genuinely find it fascinating how much fantasy writing discussion/advice online is centered around the struggle of making a dndish/tolkien rip off fantasy world stand out and feel different than the others, and regularly comes to the conclusion that to succeed at this you should focus even harder on realistically detailing the cultures of the elves/humans/orcs/dwarves/whatever random group of fantasy races are hanging around (the thing most of these projects already massively focus on) in the hopes that yours is simply the most vivid and evocative ever, as opposed to, like, just writing anything else
sorry @tearlessrain I have to share your tags they're just so good
#look the whole reason tolkien and other fantasy writers of his caliber are so well received is that they were doing something they loved#tolkien had multiple detailed conlangs because he was really into linguistics#he wrote about the themes he did because they were important to him#so find something you love and write that instead of trying to write like someone else#if you want to build a complicated fantasy world build it around your interests#if you're into astronomy than draw up star charts and write a whole history of your world that highlights the significance of them#if you're really into the history of textiles then use that to add flavor to the cultures and characters#you gotta fall in love with the thing you're making at least a little bit that's the key
