The story I'm writing, I mean. I've been working on it for... a LONG time now, and I just don't know if this is the genre it belongs in! I always thought it was fantasy, but then I decided to give NaNo a shot (I'm failing miserably by the way,) and on this forum, my story doesn't seem to belong!!
So quick synopsis: My characters, two nearly-teenage kids, (boy and girl) following many startling realizations about themselves, realize that they are not human. They're fairies. The world they live in is the normal world, (they live in Astoria!!) and fairies don't live in some fantastic parallel dimension, rather, they take refuge in the thick forests. My main villain is no evil sorcerer, or evil fairy or anything, but the boy's "father", who dictates over an underground scientific corporation that's bent on being able to capture and use fairy energy (their powers,) to power the earth, and basically become the richest group of people alive. My character's friends are not simply other fairies, but plenty of normal human kids who are totally oblivious to the difference in species. There's high school drama, family problems, and some sci-fi destruction thrown in, and I suppose the only truly-rooted "fantasy" aspect of my story is the fact that the heart of the problem is the entire hidden fairy race.
So.. would my story even be considered fantasy?! And if not, what is it?
Other people who are having trouble with thier genre.. come here!
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51,136 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2008 - 17 34
My deffinition of fantasy is if your story contains something that didn't exist or will not exist based on current laws of science, then it is fantasy. Also, fairies are pretty common fantasy stables as they are folklore creatures, thus also being fantasy.
My fantasy story is in the same boat, because while it takes place on another world, and their is a sort of power, there aren't any fantastical creatures (besides demons) and all the animals are ones that exist in our world. No crazy combinations or anything. It's kinda even sort of a biblical-esque story because there's a lot about religion. I'm just trying to get my own theories across.
----------NaNoWriMo Victories:
2008: The Lead (Completed!)
48,610 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2008 - 17 45
Definitely fantasy.
Fairies don't exist. :-)
7,553 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2008 - 19 09
Oh, S-C, I love your excerpt, just to say real quickly!! It's a bit confusing, but that's probably just because it's an excerpt. :)
Yeah, there seems to be to branches of fantasy: The hard-core stuff, and the sorta-kinda-maybe stuff. Mine's a sorta-kinda-maybe. (After all, I don't mind admitting that fairies, my kind at least, could very easily exist. That's kind of the point of my story: Integrating the fantastic into reality and making it fit seamlessly.)
27,144 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2008 - 19 55
Sounds fantasy enough.
Mine most certainly lies somewhere in between Science Fiction and Fantasy. World is fairly fantastical, but I plan on it all being explained somewhat rationally. No magic or anything.
But I'm not overly concerned about this.
23,527 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2008 - 21 46
Yep, that's fantasy.
And that probably makes it urban fantasy, or one of its near cousins.
50,874 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 12 22
Yeah ... mine is maybe-fantasy.
--The characters are normal, they're human, etc ...
------------There is no magic. Some pretty impossible stuff happens, but it's all powered by belief.
--There *are* spaceships, which maybe makes it sci-fi, but there is *also* a dragon ...
--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--
2008: Guardians of Belief *--*--* WON *--*--*
7,553 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 15 39
Ah, confusing-ness. But that sounds pretty fantasy to me. A dragon? Impossible stuff powered by belief? It's fantasy.
Sounds cool, too!
162,395 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 21 34
I'm not so sure my last one is fantasy...the only 'supernatural creatures' are ghosts (which I've always thought more a horror thing, but this is a light comedy) and the only 'magic' is the ability to exorcise them, which anyone who can see them do. (You can see them if you believe they exist--no special powers required!) I was just going to call it 'paranormal', but apparently that's not a real genre, just a subgenre....
----------Nanos attempted and won: 4
JanNos attempted and won: 3
Collective word count: 547k
Ending or bust!
53,774 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 08 58
Ghosts are one of those things that some people actually believe in as actually existing, so (depending on how they're handled) your story could just be humor, pure and simple.
The story I wrote for NaNo this year was firmly in the fantasy realm, because it makes use of fantastic powers. While I never once call them magic, they aren't things people can actually do, so... yeah, fantasy.
I do have one story that I keep getting told falls into the fantasy genre, but I honestly never thought of it as fantasy until someone here said it was. That story is told from a cat's point of view. He only speaks to and is understood by other cats. He speaks to his humans, but they don't understand him anymore than I do my own cats. They guess what he's trying to tell them - sometimes correctly, sometimes not. The only element that's at all fantastic is the personification of cats, but I've been told it's fantasy nontheless. *shrugs*
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96,868 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 12 06
I wouldn't call that fantasy, myself. Possibly humor/satire or maybe something oriented for younger audiences (how many Disney movies seem to involve talking animals, whether humans can understand them or not?)
----------Title: Breaking Light
Goal: Finishing this novel. (Probably be 100k-120k at this rate.)
Sanity level: Do you even need to ask?
162,395 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 17 37
Humor isn't the focus though, it's more just a light tale.
Would I just call that litfic or mainstream or something? I've never actually written something so non-fantasy.... >>;;
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----------Nanos attempted and won: 4
JanNos attempted and won: 3
Collective word count: 547k
Ending or bust!
Nanos attempted and won: 4
JanNos attempted and won: 3
Collective word count: 547k
Ending or bust!
50,965 / 50,000
Dec 4, 2008 - 17 45
Pretty much tiakall. Nothing wrong with that. I have an idea that I'm trying to figure out if its fantasy or not. I want to say it is, but it's convoluted.
The synopsis is in my profile but in short, it has "elves" (different race of people, mystical in nature) who are chronically insane, a Queen of elves, magic item, magic power...but it's about nightmares coming to life. Fantasy or horror? Thriller? Something weird altogether?
----------In your dreams....anything is possible.
53,774 / 50,000
Dec 5, 2008 - 05 02
I wouldn't call that fantasy, myself. Possibly humor/satire or maybe something oriented for younger audiences (how many Disney movies seem to involve talking animals, whether humans can understand them or not?)
It's not really written in a humor/satire manner. There are humorous parts, but... it's sort of an action story. Definitely written with younger audiences in mind, though.
I was told on these very boards that it gets classified as fantasy in the same way that Watership Down is... I haven't actually read Watership Down, but I know that it personifies rabbits. This does something similar with cats. Like I said, it was, to my mind, the only non-fantasy story I'd ever written.
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