To Quest Or Not To Quest

My current (and first) project involves the "we must find the such and such" quest only in the middle of the story. The rest involves other things, like trying to get a nation and its allies organized against an invasion. Oh, and of course killing off Token Villain in the end.

I like books where the characters are trying to find an important object (questing). I mean, I'm writing them, so I better like them, lol. Most of my characters are professional treasure hunters, so of course they're going after a valuable object of some kind.

I look at it this way: pretty much every single mystery book ever written involves a person solving a crime. Pretty much every romance book every written involves two people falling in love. Why do the genres continue to be so popular when they all have such a similar premise? Because there's infinite ways to solve a crime, and infinite ways to fall in love. I think the possibilities of magical quests are just as limitless, and questing in fantasy certainly hasn't been done as many times as solving a crime in mystery.

Now, as for the questing fantasy books which are thinly-disguised LOTR rip-offs complete with elves and dark lords . . . bonfire, anyone?

Hope To The Horizon said:

Now, as for the questing fantasy books which are thinly-disguised LOTR rip-offs complete with elves and dark lords . . . bonfire, anyone?

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Lol. I'll bring the matches.

Maybe the problem is that Tolkien did it so well that any quest story written from here on in will be compared to his work. Just like any kid going to wizarding school will be compared to, uh, what's his name again? Seriously, though, Tolkien set the bar pretty high.

Is the quest cliche? sure. But what isn't?
Originality can lie in your characters, in your plot, in your worldbuilding etc.
If you want to write about a quest for a magical shoelace, and that's what makes you happy, write it! And don't fret too much about being original.
If you won't enjoy the writing, why would others enjoy the reading?

IMHO, the "overdone" feel is completely proportional to the number of books of that genre you happen to have read in the past. I am often astounded when my 11 yr old daughter loves a book whereas I find it to be only a collection of ideas loosely lifted from stories I've read long ago.

There's a large number of books that we're all familiar with but the newer readers may never get to read. For example, I've been looking for the Belgariad for my daughter but those stories are long gone from the public libraries in my area. Many of the books I grew up with and loved I cannot share with my daughter. She'll have to read new stories and whether or not they are based on the same premise as the books I read as a child, she'll never know. It will all be new to her.

So "overdone"? Depends on your intended audience.

Then again, I've never tried to sell a book so I have no idea what agents consider overdone or not.

The Belgariad is still in print and I see them all the time in used bookstores. The original, five book Belgariad is very good, I still recommend them.

There's the Quest story, then there's the Journey story. Not always the same. An then there's the multiple quest story, where people are looking for mundane things, or have no intention of saving the world, or the coincidence of 4 or 5 quests gives the reader a great picture of the danger to a world, but none of the characters ever know it.

Then there's the plot that comes to find the protagonist hiding under his bed, roughs him up, and turns him loose to fend for himself.

my WIP is a Journey. After a limited nuclear war, my MC has a vision of a new world on the otherside of the US. The twist is, he's wrong, but as he dies of radiation poisoning or is eaten by cannibal in the harsh wastes of Kansas, he'll see the world. Maybe this is too depressing now that I think about it.

Thanks! Maybe I will keep at it.

Shweta said:

Um, I don't think this is quite true.
The quest is a major theme in one subset of fantasy writing. There is a lot of other fantasy out there; there really is more to it than Raymond Feist, Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan, and David Eddings.

It's also something Diana Wynne Jones parodies beautifully in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland and Dark Lord of Derkholm. With very good reason.

ETA: As for what the protagonist does without a quest, they can fall in love, come of age, usurp a kindgom, inherit, avoid inheriting, solve a magical mystery, steal from the rich, protect others, come to grips with their past, do their job...

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Or, if your main character is Commander Sam Vimes, he can do all of the above.