with people?

I've read fantasy books with amazing what if questions:

• What if there was a parasite that turned you into a vampire? And what if that turned out to be a good thing? [Peeps/Scott Westerfeld]
• What if there was an extra hour in each day that came around at midnight? And what if only some people got to live in it? [Midnighters/Scott Westerfeld]
• What if a little orphan boy was raised by ghosts in a cemetery? [The Graveyard Book/Neil Gaiman]
• What if there was a world deep underground where a small group of humans struggled in a war with giant rats? [Gregor the Overlander/Suzanne Collins]
• What if special people had the ability to call characters out of a book by reading it aloud? [Inkheart/Cornelia Funke]

Make your what-if different from the what-if of every story you've read:

• What if magic was a virus you could catch, like a cold? What if the government knew this but was determined to prevent magic from spreading?
• What if you were born into a world where magic is how everyone did everything - but you can't do any magic at all?
• What if every single person in the world were some kind of shape-shifter - how would that affect society?

Now, the questions are the first step to finding a truly unique fantasy, one that will stand out in a world of apples, but the real magic happens as you begin to answer your what if questions. As you think about the complexities of your question, you will be putting your special brand on the idea. The way your mind works will be different from anyone else. Sometimes our creative brains can be a little lazy so it might pop up and say, "Well, then the government would send them to wizard school!" If your mind pops up with something you know came from a book you've read, go ahead and write it down (we want our creative side to be happy) but push past that idea and keep asking the questions - ask until something that feels totally yours and totally unique appears.

Don't Pick Your Fruit Before It's Ripe

One thing to keep in mind is that an idea is not a plot. A series of ideas are not a plot. The questions may bring answers that hint at a plot, but you will have to sift them and sort them to come up with the key elements of plot for your reader. We'll need someone to love (well, at least like…we'll take admire in a pinch). We'll need someone or some situation to hate - the government is usually good for that role but a more specific personal villain is nice too. A villain adds immediate peril. But sometimes the thing that works against the hero is not so much a villain but a situation. Still, situations are often full of people - some will help and some will hinder.

Always keep in mind that a plot is more than interesting stuff happening. This is especially true in a fantasy novel. If you're an organic writer (someone who doesn't do a lot of pre-planning, but just likes to jump in and write), you may have trouble sorting out the plot from all the stuff happening. Plot is about purposeful stuff happening.

Now a novel will often have a big outer plot that is about the problem the main character faces, the one that pushes him into action - the main character must escape the clutches of the government and let the people know what's happening in secret. A novel will virtually always have a big inner plot, something applying pressure on the main character from inside himself - the main character must deal with the fact that he's different and he'll never be just a normal kid. A novel will often have a number of subplots - smaller stories that will run alongside the plot, things of lesser importance, that will also be resolved in the course of the novel - the main character develops a relationship with another magical character but isn't sure if this person is really to be trusted. These different plot threads will run side by side, sometimes looping together. They'll all get some kind of resolution at the end of the book (though maybe not be overly neatly resolved.)

One of the biggest failings of novels by newer writers (besides borrowing from other novels) is that they have lots and lots and lots of stuff happening and much of it simply isn't purposeful. Writers get so caught up in their world or their character's voice or the cool situation that they go off on rabbit trails that do nothing to advance the story plot. This can kill your pacing, muddle the storyline and lose the reader's attention. Even the coolest of "stuff happening" can only hold onto a reader just so long because the reader will begin asking, "But why is this stuff happening?" As the writer, you must always know why the stuff is happening - how it serves the plot of the book.

Good Fruit Must Have a Juicy First Bite and Last Bite

Fantasy novels can be hard to start and hard to finish. The biggest problems with starting the novel is resisting the urge to lecture the reader. The novel opening needs to do a series of things very very well:

1. Have action - if you don't get something moving right away, you'll lose the reader. Now that doesn't mean you have to drop us in the middle of a sword fight. In fact, starting with something too high stakes can be confusing because the reader doesn't know enough to care about the outcome. But starting with a long "explaining" section is a snooze and readers often don't want to sit through that.
2. Introduce the main character in an illuminating moment. Now, many main characters grow and change. Sometimes they're not the most mature, brave or noble people in the first scene, but there must be something there - something to make us care about the character. If we're going to follow this person for all these pages, we have to care.
3. Avoid confusing the reader. This can be tough in a really complex magical world. Keep in mind that we don't have to know everything about this world at one time, but we do need to be able to follow everything about this scene. If you simply cannot make the scene clear without a ton of exposition to clue the reader in, you may be starting at the wrong spot.
4. Hint and leave clues. Although readers don't like it when a writer stops the plot to inform them, they actually love clues and hints about the world their entering. They don't mind if it's a complex world as long as they get enough clues to keep them oriented. Think of it as the difference between unfolding a road map (which shows you everything you need to know about your journey) and listening to a GPS (that just orients what you are right now and what you need to be doing in this moment.) You want to be more GPS and less road map in your opening scenes

Finishing the novel can also be tough - especially if you promised a lot of stuff in your plot. If, for example, your main character is prophesied to save the world though some amazing act, then the act better be amazing. If it turns out that the kid just has to say no thanks to eating the magic orange, your readers are going to feel cheated. The end of the book must make good on the promises of the book. Think about how much you suggested was at stake in the plot, and be certain that you brought that much to the ending.

Also, check to be certain your ending is logical. I've seen a lot of first novels that had the "I'm tired of this" ending where everything turns out to be a dream, or it turns out the answer was something simple all along and someone just needed to mention that. Don't let your ending negate the plot of the book or the struggles of the main character. The ending needs to grow out of the plot of the book and the struggles of the main character.

Check to be certain your plot ties up the lose threads. If you left one character dangling from a cliff, be sure to do something about that before the ending. Now, the ending doesn't have to be overly neat - the government might still be after magical kids (for example) but you managed to rescue all the kids they had in their clutches - that would be a satisfying ending. Sometimes you just can't fix everything when you're a main character but the end should have a sense of resolution and of having accomplished what the plot set out to do (even if you don't completely accomplish what the character set out to do.

So, use what-if questions to create a novel idea that is uniquely yours. Brainstorm from the ideas, being careful to identify any lazy thinking that wants to pull from novels you've loved. Weave the ideas isn't a satisfying plot. Create a strong beginning, a satisfying ending, and a middle that moves forward with purpose from the plot structure. Do those things and you'll have put an orange before an editor who is weary of too many apples. You just might have the pick of the crop!