What fantasy settings are you familiar with?There are probably many fantasy settings that pop into your head when you take a few minutes to ponder this. Like any story setting, fantasy relies on the ability of the writer to write in such a way that readers are taken in by the words. Readers must absorb the language and be eager for more as they realize that fantasy settings in a story are extremely enjoyable to read. Click for Free Writer's Block Help E-Zine and Free E-Book The setting of a story is one of the most important aspects of writing, aside from characterization, plot, and conflicts. There are, of course, many other important idiosyncrasies of writing besides these, but let's stick to fantasy settings for the time being. Fantasy writing does not only encompass mythical or mystical worlds, or witches, wizards, elves, and the like. A fantasy can be based in reality; otherwise, any dreams we have in life would be utterly attainable from the get-go. Just because something is fantastical does not mean that it can never truly happen. It just might need a push, a shove, or some other nudge in the right direction to make it come to pass. If you do dream journaling, for instance, you might write down your dream about your getting to meet your favorite actor or actress and detail what you were lucky enough to do with that person during your dream. Who are you to say that your dream will never truly become a reality? It very well may not, but you cannot with absolute certainty declare that it is pointless or worthless. If people were to do that with each and every dream that seemed mired in fantasy, why would dreams even matter? We have dreams for the purpose of wanting to attain them and we wish against all else to be lucky enough to have them come true. That is the crux of what makes fantasy settings so wondrous. We hope against all other hopes that at least one of our dreams will come true. One will be satisfied. "A dream is a wish your heart makes," after all, and considering the idea of a heart performing the action of wishing is exciting in and of itself. Think about the idea of a story in which the main protagonist can hold a conversation with his or her heart and know exactly what he or she should do to feel complete and unrestrained in his or her wants and innermost desires. A story in which someone's heart talks to him/her can be written to include conflict such as the person choosing to go against the heart's wishes and falling short of his or her dreams, or even conflict that involves the heart completely steering the direction of the person's life, leaving the protagonist with no say at all about how his or her life will play out in the long, or even short, run. Fantasy settings can be progressive or regressive as well. You can write about future worlds that do not exist quite yet, and they rely distinctly on fictionalized accounts of what life may or may not turn out to be like in the distant or not-so-distant future. If they are regressive, you may write about the past, but in such a way that you cannot comment fully on the vast array of experiences and dilemmas that juxtapose with certain decades, centuries, or even millenia. 
Story settings that are fantastical can also deal with utopian or dystopian societies. A perfect world or nightmarish world can be the perfect catalyst to allow you to write what you know or don't know about the way the world works and how you feel it got to be that way. Through yours or your characters' narratives, you can find a plethora of ways to revel in a world of kindness, camaraderie, compassion, and elegance that may seem incapable of existing in your own true life. You can also find ways to ensure that the characters in one of your stories reside in a dystopia -- one that is completely the opposite of all that is good and pure, and one which is nothing at all like the world you grew up in, lived in, worked in, etc. A great example of how a character was written not in a utopian/dystopian way, but in a fantastical way that went against his own, true-to-life values and morals is the example of Archie Bunker. Carroll O'Connor's sensational portrayal of Archie in All in the Family proves that a character can be written, and an actor can play a part, that deviates entirely from the stances one has set for himself or herself in life. In reality, Carroll O'Connor was a liberal, although it was well-known on the show that Archie had strongly conservative viewpoints. He was also seen as not being too smart of a man on the show, always making mistakes with the pronunciation of words or the delivering of phrases, when in reality he was a very well-educated man who had once been an English teacher. He is but one of countless television and movie actors who situate themselves in fantasy settings. These settings may focus on realistic issues, but for the actors themselves, they are in a story setting that can possibly be seen as quite a foreign notion to them. Try out some fantasy settings of your own and see where they lead you. You might end up back in prehistoric times with the dinosaurs, or living in a house in Antarctica with three talking penguins, or flying to the moon and gazing at the stars. Wherever you lead your characters, keep one thing in mind: setting your stories in fantasy worlds can allow your writing to grow beyond your wildest dreams. After all, dreams provide some of the best ideas for fantasy settings.
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