Understanding your fiction genre, and its subgenres, lets you alter and conform with confidence. You want a book that works well with marketing and cover design, and you want your readers to feel, at the least, satisfied.
Of course, adding your own unique flair is all part of the fun. And the best way to break the rules and conventions of genre is to truly understand what they are and why they are there.
The word 'fantasy' usually brings to mind tales of a magical world where dragons, heroes and incredible lands are filled with dangers at every turn. The reality is fantasy writing is so much more than that." — Dawn Arkin
Fantasy is a huge genre, and has grown exponentially since the Lord of the Rings trilogy hit cinemas, and again as Game of Thrones dominates television. And that's only for the subgenre of high fantasy.
From Harry Potter to Beauty and the Beast, there is so much to explore within the fantasy genre. To make the most of its possibilities, you first need to know what is and what isn't fantasy.
Fantasy: it's all in the setting
What defines fantasy, more than anything, is a magical setting. A world where the laws of nature can be manipulated in ways that aren't logical. A true suspension of disbelief.
Characters actually using magic, or the impact of some magical creature or item on the plot, is irrelevant. If the setting is magical, you have fantasy – which leaves a lot of room to play.
The choices you make, beyond having a magical setting, tip your story into different fantasy subgenres. Although novels are arranged simply by genre in bookstores, knowing which subgenre your work fits into helps you target your audience more directly.
Understanding fantasy subgenres
Every fantasy novel has a magical setting. But when we look into subgenres, the conventions become more specific.
The first division of the fantasy genre is in the type of magical world used.
There are four different ways magical worlds are structured, and every subgenre falls into one of them: unique world, alternate world, paranormal, and cross-worlds.
1. Unique world fantasy subgenres
This is the type of built-from-scratch fantasy world that usually first springs to mind. In essence, it is a world unlike the real world, one in which magic has developed significantly faster than technology.
Often these worlds have a medieval or Arthurian feel to them, due to the slow advancement of technology. But there are many other cultures fantasy can be flavoured with, such as the Viking or Aztec culture.
Subgenres within this quadrant include:
• High/epic fantasy: Follows a great struggle, between countries or cosmic forces of good and evil. It carries the reader alongside a large cast of great warriors, kings and queens, and famous wizards.
"It's not the setting that makes a story high [fantasy]. It's the style in which it's told and its focus on the noble, rather than the ignoble." — Robert Ryan
• Low fantasy: Tends to focus on less noble characters and more on the goals of a person, rather than a kingdom or grand prophecy. The line between good and evil is often blurry, and description often has a gritty, realistic tone. Some use low fantasy to refer to stories set in a world more like our own, but urban and contemporary fantasy are more accurate terms for those.
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Secrets To Writing
RandomI assembled this book to help writers (including myself) with their goals and projects. It contains all kinds of information like: Characters, World Building, Point of Views and so much more. I made this book a couple of months ago and just decided...
