Fantasy, as a genre, is huge! People know tons of classic fantasy. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Percy Jackson, the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and so on. The genre bridges children’s to adult books filled with vampires, werewolves, magic, and more. But how do you get into writing within a genre like this if you’re more attuned to writing, let’s say, contemporary fiction? It was a question posed by my writing group recently, and I thought I would take a dive into this since it was not selected as a topic for the year.

Honestly, the genre as a whole is so large that I will break this up into a series of shorter blog posts, but the goal is that by the end, you will have a greater understanding of the fantasy genre and how to get started. This first foray will be diving a bit into…

What is Fantasy?

Well… why don’t we just start with the broadest question possible. What defines a story as fantasy? It’s not an easy question. If you just google the definition of fantasy as a genre, it is considered speculative fiction, generally set in an imaginary world.

But wait, Harry Potter wasn’t in a fully imaginary world.

This definition feels far older than what we now consider fantasy. I liked CliffsNote’s definition: A genre of fiction in which the plot could not happen in real life (as we know it).

The key being, as we know it. This definition really opens up the world of fantasy as a genre because, as you’ll see below, the number of sub-genres is impressive.

Generally, people consider fantasy to include something that is… fantastical. Be it magic, creatures we do not have in the real world (dragons, vampires, werewolves, elves, etc), talking animals, and so on.

So many options…

For new writers to the genre, deciding what to write can be understandably overwhelming. There are, in no particular order and not a complete list (want a complete list? Wikipedia will overwhelm you with options, but these are the most common I can think of): Epic/high fantasy, low fantasy, historical fantasy, contemporary fantasy (with a subgenre of its own of urban fantasy), magical realism, paranormal romance, portal fantasy, romantasy, and fantasy romance (they are different things), dark fantasy… should I keep going?

Phew, I’m tired of even thinking about all the options.

So, where the heck do you start? And what do all those options mean?

Let’s go through these quickly:

Epic/High Fantasy: Defined by an epic setting or the epicness of the plot, characters, or themes (think Lord of the Rings). High fantasy tends to be in an alternative world.

Low Fantasy: Magical events intrude on an otherwise normal world. Within this classification, you get the additional subgenres of portal, contemporary/urban fantasy, paranormal romance, magical realism and even superhero fiction. (think Harry Potter, which takes place in a mostly real world, though Hogwarts and much of the wizarding world is removed from the real world. This is considered a ‘world within a world’ story).

Historical Fantasy: Incorporates fantastical elements into an otherwise historical real setting and narrative.

Contemporary & Urban Fantasy: Set in the present day (likely our world with a change). Urban fantasy is a specific subgenre that requires the characters and events to occur within a city or densely populated area.

Magical Realism: Similar to contemporary fantasy, set in a realistic world while adding magical elements. This would really blur the lines between fantasy and reality and would be far closer to our world than what we think of as contemporary fantasy. Maybe one minor change in a substantially real world.

Paranormal Romance: Subgenre of both romance and speculative/fantasy. The main focus is a romance with elements of fantasy interwoven in. Common themes are the love interest being a vampire, werewolf/other shapeshifters, or there being ghosts or time travel, telepathy or telekinesis.

Portal: Characters travel through a portal from the real world to another world that is not our real world (think The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe). Some people insist there be an actual portal, while others classify a portal fantasy as one where the alternate world is somewhat within our world but unseen.

Romantasy vs Fantasy Romance: Well, this one will confuse and incite people. Both involve romance and fantasy. A fantasy romance is generally classified as a romance first (romance being classified as having a HEA) and centered on the romantic couple that happens to be in a fantasy setting. Whereas a romantasy (romantic fantasy) is primarily a fantasy story with a romantic subplot. In the end, the way to, I think, figure it out is by asking: is there a plot without the romance? This is tricky, though, and some books are not clear-cut in which way they lean. Good luck here. (here is a great article I found about the difference between the two)

Dark Fantasy: A subgenre that focuses on the dark side of fantasy, with frightening and disturbing themes. (think Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman”)

What do these have in common?

If you weren’t scared off by the amount of ways to write a fantasy, congratulations! Because that was really the tip of the sub-subgenre iceberg. As I mentioned above, there are so many more subgenres, and checking out the Wikipedia article about the fantasy genre will either scare you or inspire you.

But what about these incredible number of subgenres brings them together? The idea is that there’s something fantastical that does not exist in the real (as we know it and has been confirmed) world. A fantasy story could be as simple as being set in the real world, but there is a demon or ghost dog. There could be tiny bits of magic. Or one species that is fictional (a vampire or werewolf).

On the other hand, the world could be completely separate from ours, with new countries and races and a whole complicated political system. Maps and races and religions and everything being named… it’s overwhelming.

For many, that kind of creativity can be easy. We’re already writers making up stories. Why not makeup stories with things that don’t exist? But for others, the leap to adding something unrealistic and creating everything in a world can feel… unrealistic in its own way.

A challenge for you

A challenge I would put ou there is try. Start with something you know. If you’re into writing mysteries, add one fantastical element to a new mystery. I personally love police procedural dramas and wrote two that were fantasy-based. One is with fae, and one is fanfic in the Pokemon universe.

But particularly if you as a writer are accustomed to realism, something closer to your genre may be a great starting point. The idea of creating a massive new world, countries, religion and political system, history and so much more can be too much (similar to how I got into writing by writing fanfic where I didn’t have to create all the characters and locations, and that let me focus on creating a plot).

One Last Thought

Another thing to consider is taking in media within the fantasy genre to find inspiration. Stories about demigods and magic have been around for a long time. There is something wonderous about it. Many people find wonder in nature, and something to write about maybe finding wonder in magic. Watching a new show or movie can bring about one of two potentials: inspiration or a greater understanding of the genre.

And while many have thrown around the complaint that there are so many vampire stories, magical girl stories, magic school stories, the chosen one, dragons… and so on and so forth, each author brings something different to the table. Yes. There are. But there are also so many romances and mysteries and dramas and more out there too.

I would say, for now, until I move into the next in this series, if you’re not a fantasy writer yet, take a look at what you have written and consider if you rewrote it with one fantastical element. Or, conversely, take a look at fantasy stories and find one thing that hooks you. Intrigues you, makes you wonder. Keep it simple.

In the next piece of the series I’ll discuss worldbuilding and the kinds there are.

Until then, I would love to hear what you’re currently working on and what genres you love to write. Leave a comment and I’m excited to share more about the upcoming Darkspell Uprising.

Leave a comment

Check out my first contemporary fantasy, Darkspell Justice here on Amazon!