My story takes place in a fantasy world. This fantasy world is our future. Magic users lived amongst us and after the war by world leaders, the millions of magic users rebuilt civilization. So my initial genre would be Fantasy or Urban Fantasy (I think) because things from the past (Our World) survived the test of time and exist in this now future fantasy world. However, the storylines aren't something found in most fantasy novels. They are mostly found in "Contemporary" novels or novels with tons of "Drama" For Example: I have a character who is fighting to save his neighborhood from falling. A character who is battling cancer. A character who has a hard time fitting in. A character who wants to start a business. A character who is struggling to deal with bullying. So there's no magical sword (unless a character need it for an school assignment), there's no chosen hero (unless there is a bully who nobody wants to stand up to). Its just full of "Drama" and issues (trials and tribulations) the characters face in this future fantasy world. But i have a hard time figuring out the book genre. I want to label it "Contemporary Fantasy" but i read that those novels more so deal with social issues like Rape. Bullying, Drug abuse etc. I want to just say "Fantasy Drama" but i don't think nobody will understand what that even means since the "Drama" term is mostly used in Television or Movies. So if anybody have any suggestions or know what kind of novel this is, please help me out lol
Seems like it could be considered urban or contemporary fantasy to me. From your brief description it does sound like it deals with social issues.
That's what you just described, though. Social issues doesn't mean a specific checklist you have to cover, or even that the issues have to be as heavy as rape or drug addiction. You just mentioned one of the more common ones anyway, bullying, and living with cancer is another clearcut example. Contemporary fantasy as a genre features contemporary drama in a fantasy setting that's more analogous to the modern world than some other point in history. I think you're confusing yourself by making this more complicated than it is. The only thing that suggests a different genre is that your setting is a future world. If it's different from the modern world in ways other than the use of magic, like if they travel through space in ways reminiscent of sci-fi (even if the explanation is magic rather than technology) then it might come under science fantasy. But if the focus is more on characters with problems and goals that contemporary readers can relate to, challenges that we may face in our own lives but set in a fantasy world, then it comes under contemporary fantasy. If it helps clarify, urban fantasy is just a subgenre of contemporary fantasy that's more specifically about inner city life. But there's a lot of variation within all these genres.
