Long gone are the days where fantasy was simply any story that took place somewhere besides present-day Earth. Now there are various subgenres of fantasy to categorize your book with and knowing what genre of fantasy you're writing specifically can make a world of difference when advertising, especially on Wattpad.
Some people are usually deterred from fantasy because they don't want to make up an entire fantasy world, especially if they're just writing a story for fun. However, as you'll read, you'll see that you don't always need a special world.
Wikipedia defines fantasy as "...a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary plot element, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic and magical creatures are common."
Not too hard, right? If you have superhuman characters or witches and wizards, you're in the fantasy genre.
Now, the general consensus seems to be that a fantasy story can either be high fantasy or low fantasy, and that other genres are simply just the subgenres of them. But that can be a bit confusing and having a subsubgenre seems a bit too much. So, for simplicity, I'll define high/low and then, in each subgenre, say whether that genre is high or low itself.
High Fantasy
A High Fantasy or Epic Fantasy takes place in an entirely fictional world. It commonly depicts the hero(es) completeing a quest or a large journey. The term 'epic' usually means that the book is long and has many, well, epic events. A Game of Thrones is on this list; it doesn't take place in our world, and there are many plotlines and characters involved in the story, thus making it an epic/high fantasy.
Low Fantasy
Low Fantasy takes place in a world like our own or very similar to our own. Magic and Non-Magic tend to coincide with each other, sometimes without the latter even knowing. Harry Potter and Percy Jackson can be great examples; though they're set in our world and in our times, there's still a magical world we're unaware of. The Wizarding World and the demigods/Gods/mythological creatures exist right under our noses!
Portal Fantasy
You know how the character seems to stumble up a magical door or item and gets thrown into a completely different world? That's Portal Fantasy. The Chronicles of Narnia is probably more well-known in this genre. Because the characters are being taken into a world that's not our own, it's usually high fantasy. However, if they're taken to a world that's like our own, but ever so slightly different, you could make an argument that it's low fantasy.
Urban Fantasy
This is simply fantasy that takes place in a city or urban environment. This is sometimes referred to as contemporary fantasy, but contemporary and urban are slightly different. This is considered low fantasy since it's meant to taken place in cities you and I would be able to go to if we wanted to. New York, Shanghai, Sydney, etc.
Contemporary Fantasy
Fantasy that takes place in the present day real world is contemporary. And, take a guess, it's....low fantasy!
Paranormal/Paranormal Romance
If there are vampires and it takes place in our world, it's Paranormal Fantasy, and low fantasyi at that. However, it can take place in a different world at a different time and be high fantasy. A word of caution though, for those on wattpad. If your story heavily relies on the character being a vampire/wereworlf/ghost/whatever, it's best to put it into either 'vampire', 'werewolf', or 'paranormal'. Also a good reason to know what subgenre you are.
Gritty Fantasy
Ever wanted to write from the POV of an anti-hero/villain in a gritty setting? Have a bit of fear, Grimdark Fantasy is here! In these stories, there is usually a lot of deceit, violence, and it's hard to decide what's right and wrong since there's so many grey areas involved. A character may be killing someone who killed their closest friends. Both characters were wrong, but the reader has to decide who was less wrong. It's a great genre that can twist what we know as good and evil. Although some are high fantasy, you could easily turn it into low fantasy by organizing a band of villains who wrecks havoc on New York City.
I didn't do a complete list from the website I got these from, however I will link two websites that are great resources for you guys! The second one you'll have to copy from here, by typing, but looking up 'what is fantasy and what genres are there' and finding 'The Complete Guide to the Fantasy Subgenres' will be the same exact thing!
http://bestfantasybooks.com/fantasy-genre.php (Complete Guide....)
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Ikke-fiksjonAlthough I'm by no means an expert, I do have quite a bit of knowledge that I want to put out into the world. Ranging from different types of characters, to what you shouldn't do, to what the heck a semi-colon is for!
