fantasy is my kryptonite.

My natural tendency is to go off half-cocked and just start writing some fantasy or another. Then I usually run out of ideas about 50 pages in, and I fumble around and sometimes I keep going, somewhat lamely, and other times I quit, but if I keep going I realize I haven't thought it through and that the world-building is insufficient and that I'll have to go back and redo the whole damn thing but it is so easy to just start writing these things and I love fantasy so much and I seem to have no end of these kinds of stories in my head or at least the beginnings of such stories so whenever I don't have another project in hand I just go off and start writing about dragons and such.

But when I have a real idea, it is usually something other than fantasy, and that focuses my mind, and the results are usually much better. The more I get the story in the first draft, the better the book.

Somehow, when I write horror or thrillers my mind is much more concentrated on plot and characterization, instead of the fantasy "feel" that leads me astray. Written in a real world I can concentrate on story instead of world-building, and I'm pretty good at pulling elements of history or culture into my stories. 

Anytime I tell myself I can go back and "fix" it, is usually a disaster.

The exception to my fantasy block are my "Tales of the Thirteen Principalities."  They are novellas, and thus don't require huge world building. In fact, over the course of the three and half stories I've written, each story has contributed to the world-building and someday I can go back and try to make them cohesive. 

I've told myself that someday I'll do a proper world-building, have a good strong plot and idea in mind before I start, and write my fantasy trilogy. Someday.

Anyway, I'm writing one of my off-the-cuff fantasies right now. It has a certain appeal. It's fast moving. I love the "feel" of fantasy, but as usual, I started struggling about 50 pages in.

I think I've had about 10 of these projects over the years. I've finished a couple of them and they are in my "book vault" and will probably never be published.

Someday, though.

I'm a writer because of Lord of the Rings. I wanted so much more of that and at the time, there was nothing out there, so my mind turned to creating stories like it.

Once I started writing stories, I ventured off from fantasy, writing weird westerns and thrillers and horror, and I'm really glad I did, but someday, by God,  I'm going to write that epic fantasy trilogy.