How I Differentiate Fantasy Subgenres When It Comes to My Works

 It's been how long since I have posted about something that wasn't a writing update or a direct announcement involving my books? Don't answer that, I don't actually want to know.

With that said, I decided to try something different this week and instead of posting a writing update I shall share my classification system for when it comes to figuring out what genre my books are. I've written about fantasy subgenres before, years ago. But I thought it would be fun if I wrote about my specific process for figuring out my books' genres. Do publishing companies do that for you? I have no idea, but sometimes I wonder how exactly to classify my books especially since I write so much fantasy and yet they are so different in the mood and tone.

If you check out my Current Projects page on my blog you may have wondered what I saw as the difference between Dark Fantasy and High Fantasy and Epic Fantasy and all that. If so then this post is definitely for you. Or maybe you didn't wonder. But I thought I would share anyway. You're welcome.

Now this isn't a conclusive list of fantasy subgenres, there are some like Historical Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, and others that won't be listed because I am only using the ones that I have written a novel in or am in the process of writing.

Portal Fantasy: the majority of my published novels are portal fantasies. Don't ask me why. I like the genre well enough but it's certainly not my favorite (that would be High Fantasy). It may be that it's easier to write than some of the other subgenres. It has a somewhat looser tone and language. Portal fantasy is basically the story of two worlds, in portal fantasies generally your characters are not in their home world but are discovering a new one. Either someone from earth is in a fantasy world, or even if someone from a fantasy world ends up in Earth. These kinds of books usually takes place during modern times (although I someday hope to write a book where that isn't the case) and has ties with earth. Due to this modernish aspect, portal fantasy is somewhat similar to Urban Fantasy (which I do not have any stories in, so it won't be listed in this blog post), however Urban Fantasy is about a slightly altered world where fantastical aspects such as monsters and magic exist in earth under all of our noses, often times woven expertly into life. Portal fantasies are a bit more of a jarring displacement of being ripped from one entire world and thrust into an entirely new one.

Books I have written in this genre:

The My Time in Amar series is about Chelsea Welling, a normal teenager from earth who ends up trapped in the fantastical world of Amar with her brother and two friends. The goal of this series is for them to return to earth. Along the way they meet new friends, have adventures with pirates, tangle with werewolves, and get involved in the politics of the world. So far I have written three books in this series (the third is as of yet still not published), and even though this story world is expansive and we see multiple facets of it over the series, because we view Amar through Chelsea, an outsider to this world, I don't count it as High or Epic fantasy. It has elements of both but as I will get into in their sections, I count these subgenres by their immersion into the world, one that Chelsea does not provide. She was not born in Amar, and her goal is to return to earth so even if there is not a whole lot of world hopping going on throughout the course of this series (Chelsea and her friends are bound to Amar until they accomplish a quest), it's a portal fantasy.

A companion duology to My Time in Amar, A Certain Sort of Madness is about Alicia Hareton, yet another girl from earth who spends time in Amar. However, unlike Chelsea, Alicia chooses to go into Amar and controls her travels. She is still a stranger, in a strange world, even if she likes it more than Chelsea does. This book does introduce yet another world that can be reached and traveled to because portal fantasy is oftentimes not bound to a single pair of worlds or realms.

Of Gold and Iron is the final portal fantasy I have written (to date). It is the story of Jaye MacCullagh and her brother finding themselves trapped in the faerie Otherworlds, and what they are willing to do to try and escape. Once again, Jaye is from earth, and views this world with extremely foreign and somewhat biased eyes, however the world is entirely different than Amar, and the fae are very different than the faeries named in Week of Werewolve's title. I would even dare to call it a Faerie Fantasy, but I haven't made up my mind on if that should be an official subgenre or not. It certainly has very strong vibes, but I'm not entirely sure if that in itself is enough to make it a subgenre. I could even venture and say that it is Mythology, because it is strongly based off of Irish folklore, but it is not a retelling of a myth which is probably more of what a Mythology subgenre is for. And since I haven't written one of those (yet mwahaha), I'm unsure if Of Gold and Iron deserves to be in their currently vacant ranks.

Retellings/Reimaginings: I mean, this is pretty self explanatory. Any story that I have retold (or the much looser term I use for simply taking inspiration and stealing elements from a certain story but not remaining true to everything that happened: reimagined) in a fantasy world falls under this category. Most of my retellings and reimaginings fall under another subgenre as well since this does very little to describe the world and world view of the book or the way it is written which is how I usually divide my stories by their genres.

A Certain Sort of Madness (which was listed above) is a reimagining of the tale of Alice in Wonderland

Winter Cursed (which I will list below) is a retelling of Snow White. The other two stories in its series however A Winter Grim and Lonely and A Winter Dark and Deadly are only reimaginings, one of the story of the wicked queen and one of Beauty and the Beast.

Dark Fantasy: With Dark Fantasy it is all about the mood. And ambiance if you will. It deals with the much grimer elements and more morally ambiguous characters. These stories tend to be a little less humorous and a little more focused on the smaller details to better flesh out the overall theme of the story.

I count the Blood of the Gods trilogy as dark fantasy due to the overall theme of vampires. And the main characters being much more morally questionable than in my other works what with some of them being assassins and ruling criminal empires.

Books I have written in Dark Fantasy:

The Winter Cursed books are counted as dark fantasy due to the way I wrote them. More poetic, the very setting is dark as my characters live in a sunless world. A Winter Grim and Lonely revolves around the villain's story and the prince of this tale is a dark lord. There isn't anything particularly darker in this story than would be in any of my other works, however events are shown without the more cheery humor and light heartedness that is oftentimes in my other books.

High Fantasy: A slightly happier tone than Dark Fantasy... or not. Some High Fantasy books can be Dark Fantasy, but it's a little harder to accomplish. High Fantasy offers a much broader view of a fantasy world. Usually there is a lot of traveling done, and even if it isn't the main focus of the plot there will be a political and religious system. The characters of High Fantasy are from that world (even if they are foreigners to the country specifically) and they tend to understand how it works. So far my High Fantasy books have featured a very large cast from all corners and walks in life of that fantasy world although I wouldn't count that as a requirement for being a High Fantasy.

I do not count A Winter Dark and Deadly as High Fantasy because I consider its world much smaller. It is on an island, the majority of the book takes place in one place and while traveling is done, there is like a grand total of three notable settings for the scenes. It has an expansive history and mythology, but the settings are limited so I don't count it as High Fantasy.

Books I have written in High Fantasy:

League of Thieves which does not have a cover yet, is a High Fantasy. It takes place in a middle eastern themed world, however we have characters from all across the map, even a main character from the mysterious northern tribes. There's a lot of unrest and an empire working on taking over the entire world. I will note that the characters are morally ambiguous, they're thieves for crying out loud. But the theme and overall mood of both the characters and the story of LoT is way too lighthearted to ever pass as Dark Fantasy.

Between Gods and Demigods which is the prequel to Rage Like the Gods will be my first High Fantasy book that I publish. The world in RLtG is quite large and expansive, we have multiple clans, humans and elves alike, locked in a struggle each believing they are better than the other. Necromancers and an undead army. Outlawed magic systems. And gods desperate to keep it all from going to Skyhold (the name of their afterlife because yeah I probably don't count it as High Fantasy unless we have an underworld mentioned at least once). And characters from all across the world with all sorts of different political leanings and moral ideals, drawn in by the common goal of not wanting the world to end.

Epic Fantasy: I listed this last, because I wanted to state what High Fantasy was first. Before I count a book as an Epic Fantasy, it must fit all of the requirements of being a High Fantasy, and then it has to be very long. And by long I mean, longer than a trilogy long. My definition of Epic Fantasy is a saga told through the course of multiple novels. By this definition, League of Thieves is not Epic Fantasy since it is only a duology. I do count The Blood of the Gods trilogy and other stories in Ruskhazar that might not be part of the RLtG series as Epic Fantasy since they are part of a larger story and all tie in somehow. Rage Like the Gods by these standards is my only Epic Fantasy series,  but I can assure you that will not remain the case.

So yeah, as you can see it's not a conclusive system. It adapts as I write more and try to figure out how they fit into the whole scheme of things when it comes to fantasy subgenres. But these are the main ones I have written or am writing in right now. I'm sure given a few years I will have added plenty more books to each categories and maybe even added more categories. Hopefully you enjoyed reading about this as much as I loved sharing into my crazy organizational system and weren't too confused.

Now you know what I'm actually thinking when I say Dark Fantasy or Epic Fantasy. Do you think that Faerie Fantasy should be a subgenre or do I just like faeries too much? Comment Below!