 Fantasy: June 18, 2025 Issue [#13183] |
This week: A Thriving Genre Edited by: Annette  
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2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
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| "Fantasy is a beloved genre, and it’s thriving." ~ Josh Fechter |
A Thriving Genre
Fantasy fiction is thriving and growing in popularity. The jump in sales from 2023 to 2024 was a whopping 41.3%. This means that writing fantasy is one of the places where fiction writing still holds an exciting amount of opportunity.
But how to tap into the market?
Write stories that make people ponder your world until deep into the night. If reading on the train, they shouldn't come up from the pages (or screen as it would be) until the last stop. Readers should feel a fierce sense of ownership over their books, guarding them like precious treasure while at the same time encouraging all of their friends to buy their own copies so that they all may ship your main characters, slay your dragons, and collect your artifacts together.
As your story forms in your mind, in your notebook and first pages and chapters take shape: ask yourself what kind of fantasy you're writing. Try to define it somewhat. Why? It's fantasy. Why does it have to fit anything in existence? Honestly, because it does. No matter how unique your story is, it will fit into one (or more) of the existing fantasy sub-categories.
Fairy Tales and Mythic Fantasy draw from folklore, ancient myths, and fairy tales.
Urban Fantasy is fast paced, features gritty cityscapes, and magical beings hidden in plain sight.
High Fantasy is set in a made-up world that often includes maps, languages, and refers back to ancient histories.
Low Fantasy takes place in real life with magical elements creeping in.
Dark Fantasy blends the supernatural and the sinister with morally gray characters, unsettling magic, and themes like death, madness, or corruption.
Once you've decided on the sub-genre, you can use that to help you flesh out your world, your characters, and the general tone. By the way, fairy tales don't have to be written for children. You can mix the mythical and dark fantasy into a dangerous concoction. 
Do you prefer short stories, epics with several books, or a simple one-and-done novel? |
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Replies to my last Fantasy newsletter "Ensemble" that asked: Do you have an example of a fantasy story with a protagonist who acts alone?
S 🤦  wrote: A fantasy story with a protagonist who acts alone... tough call. In short stories, many of the works of Rober E Howard has Conan or Kull or Solomon Kane acting alone, plus Moorcock's Elric. But novels... I reckon the first Tarzan book by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Afterwards he has a retinue, but that first book, unless you count the few gorillas who stand by him, he is it.
In horror, sure - I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (not the films - the book!) is just that.
Fantasy is a tougher call. Great question!
Ichabod Crane  wrote: Enjoyed this. Learn something everyday. Thank you for using The Suit in your newsletter.
Beholden  wrote: Thank you for including my collection of Bradbury Tales among your Editor's Picks.
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