Genres Explained - Fantasy (And A Tiny Bit Of Sci-Fi...Tiny)

Hey guys!

Last week I talked about wanting to start a new series called Genres Explained. And that's this! Before we go any further, I know I said that I'd start with magical realism. But! I quickly realised that it'd make a ton more sense to start with the umbrella genres; fantasy, science fiction, contemporary and so on, and then talk about the smaller genres within those ones.

And today's genre is! Fantasy!

Yeah, you already knew that from the title but eh. Give me my moment, okay?

So what exactly is fantasy?

Fantasy -  as I mentioned above - is what I call an umbrella genre. That is to say that it's a big genre that a whole bunch of eeeny-bitty tiny genres come under. Let's say that it's the mother genre and all the others are its babies that it loves a lot, but honestly, sometimes they get a bit out of control.

It's the genre with magic, it's the genre without rules - unless you set them up yourself - it's kind of a giant mess, but we all love it anyway.

Fundamentally, to be a fantasy, you need one thing - something out-of-the-ordinary or unexplainable by real-world standards.

And that something can be anything. From the vague magic-tinted tips of magical realism to the vast fictional realms of epic fantasy, fantasy can be literally anything. It's like the ultimate version of play-dough.

But, I hear you asking, where does science fiction come into this? Wouldn't that come under that banner as well?

And...you're sort of right. See, this is why I often prefer to use 'speculative-fiction' as the umbrella genre term, but for the sake of this series, I decided to split fantasy and sci-fi.

Honestly, the difference isn't huge.

You can hear the horrified gasps from the nerds in the back.

Look, just let me explain. The truth is fantasy and science fiction are too interlinked to really separate them too much. I mean, there's so much crossover. You have science-fantasy - a fantasy that uses scientific elements. You have hard fantasy - fantasy that confines itself to rules not unlike hard science fiction. You have space operas, like Star Wars, that are clearly fantastical...but they're set in space, so what gives?

See?

But, personally, I would typically define the difference as this:

Sci-fi does its best to fit in with the world of established reality. If something couldn't happen in reality, they either don't let it happen or - in the world of softer sci-fi - they throw technobabble at you.

Fantasy takes the world of established reality...and crumples it up into a ball, lights it on fire and dances around it as its dying screams echo throughout the universe. Fantasy likes to be internally consistent. But that doesn't mean that it needs to fit in with reality.

For example, take a flying bus. Those two genres would have two different ways of explaining that. Our old buddy Fantasy - let's make her a cute twelve-year-old girl with a big sword twice her size on her back - would take one look at it and say 'Magic! Magic fuel makes it fly!' Then she'd probably come up with a whole magic system for that fuel and it'd become a big thing.

Meanwhile our other friend Science Fiction - let's make him a pretty cool guy with glasses and a mohawk - would take a look at that flying bus and then start spouting something about aerodynamics and trying to fit wings onto that thing. He'd throw all sorts of science at you and expect you to understand it.

See the difference? Both are dealing with something that - in the real world - is impossible, but they both handle explaining it in two different ways. One takes the rules and throws them out of the window, while the other does its darnedest to make that dang flying bus fit in with what could actually happen.

Got it? Good. Let's move on.

What comes under the umbrella of fantasy?

There are a lot of different genres under fantasy and I am not going to write them all down. Look it up, mate. But I'll give you a few.

• High/Epic fantasy
• Low fantasy 
• Urban fantasy
• Magical realism
• Fairy tales
• Steampunk fantasy
• Historical fantasy
• Sword and sorcery

See? There's a whole bunch and that's definitely not all of them. As mentioned at the start, I'm planning to go into more detail about these genres - or at least into my own understanding of them. But that's pretty much it for today. Just a brief overview of fantasy as a whole.

What are your thoughts on fantasy? Do you think I drew the line between sci-fi and fantasy fairly or not? Tell me in the comments below.

January Wrap-Up

In no way, shape or form is this post late. Shush.

Hey guys!

So this week I'm doing my January Wrapup - a week late. I'm sorry, okay! We've covered that I'm bad at deadlines and I need to get back into the rhythm of writing posts. But it's here now.

My plans for the next few months aren't completely set in stone, but next week, I'm going to start a new series dedicated to explaining genres and giving a few examples of each one. I'm planning to start with magical realism - which I myself had trouble fully understanding for ages!

I'm also considering starting a series called 'Writer's Reviews'. This would be reviewing books and films with the goal of seeing what we as writers can take from it, whether that be through what the author did right or through what they did wrong. Would anyone be interested in that? I'm going to try one and see how it goes, see if it works alright as a format.

But that's my current plans for the blog, so hopefully I won't miss any more weeks. Sorry again!

But onto the Wrap-Up we go!

Music

I got massively into Ruelle this month. She's similar to AURORA who I recommended back in November. More creepy, atmospheric songs. I've been compiling some playlists that require that sort of song so I've been listening to her a lot. 

I also started listening to Jonathan Young who does a lot of rock/pop punk covers of different songs - I particularly like his Disney covers. He did an amazing cover of The Bells of Notre Dame from The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Caleb Hyles which I adore. 

My song recommendations for this month are:

Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra: So cheerful and upbeat! I love it. 

On My Way Home by Pentatonix - Another happy one that I love. It's great for family playlists.

Hustler by Zayde Wolf - Zayde Wolf is another one I've gotten really into this month and Hustler is one of my favourites. I don't even know why, I just love it. 

And my artist's recommendation for this month is: Jonathan Young.

His covers are amazing. Seriously, go listen to them. My favourites are The Bells of Notre Dame (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), The Trail We Blaze (The Road to El Dorado) and Peace Sign (Boku No Hero Academia).

Films

I watched IT this month! And it was great. I loved it. And I cried, but that's not a surprise to anyone who knows me - since I cry incredibly easily. 

My film recommendation for this month is:

 The Prince Of Egypt - This is an adaption of the first part of Exodus, for those who didn't know. It's the story of Moses. But it has stunning animation and amazing songs. My favourite is Deliver Us.

So prettyyyyy.

TV

I watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine this month. It's a comedy about police officers in Brooklyn, New York. It's actually hilarious. I love it. I also watched some of The Shannara Chronicles which is a fantasy series. Another good one, at least so far. 

I also watched some Power Rangers. Because I enjoy cheesy superhero shows, okay? Don't judge me. 

My TV recommendation for this month is: 

White Collar - This is an US show about a con-man who gets caught and makes a deal to help the FBI catch other white collar criminals. It's nowhere near as serious as it sounds. It's ridiculous and funny and Neal Caffrey and Peter Burke are my ultimate BrOTP. 

Neal is really very polite.

Writing

I reached 70000 words on Asteria! I mean, I'm still only just two-thirds of the way through my outline, but still! Achievement. I'm slightly concerned about how long this story is going to end up, but eh. It'll be fine. 

I've been working a lot on world-building for my different stories, particularly Asteria but also my Narafire epic fantasy series and The Memory Weaver - an alternate-historical fantasy set in Victorian Britain. 

The only post I wrote on my blog this month was - Ten Types of Writers.

But! I did guest-post over on Deborah Kelty's blog, writing about editing here.

Reading

This month I started Game of Thrones by G.R.R. Martin finally! I've also been reading a few books for my module. I've been reading Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, The Country Wife and Arabian Nights' Entertainment. 

My recommendation for this month is:

The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock - I love this book so much. It's set in Alaska in 1970. It follows four different characters living different stories right until they meet at the climax. It was such a fascinating read, particularly since I don't know much about life in Alaska. The writing is so amazing and lyrical. Really sensory as well, the author does an incredible job of describing scents and sounds and so on. Definitely a good one to pick up. 

And that's it for January!

I didn't get as much done as I wish I had, but I was ill for all of it, so I think I did okay. As I mentioned at the top, next week I'm going to be talking about magical realism, so look out for that. 

What did you read or watch during January? Let me know, down in the comments.