Any Other Fantasy Writers Here

Hi, I strictly write only fantasy stories and I'm wondering if there would happen to be anyone else here who is strictly into fantasy like I am. I feel like I'm the only one who's as obsessed with fantasy as I am and would really like someone who shares my interest in fantasy and that I can relate to.

 

Oh, I'm sure a few are knocking around this forum.

 

I write horrible, old guy fantasy stuff. My dragons would eat your little girl in pink, so maybe we're different arenas, y'know. There's loads of fantasy writers, I am sure. That @Lemex, for example, he never shuts up about Gandalf.

 

Just you try and stop me!

 

Or Harry Potter.

But I write some fantasy despite not reading any fantasy books (instead opting to play fantasy video games instead.) Weird, right?

 

What can I say? I just love fantasy, with all my large, generous, fluffy heart.

Actually, I suppose what you mean by fantasy, because I quite like alternative-history and especially post-apocalyptic fiction like Metro 2033.

 

Not strictly, but it's the only genre I've been working on for a few years now.

 

LOL. I'm a bit into lords of the rings myself and Gandalf would have to be my favorite character.

 

Fantasy -

I always imagine there is a team of enlightenment.

There is Fireboy: brown-skinned, a funny guy. Toma-Toes, he is white, magical, and kind of pretty. Doris swings her axe on a quest to save the little blue people from Gargachomp.

mmmm, my prejudice.

Though like my outline, shall go away, play with a pencil.

 

Me! Me! I do! Well, I would not say that I am strictly into fantasy, but that is all I have been writing.

I have plenty of ideas for fictional works taking place in modern society without the magic and mysticism, but being an unrestricted god is just wicked fun.

 

I'm not strictly into fantasy but most of my stories have a fantasy quality. But I'm more old school about it. Like those crazy 60's and 70's sci-fi artwork - I love the kooky robots and bubbled worlds and visions of the apocalypse as seen by women's libbers - women rule men! lol. I'm not really into magic or dwarfs or dragons. If I did write about a dragon he would probably be a time traveler or overthrowing the wizards for their years of oppression.

 

I write mostly Low and Urban Fantasy, bordering on Magical Realism. Some of it is straight-up, but the one I'm currently trying to pitch has a lot of humour throughout. I like ones with unusual creatures or settings, and I'm a sucker for the good old ancient artifact story as well.

As a kid I was a huge fan of Mary Stewart, Enid Blyton and so on. Oh, and the Wizard of Oz series, too. Though I haven't really attempted it yet, I love when an author can create an entirely different world that seems real.

 

Inspite of sounding like a noob. What do you mean by fantasy?

If you mean strictly like fairies and dragons in the D&D kind of set up, than I am not to much into it.

I mean I hear the word fantasy and think any story that centers around a concept that isn't real. But that definition of fantasy would call DragonBall Z a fantasy. lol

 

^ Well, Dragonball could be considered a fantasy. Dragonball Z, on the other hand went deep into the sci-fi with the space and time-traveling.

As for what fantasy I write? Call me cliched, but I have a fondness for the typical Medieval-era fantasy with swords and spells as its core. The characters and plots might be different, but so long as magic and the sword exist, I'm all for it.

 

See this is where I get confused.
What exactly changes something from being fantasy to sci-fi?

 

Traditionally speaking, when the setting begins to revolve around science elements.

Dragonball focused chiefly on the magic as it was essentially a retelling of Journey To The West with Goku as a loose portrayal of Sun Wukong. Sure there was some science tech here and there, but the core plot was fantasy and magic.

Dragonball Z basically went the opposite. Starting at the vert first episode Earth was invaded by three members of an alien species called the Saiyans, and we learn that our loveable Goku is one of them. Before he was assumed to be this super powerful monkey-human hybrid who would turn into a foaming ape monster if he ever looked at the moon. Nope, he's in fact an alien sent down to Earth as a baby. In this arc, it's basically an 'alien invasion' story at the core.

Then after the battles with the Saiyans, we learn of another planet named Namek full of slug-people called Namekians. Piccolo? He's no longer the spawn of an ancient evil demon. He's now just a Namekian. So the good guys board a spaceship to travel to Namek. We learn that there are other beings outside Earth, and one of them is basically running a trade empire where they enslave planets and sell them to the highest bidder. Oh and the bad guy's the reason Goku and Vegeta are the last two Saiyans in the entire universe. In this arc, the core element was the space travel and fighting against an evil galactic overlord.

Then after the 'avenging the Saiyans' arc is done, we go from space travel to time travel or, as some would call it, a rip-off of Terminator. See if this sounds familiar: A dude goes back in time to warn the heroes that the world is about to be enslaved by a bunch of killer androids and they have to do something about it. That's exactly what happens when Trunks arrives. The whole arc from there is our heroes dealing with a number of androids cumulating into the biggest, baddest one of them all: Cell. The core of this story was time-travel and preventing an android apocalypse from ever occurring.

To be honest, the only time an arc in Dragonball Z returned to its fantasy roots was in the Majin Buu saga. No space-travel, no alien invasions or fighting alien overlords. No fighting apocalypse-bringing robots. It was fighting an evil wizard who, with his dark powers, created a nigh unstoppable killer entity.

TL;DR- I think it depends on the core of the story. People traditionally think of space travel and fighting evil machine overlords to be sci-fi, so when Dragonball Z started focusing on that, everyone called it a sci-fi. Though I would call it sci-fi/fantasy because it still had some of the fantasy elements of Dragonball.

 

Does Mythology count?

 

So you would say in short Science = Scifi, and Magic =Fantasy?

So, question, in a WIP of mine, I have something called magic(Fireballs and ext.) yet I give it a scientific explanation. In my case being that humans evolved to a point where they can maniplate a form of energy that had always excited but had prevously been undectible by technology alone. What would you call that?

Also thank you for the detailed post, most forums I visit do 1 sentence posts more often than not. lol

 

Fantasy is certainly my thing. I'm not really a fan of Harry Potter though, as my type of fantasy has epic battles and chopped off limbs, in addition to magic. Gotta have a balance. I play DnD, love A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings (Although I prefer the films). I'm currently waiting for my beta readers to get back to me about my fantasy novella, and am writing a fantasy story for NaNoWriMo. So yes, you could say I like fantasy.

Basically the way I see it is that if you explain it scientifically, it's sci-fi. Your "Science = Scifi, and Magic =Fantasy" is pretty much spot on. Sci-fi does mean science fiction after all.

 

I love fantasy, but cynical and mostly urban fantasy. There are mages who are into hard drugs like meth, old dying gods who want to wipe out Christians, and there are vampires but absolutely none a teenage girl would dream of...perhaps she would have nightmares though.

I also write none fiction, but its usually extreme and not anything that would really happen in real life.

 

I'm not exclusive to fantasy at all (I write just about every genre) but when I do go fantasy (my current WIP is fantasy) I go all out. Swords, magic, dwarves, swamp men, underwater kingdoms. Yeah...the good stuff.

 

I'm a fan of ASOIAF style low fantasy and am attempting to write a fantasy story in that sort of style.

 

Could somebody explain what high and low fantasy is? I see the phrases used here but have never come across them! Or am I opening a can of worms by asking that??

 

High fantasy is a world where magic is seen as common occourance and it is used often. Like Eragon.

Low fantasy is like the legend of Arthur -with one wizard or two and subtle magics enshrouded in mystery. Low fantasy does have magic, but not much.