Man, I remember being one of those physical-books-only snobs, but everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. When I first started publishing on KDP, I saw how much more affordable, portable, and busy-person-friendly the Kindle books are than the physical copies. And then when I met one of my best friends who's severely visually impaired, I started to become much more aware of what an amazing development digital books are for people who have trouble accessing physical books. Maybe I'd be a little sad to see physical books go out of style entirely, but creativity and fiction aren't going to stop flowing for a long time, and that's what's most important!
That it's really upsetting to hear things like "Oh, I like that it's fantasy, but the characters are realistic." There shouldn't be a "but" in there. I mean, yeah, there's a lot of "Dragons! Royalty! Sex! What's a character arc?" fantasy out there (unless it's YA in which case it's "Dragons! Royalty! What's a character arc?"), but there are plenty of fantasy authors who give good characterization and profound ideas just as much thought as their fantastical setting and creatures. Unfortunately they're usually viewed as the exception rather than the rule, which is why it's often not taken seriously as a genre.
Visceral emotion. It took me a long time to develop an awareness of how input leads to output in human beings, and how the things that people feel translate into words and actions. I guess it's a fancy way of saying "show, don't tell," but I really was quite astounded to realize that it's next to impossible for anyone to truly wear their heart on their sleeve. Emotions can be described rationally from a certain perspective, but boy, people do NOT express them that way.
Honestly as long as I can remember. I used to watch my mom play Ocarina of Time when I was little and desperately wish that Link (the hero) would show up one day and sweep me away on a grand quest to save Hyrule. When I finally accepted that it wasn't going to happen, my solution was to start writing fantasy novels.
