Good to know--as I mentioned, I am a relative newbie to the forum. Maybe have gotten a skewed selection in looking at recent posts--thanks!
I think my "home" is fantasy, but I've wandered around quite a bit and written in a few different genres. Right now, I think I'm finding my way back home. I can feel myself moving in that direction. I think for me, it comes down to why I write. I've said before that writing is my adult version of playing pretend. I write to explore situations I can't actually do in real life. And for me, real life is uninspired. I get sick of our reality where everything is a certain way. Don't get me wrong, I love Stephen King and can get into horror, I love Agatha Christie and can get into mystery, I went through a phase reading some teens-with-cancer books that left me paranoid about ever finding a bruise on my leg, but nothing thrills my imagination like fantasy. When I played pretend as a child, I didn't often play "house" or something that mirrored every day life. Boring. As an adult, it's the same way. I don't want to edit someone else's photo, I want to paint my own. Fantasy and sci-fi are a blank canvas, and you can either be Bob Ross, creating something beautiful that resembles the familiar - with your own happy little trees because it's your world, or you can be Jackson Pollock and make a chaotic mess that most people wont get. It doesn't matter, the canvas is yours. All that being said, I agree with you that it seems the internet-present writers trend towards fantasy and sci-fi, and those examples that you posted are pretty bad. But I also agree with those who have said to "write what you want to read." I think that is what has led me to write my current WIP, which is not original at all in concept but is something I would have loved to read as a teen.
I like to think my work in progress is something I would have read when I was a teen. But then again, maybe I wouldn't, since it's not by Stephen King and I had really bad tastes as a teenager.
Fantasy is such a broad term. My book is not high fantasy for sure. There are no orcs or anything. But I guess you could call it fantasy because it has fantastical creatures in it. However it's very alagorical and underneath it there are lots of connections between the monsters and philosophical and psychological ideas. So broadly speaking yes it is because it has otherworldy elements to it.
Pro cycling fiction and cyberpunk are my current goals. No fantasy involved, I will get sweaty and needle-stabby in one and gate array technical in the other.
I don't write fantasy, so that's one. But then, I don't read fantasy, either. Although I do have one story in the works (first draft finished) which has some fantasy elements, it's more speculative fiction, I think. The most unusual character name is Kaldun Onuris and that's actually not made up. Both first name and surname are Egyptian. Of course, he's ten thousand years old, so many that's a bit fantastic.
I think a lot of people immediately go to either a Harry Potter or Tolkien place when they hear "fantasy", when it really encompasses a pretty broad spectrum of settings and characters. Star Wars is both fantasy and sci fi, the huge majority of horror is also fantasy, and even films like Harvey, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and the Topper series could be called light fantasy.
I would call light fantasy a form of comedy. I think fantasy should be reserved for fantastic worlds which take themselves seriously.
I'm currently writing erotic short stories, first person, present tense. All of this is completely interesting to me -- I'm pretty sure I'm not writing Fantasy. But who knows??
It really depends. Fantasy can be an awesome genre, but the stuff you posted was uninteresting and/or pretentious sounding. That's basically why it's easy for the reader to lose interest in their writing. Some people struggle to tell a decent story so they try for what seems to be the most original concept in their mind. A lot of people feel that the genre is over-saturated and then aim for something that is so original, but it really ends up being a bunch of gibberish. They just can't have some simple fun and write a decent story. Don't blame the genre.
I don't write fantasy, I write mostly paranormal /historical romance, and rarely, some "normal" stuff. Almost everything I write has a supernatural component in it ( either mythology, time travel, legends, monsters like vampires etc) but it's set in the " real world" so I don't think it could be called fantasy. Lol my answer was so long haha. I don't have anything against fantasy; but I just don't read it and I don't think I'd like it, I like the stories I read to be set in the real world .
By way of example, Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, set mostly in Chicago. Real world setting, but paranormal creatures exist. Tanya Huff''s Blood books are set in Toronto. It may be the biggest selling subgenre of fantasy right now.
Oh okay . I guess when I think about fantasy, like a lot of people, I think about the completely invented worlds, with dragons and quests etc .
Yeah. There is a lot of variety. If the work you described was traditionally published, it would almost certainly be shelved in fantasy. Two exceptions: if the main plot is a romantic plot, it will go in Romance, regardless of the paranormal elements. Also, rarely some books of the sort you describe cross over into literary fiction and get shelved there. For example, Glen Duncan's The Last Werewolf, set in London and Paris, among other places, often gets shelved in literary fiction. I've also seen Octavia Butler's book Fledgling, which is set in the real world but features a vampire-like race, shelved in literary fiction or even African American literature. But for the most part, readers who are looking for the kind of work you describe are looking in the fantasy section, because that's there the vast majority of urban fantasy gets shelved.
I guess I never thought about genres in detail, but thanks it's interesting distinctions to know And thanks for the books you mentioned in your other post and in this one, I looked them up and they seem like something I'd enjoy, I think I'll read some of them when I have time .
I have written a couple of fantasy novels, but my current WIP is an SM erotic supernatural/ghost story, after which I intend to do a third book in an SF series.
I have zero interest in YA or romance as specific genres. I also could not care less about medieval fantasy or steam punk or any of that. I prefer scifi. I'll only do scifi. If something comes up, something contemporary, I'll write it, but for now, scifi.
Sci-fi here, no fantasy elements at all. I even avoided suspended animation, time travel and worm holes. But I do have flying cars.
