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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/32619
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

In my opinion it depends very much on what your story is trying to achieve.

The established fantasy races exist in hundreds, even thousands of other books. Are readers bored of that and itching for something new? Maybe, but on the other hand there's obviously still a market for it. If you come up with something new (in itself quite difficult), will readers be more interested because it's different? Maybe, but on the other hand, familiarity can be useful - everyone knows what an elf is, so there's no need for page after page of explanation: you just say a character is an elf and can then get on with the story.

If your story is about a group of adventurers, including some humans plus an elf ranger and a dwarf miner (who are always arguing), fighting against unruly orcs and goblins to defeat an evil wizard... that does sound like it risks being lazy and boring, but it's not just the use of established races that makes it so!

On the other hand, if your story is about a human befriending a Xxaargle while struggling against the Yzgerath and Sqyrtlings, it may not be lazy to invent those new races, but there's a risk of the explanations of what they all are being boring.

In either case, while I love a good fantasy story myself, and Lord of the Rings is still one of my favourites - I think there are very important questions to ask about what the roles, stereotypes, and preconceptions that "races" in stories represent. All Orcs are savage, brutish, violent, and inherently evil; all Elves are arrogant, aloof, but inherently good; but why shouldn't an Orc be able to do good in the world, if he wants to? What is it about an Elf that justifies her actions as good, just because she is an Elf? Why should all Xxaargles be the same, when humans are so diverse? Importantly: **what are the real-world equivalents of those stereotypes, and is that something we as authors want to perpetuate**? Lazy use of fantasy races (established or otherwise) carries a risk of providing deeply unsatisfactory answers to those questions. Sensible use of fantasy races adheres to established convention and provides readers with information that would otherwise require lengthy and boring exposition to convey.

My advice (for whatever that is worth) would be to take a step back and decide what your story is really about. If it's about the uniqueness of the world and its inhabitants, it could be a candidate for making up your own races if you can find something genuinely interesting about them. If it's about the characters and what they do, using established races may be a satisfactory way to ground the reader in a setting they immediately understand. In either case, be aware of the risks involved with lumping entire groups of sentient beings into stereotyped buckets restricting their behaviour. Laziness in considering any of those factors risks negative consequences... so whatever you do don't be lazy; but adhering to convention is not necessarily lazy, as long as it's a deliberate choice.

Original score: 1