Tips for Writers Inspired by Ben Hatke's "Nobody Likes a Goblin"

Goblin lives in a dungeon with his friend, Skeleton. One day, a party of adventurers storms the dungeon and steals everything, including Skeleton. Brave Goblin ventures out to save his friend. He’s warned by a troll that “nobody likes a goblin,” and this proves true when Goblin is chased away by everyone he meets. Goblin rescues Skeleton and they flee, fortuitously ending up in a cave full of more goblins who rise to their defense and see them safely home to the dungeon. 

As a lover of fantasy stories and tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs), I’m predisposed to love this tale. Goblin is an unlikely hero, sweet and sympathetic. The story sings with magic and gentle humor. Let’s explore a few craft elements that make Ben Hatke’s Nobody Likes a Goblin so much fun:

The story features world-class world-building.

World-building is the process of creating an immersive fictional world within a story. Well-executed world-building enhances readers’ engagement and provides a rich backdrop for events. In a picture book you don’t have the space to write lengthy, Tolkien-esque descriptions of the cultures and history of your world. Instead, as Hatke does in Nobody Likes a Goblin, you must subtly infuse the text and illustrations with that history. Confident declarations, as in “Nobody likes a goblin,” help; they present truths about this fictional world in a matter-of-fact way. Hatke brilliantly draws on the established tropes of fantasy games like Dungeons & Dragons to provide added richness to the world of his story.  

The setting and characters are a nod to adult readers. 

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, savvy picture books are written for both kids and adults. Adults are, after all, the ones who will read these stories aloud for children (hopefully many times over!). Nobody Likes a Goblin is an excellent example of a story that works on two levels: The first level is a sweet story of bravery and friendship for kids. The second level calls upon adult readers’ familiarity with the silly antics of adventuring parties in video games and TTRPGs. This clever turn means that the story is, for adults, richly evocative of other stories and other characters.

The protagonist is unexpected and surprisingly loveable. 

Any opportunity to turn a convention on its head is an opportunity to delight your readers. In this case, Hatke takes our expectation that goblins are unlikable and yucky, and writes Goblin as a loveable, loyal friend. Hatke goes further by making Goblin’s unexpected likeability central to the plot–he is chased around precisely because he is a goblin and “Nobody likes a goblin!” The tension between convention and the character in the story is fun, gently humorous, and a bit surprising. It amps up the delight factor for readers. 

How can you take inspiration from Ben Hatke’s Nobody Likes a Goblin to improve your writing?

• Consider the first sentence: “Deep in a dungeon the bats were sleeping soundly and Goblin woke to a new day.” This simple start to the story tells us a lot about the fantasy world in which this story takes place without needing to spend extra time with explicit description. Sometimes, backing into this type of subtle world-building is helpful: try writing a descriptive paragraph or two about your fictional world. How is it like ours? How does it differ? What are the rules for magic (if it exists) in your world? What are the significant locations for your story? Then, review your paragraph and highlight the words that stand out as impactful or descriptive on their own. Weave those into your manuscript. Revisit Nobody Likes a Goblin if you need further examples. This article is also full of handy advice for world-building. 

• As you are revising your manuscript, read it aloud to yourself. Imagine you are reading the story to a child. What moments in the text or details in the art would make the child smile? And, what details would make you smile? Sprinkle in moments that are just for you, the adult. These moments might be, like in Nobody Likes a Goblin, references to stories/characters/pop culture that adults would recognize. Or, they might be nods to the difficulty (or beauty) of adult life. These moments can exist in the art, the text, or both. For further inspiration, check out any Pixar movie! 

• Humor often involves subverting expectations, providing fun surprise for readers. To infuse your manuscript with this type of humor, sit down to a brainstorm session. Make a column for your main character, and one for your setting. Then, spend a few minutes filling in each column with expectations that readers would have about the character or setting. Consider appearance, personality, weather, or any other attributes. Then, review your list and pick one or two expectations that you can turn on their head. Perhaps your setting is a vacation resort that people love for its nasty weather. Maybe your character is a sweet goblin, or a sugar plum fairy who hates candy. Play! 

Nobody Likes a Goblin, by Ben Hatke, was published by First Second, an imprint of Roaring Brook Press, in 2016.