I am back again with another guest post from a noblebright fantasy author. V. Ananya, author of The Young Foreigner is here to tell us how fantasy came into her life, what noblebright means to her, and how she sees the connection between world-building and character. She’s got some really great things to say!

Fantasy is a genre of storytelling that I have always adored. Starting from fairy tales to ancient Indian epics, I have read a lot and have been inspired both in my life as well as to spin more stories. I am first and foremost a reader, then a writer. Then, an author. Books came into my life very early, thanks to my parents who believed in their educational value, and I have been reading since.

I had started with children’s magazines and comics, not particularly any genre as such. My first fantasy story ever, introduced by my book-loving uncle, was The Lion, The Witch And the Wardrobe by C S Lewis. I loved it very much and even watched the 2005 adaptation of it with my brother. I loved it so much that when I realised this book was a part of a series, I hogged on all of them. My brother loved the story, too, and bought the entire series in our next book-shopping spree.

Ever since then, I had read fantasy stories of J R R Tolkien, Jonathan Stroud, and many more. I even started writing fantasy. Even though it wasn’t the first story I ever wrote, The Young Foreigner was the first story I ever published and – you got it – it’s a fantasy!

Until three years or so, I did not know that fantasy – or any other genre of story-telling for that matter – had all these sub-genres. So far, I’ve written several fantasy stories, besides other genres, and now, looking back, I started categorising each of them in my head. Turns out, there is always an element of hope in my stories, an attitude of “This is my country, my world, my people—I need to protect them!”. This is noblebright fantasy. When there is a sense of hope, a hope that the world my characters live in will become a better place – a sense of duty and doing the right thing.

From what I understand, the terms ‘noblebright’ and ‘grimdark’ emerged from the gaming arena as descriptions. The two terms are opposite in nature—where noblebright has a ray of hope that its characters are chasing after, grimdark has none.
Hope does not mean a happy ending. I think it’s only realistic to have a relatively happier ending. The characters are all imperfect; while some of them work towards a better future, others work towards a future they want. Isn’t that what we are all doing in the world we know and love?

We’re here to talk about Noblebright fantasy and world-building.

All my stories, whether fantasy or otherwise, have an element of hope in them somewhere, in some corner, if not apparent. I just tend to do that – maybe because I had hope all my life, that I cannot imagine a life – even imaginary – without it. I cannot imagine a character without at least hoping for a better future for their children. Even the two great Indian epics have hope in them.

How do noblebright themes affect my world-building?

Let us take the example of The Young Foreigner, Book 1 of The Sahara Chronicles. When I was writing this book, I was just coming out of the last of my shell that I’d prepared after some horrifying bullying in school two years before. Until that year, I had become well-acquainted with the stories of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Fairy Tail, and Once Upon A Time – along with other fantasy stories. I also read several other genres; except for one book, I couldn’t get my head around science fiction stories, so left them. I loved the idea of moulding mythological and fairy tale characters into our own, original stories. And that was how The Young Foreigner was born.
Hope has always been an integral part of any story I’ve ever written—it’s the very reason I write. For me, there is always something to hope for.

The first two things of any genre story that usually comes to my mind is the main character and one or more plot points. It essentially comes up as a scene in my head that I start writing and eventually gets elaborated the more I write. In fact, when I want to write a short story, I often wind up making it into at least a novella; so, lately, I’ve been doing open endings, and later, elaborating them—little by little, little by little.

To me, stories are a source of hope, of something that I can face with ease, in comparison to the situations in real life. When I see characters going through a tough life – either by me or any other author I’m reading – it becomes a little bit easier to face my own problems. Books and noblebright genre, especially, is a way to escape real life for a little while. It’s important for me to go to a make-believe world once in a while, so I don’t lose myself in the real world.

I think characters make a world and the world makes characters. Think about it this way: The world is a certain way, has certain temperatures, has a certain geography, certain water quantities—the living beings born to this world would be born to adapt to all of them. On the other hand, the actions of these living beings, particularly the humans, shape and mould the world to what we see in the book. Bridges are never natural, they’re manmade. So are dams, ships, and buildings. Caves are mostly natural phenomena, as are the water bodies, the clouds, the skies, and the nature of each living being. Therefore, I feel the world makes the characters and the characters make the world. They are mutually dependent on one-another.

You can find V. Ananya on Instagram, Bluesky, Threads, Twitter, and Substack (where she has both a writing and a history blog).

You can also check out her Website, where you can find all her books, sign up to her newsletters, and find anything else you want!

If you’d like to do a similar spotlight, guest post, or interview with me as an author, or provide feedback on what you’d like to see as a reader, check out this post and get in touch!

Noblebright Spotlights/Interviews/Guest Posts