by A.C. Williams @ACW_Author
Genres are confusing, guys. Let’s just say it. It used to be so much easier when the categories of fiction were ones with magic and ones without magic. Or spacey stories versus scary stories. That being said, the explosion of genres really does help narrow down the types of stories that audiences want to read. Since there are so many books, it’s necessary to have more ways to categorize them.
So today we’re going to talk about two genres that often get confused: Magical Realism and Contemporary Fantasy. It’s easy to mix these two up because they have many similar tropes and traits, but they are very different, especially in how you market them.
Basically, if you have written a contemporary (or modern) fantasy and you market it as magical realism, you’re going to disappoint a lot of readers. You’ll probably get negative reviews. You may even alienate future readers as a result. And the same is true if you’ve written magical realism and marketed it as contemporary fantasy.
First, let’s talk very briefly about how they’re the same. I always find it useful to understand why two genres are often mistaken for each other in order to explain the differences to people.
In this case, both magical realism stories and contemporary fantasy stories take place in a modern setting. Well, most of the time. Let’s say, modern-ish. They both include magical or fantastic elements that are part of everyday life, usually in alignment with modern technology. And, in most instances, they focus on the relationships between the characters and rely less on extensive worldbuilding than other fantasy genres (obviously, because it takes place in the “real world” and doesn’t need a lot of excess explanation and setup).
That’s how they’re the same; how are they different?
Well, first of all, magical realism is usually written in a literary style. Maybe this is wrong of me to say, but my “quick and dirty” definition of magical realism is that it’s fantasy for the literature professors. Fine literature has its own unique feel and mood in the industry. There’s a high focus on vocabulary, and generally speaking within the text itself, the story is structured with larger paragraphs. It moves more slowly than books that would not be considered literary.
Magical realism as a genre can be set in modern-day society, or it can be set in a historical timeframe. It depends on the type of story the author is telling. One of the best examples of magical realm is Beloved by Toni Morrison, which is set during the era right after the Civil War. A popular example of magical realism is The Green Mile by Stephen King. There are others, of course, but those are the options that give the best sense of the genre.
They take place in a modern-ish setting, and they feature one or two fantastic elements that play a role in the story, but the rest of it is primarily focused on the characters and the social issues of the time.
To be transparent, I don’t read a lot of magical realism. It usually doesn’t resonate with me as a reader, and it often deals with social issues and topics that aren’t as interesting to me. In the last couple of years, though, I’ve reviewed several magical realism manuscripts in the Christian market that were really great. Surprisingly great. So I have high hopes for the genre moving forward.
Now, as you might expect, contemporary fantasy is different from magical realism because it doesn’t just have one or two fantastic elements in the story. It has many, and they are all essential in moving the story forward.
I have a lot more examples of contemporary fantasy than I do of magical realism, again because I prefer contemporary fantasy. Some of the most recognizable contemporary fantasy books would be the Twilight books, the Harry Potter series, the Percy Jackson series, the list goes on and on.
One series that technically falls under contemporary fantasy is the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, but what’s unique about this book series is that it is urban fantasy. Urban fantasy is a specific subgenre of contemporary fantasy (and we’ll talk more about that next time).
In each of these examples, the story is set in modern day, contemporary locations. Washington state. London. Chicago. But within each of these familiar, modern-day settings, there is a shadow world or an unseen world or parts of the cities that are not accessible to everyday people. Within those hidden worlds, the culture is completely different.
Whether you’re talking about Stephenie Meyers’s sparkly vampires or J.K. Rowling’s wizard schools or Rick Riordan’s Camp Half-blood—they are all functional societies apart from what is recognizable in our everyday world. And the story can’t move forward without the fantastic elements associated with them.
So, if you want to write magical realism, make sure that your fantasy/magic elements are subtle and a small part of the literary-style story you’re telling. If you want to write contemporary fantasy, you’ll have to do a little bit of worldbuilding to create a fantasy society that exists within the world we already know, and it will need to play a role in all your major plot points.
Don't Miss the Previous Posts in This Series
1. WRITING ROMANTIC FANTASY AND FANTASY ROMANCE
2. WRITING FANTASY AND SPACE OPERA
3. WRITING STEAMPUNK AND GASLAMP
4. WRITING MAGICAL REALISM AND CONTEMPORARY FANTASY
5. WRITING URBAN FANTASY AND PARANORMAL ROMANCE
6. WRITING SUSPENSE AND THRILLERS
7. WRITING DYSTOPIAN AND APOCALYPTIC
8. WRITING CLASSIC MYSTERY AND COZY MYSTERY
9. WRITING GOTHIC HORROR AND STANDARD HORROR
10. WRITING ALL THE PUNKS
2. WRITING FANTASY AND SPACE OPERA
3. WRITING STEAMPUNK AND GASLAMP
4. WRITING MAGICAL REALISM AND CONTEMPORARY FANTASY
5. WRITING URBAN FANTASY AND PARANORMAL ROMANCE
6. WRITING SUSPENSE AND THRILLERS
7. WRITING DYSTOPIAN AND APOCALYPTIC
8. WRITING CLASSIC MYSTERY AND COZY MYSTERY
9. WRITING GOTHIC HORROR AND STANDARD HORROR
10. WRITING ALL THE PUNKS
Thanks for this-- I'm writing somewhere between contemporary fantasy and urban fantasy and supernatural thriller....you're right, these can get mushed up pretty easily!
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