Genre: Fantasy

Fantasy, that genre I seem to love so much and yet the one that is so all-encompassing that most everyone would be able to find something to like in it.

A definition:

“The definition of this fictional genre could be described as something that contains rudiments that are not realistic...Fantasy is often characterized by a departure from the accepted rules...it represents that which is impossible (unexplained) and outside the parameters of our known reality.” (Found here.)

“An imaginative or fanciful work, especially one dealing with supernatural or unnatural events or characters.” (Found here.)http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fantasy

There are many different forms of fantasy.  Some basic characteristics are:

• Internally consistent setting
• Mythology and folklore are inherent in the structure of the world and may play an important part
• Internal and consistent logic
• May or may not be in a world created just for the book

From Query Tracker (written by Elana):

“Fantasy stories are set in other worlds or other realities...Magic is a huge element of fantasy stories.”

These are just some basics.  There are, of course, plenty of variations and other elements that could be incorporated into it all.

Sub-genres:

High fantasy

• Also known as epic fantasy.  Set in invented or parallel worlds.  So, my book Oracles Promise would have been considered high fantasy.  In this case, high doesn’t mean literary or over-intellectual.
• The setting can either be corollary to the real world or a world that “exists” entirely separate from the real world.  Examples of the former would be Narnia while Tolkien’s Middle-Earth is the latter.
• Generally more serious in their tone and have a grander scope than other sub-genres.
• One hero’s POV.
• Often authors of high fantasy will tell multiple stories from their world since it is so time-consuming and intensive a process to create a new world.

Sword and sorcery

• Not to be confused with the company, this sub-genre is more adventure and personal struggles than on the grand scale, humankind and all its cohorts are in danger sort of issues of high fantasy.
• Swashbuckling heroes.
• Usually incorporate a strong romance and either a very prominent magic or supernatural something or other.

Dark fantasy

• Combines fantasy elements with horror or Gothic elements.
• Humanity threatened by forces that humans don’t, can’t, or won’t understand in their fullest apparitions.

Low fantasy

• Less emphasis on the created world, on the fantastical elements
• Often take place in real-world locations
• Perhaps a less derogatory-seeming term would be urban or paranormal fantasy.

From Query Tracker: “These [urban fantasy] stories deal with magical or paranormal elements in a real world, contemporary (or urban) setting.”

Comic fantasy

• Tone is funny, as is the intent
• Set in created worlds
• Parodies other fantasy works and worlds in some way

Looking for fantasy books?

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Booklist

http://www.sfbooklist.co.uk/

Fantasy 100- Top 100 Fantasy Books

http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/fantasy100/lists_books.html

Further reading

http://querytracker.blogspot.com/2009/04/defining-genres-where-does-your-book.html

My recommendations:

High fantasy

Tamora Pierce (for YA)

David Eddings (for adult.  Just stay away from his Dreamers series.)

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Urban or Paranormal

Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven series

Charlie Fletcher’s Stoneheart trilogy

What about you?  Do you have any recommendations for books we should be reading in the fantasy genre and its sub-genres?

Sources

http://querytracker.blogspot.com/2009/04/defining-genres-where-does-your-book.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fantasy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_fantasy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_fantasy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_fantasy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_and_sorcery

http://www.findmeanauthor.com/fantasy_fiction_genre.htm

Character Bios

Julie Dao asked me in the comments to last week's WiP Wednesday about my character bios.  I thought I'd take some time to go over those a little more in-depth than I did in the comments.

My biggest resource for questions to ask about my characters is Noah Lukeman's The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life.  The first two chapters of his book cover dozens of questions to ask.  Chapter 1 is all about the external.  What do they sound like?  How about cheekbones?  Wais size?  All sorts of stuff like that.

Chapter 2 focuses on the internal.  He covers topics like conversational focus, sub-conscious programs, religion, spirituality, etc.

For any given character I go through most, if not all, of these questions.  Until I lose steam.  Which is why I can only do a couple of character bios at a time.  I make it a goal to at least cover the physical description questions and the stuff about tone of voice, accent, etc.

Take, for example, my bio for Derek, the MC from Lodestar.  I've got 4 or 5 pages on him.  I answer most of the questions found in Lukeman's book.  But then for side characters such as Grady or Evans, I only have a page covering the basics of background and physical description.

Since in Lodestar ethnic background is important I make sure I note that for each character, regardless of how in-depth their bio may or may not be.

I hope that this helps answer Julie's question a bit better.  I'll probably do another post on bios sometime, too.  We'll just have to see how it goes.

WiP Wednesdays 9/16- A Week in the Life!

Wednesday 9/9

WiP Wednesday post goes up and looks great. I've made so much progress in the previous week in so many ways.

I sit down in the morning to write. I usually aim for an hour of writing sometime in my day. I realize that my outline is now a jumbled mess that I can't work off of anymore. So I proceed to write up a clean, albeit much shortened outline for Oracles Promise. (Meaning chapters that are written just get their titles in the outline. Future chapters get more detail.) In the process my two remaining flashback chapters get cut. This reduces my chapter count to 16 plus a prologue and epilogue.

After completing the outline rewrite I suffer a severe case of mental blockage. I've no idea where to take the story from here. No words come. At all. I fully expected a slow-down but not a complete screeching halt when I hit the part of the book I've never written before. Which is where I'm at now.

Midday in the car something hits me about my trilogy--it might bear too strong a resemblance to an element of J.K. Rowling's final two Harry Potter books. This threatens to shelf the entire project.

Sometime Wednesday I begin to feel the tickle of an idea for a paranormal/urban fantasy. Waiting for it to gel.

Thursday 9/10

Research for paranormal idea and for WiP in the morning.

Sometime in the course of the day my brain kicks into gear and Oracles Promise is saved with no changes to plot or structure. I've overcome the self-doubt (sort of) and realized that the element of Harry Potter that I felt I was copying is a universal element at its core and it's the core that I was using. No similarities exist.

I write nothing but future blog posts all day.

After lights out a couple of ideas pop into my head for the paranormal. It's beginning to gel together more. Will probably be my next project when I finish Oracles Promise. Starting to get a more definite plot. No characters yet. Well, not by name anyways. General ideas for characters. Probably a single-volume, which I'm totally cool with, but I'll have to wait and see. It's a toss-up between elves and angels for the paranormal element.

Lights go on and off about a dozen more times. Angels are winning out at this point. The ideas just keep flowing and my brain won't shut off to allow me to sleep. I'm really liking the idea. There seems to be infinite possibilities in it at the moment.

Friday 9/11

More ideas rapid-fire in my mind. Oracles Promise is now officially on hold as I research and develop my paranormal/urban fantasy. I've no recollection of ever being this excited about a project ever in my life.

Hit up B&N and the local library for research materials. Lots of For Dummies books. Really really loving my idea at the moment. Spend all day researching as even more ideas rapid fire in my head, both inspired by my research and just random firings of my imagination.

I've not read anything like what I'm developing. Nor have I heard of any forthcoming books that seem to have a premise or mythos like mine. (Though I know that Hush, Hush is coming next month and it will probably be the first book of angels I read.)

I spent all day wishing I could wave a magic wand and have all the developing done so I can get to writing. Most especially because I have my first two lines written already and I absolutely adore them. I think they capture voice and setting really well. Love them and can't wait to be writing this book.

Only once do I turn on the light again to write down a flash of inspiration. Good brain. Sleep is better for writing the next day anyways.

Saturday 9/12

More research, plotting and planning. Character bios get started too. There's a much smaller cast of characters. I will develop others as I need, but I have the major ones plotted at this point.

After hours of research, I feel like I'm sort of ready to start writing this book! Squee! So, I head back downstairs to write. I'll turn on some music, let my mind get carried away into this new world I've created.

Wrote about 1,000 words. Struggling with the whole "show don't tell" thing, as always. But for some reason it makes me feel like more of a failure writing this book than with Oracles Promise.

Sunday 9/13

The day got away from me so nothing much happened for the book today.

Monday 9/14

Research, research, and more research! Mostly into Air Force and NASA. (If that's not a veiled teaser, I don't know what is!) Read up on fencing and archery. Bought a bed desk to do my work on. Now I feel like I at least have some semblance of a work space. Anxious to start writing again.

More character development. Four pages of stuff about my MC. Other characters are developed as much as possible (or as much as I care to at this stage because I don't really yet know who he'll interact with most or how so I'll rework that later.)

Wrote some before going to bed. Total word count somewhere close to 2,000 words.

Tuesday 9/15

More research. This time on locations and such in Houston. Will have to really work on realistic descriptions despite never having been to Houston. (I've never been in the Air Force or NASA either but that isn't stopping me.)

The internet is really a wonderful pool of miscellania and information.

Around 3 I begin to wonder if I shouldn't just go back to writing on Oracles Promise. I don't know what to do. Then there's the looming debate: write longhand or type on the computer first time around? I've started it longhand but I kind of want to just do it on the computer.

Plug away at it longhand and write probably close to 1,000 words. (But don't quote me on that.) Twice the work as always because then I have to transcribe my longhand to the computer. Love the bed desk.

Come up with a title. Lodestar

That's the title of this new WiP. When I finish it I'll return to Oracles Promise. Don't worry, both books will get finished. I'm just super excited about this book and story that I have to tell.

Full word count now somewhere near 3,000 words.