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stephen king always understood this; it’s not the monster at the end of the hallway but the person standing in relation to you and the monster. not the tearing and the rending and the corruption and so on, but you and your friend and what will happen to your friend depending on which one of you the monster strikes first. who cares about the monster. monsters do what monsters do. is my friend going to be okay. am I going to be forced to inhabit a world where my friend isn’t okay. are they going to be forced to inhabit a world where their friend isn’t okay. and so on.

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Scanlan Discount Music

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writing advice: get weird w it

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*sigh* Maybe next year.

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I keep seeing posts talking about the WGA/Sag-Aftra strike, which yes, good, but in all this "support writers" sentiment I'm seeing no one talk about book writers, which I think is something people should know more about right now.

We are at an all-time high for book bans, namely targeting queer & PoC-authored books. This means that a lot of schools and libraries are no longer stocking diverse YA books, and if you're not in publishing, you may not realize this but school & libraries are by far one of the biggest markets for diverse YA books.

This means that in 2023, YA book sales are down. This is also in part because Barnes & Noble (the largest physical book retailer in the U.S.) is no longer really stocking YA hardcovers. This means that marginalized authors and debut authors are struggling to sell books.

But it's a LOT worse than that. In the past couple of years, marginalized authors are *really* struggling to get new book deals. Most books are acquired by a publisher about 2 years before they release to the public, so this isn't all that noticeable yet, but a LOT of marginalized authors I've spoken to (myself included) have been unable to sell a new YA book since 2020. So while I had a book out last year, even if I sell one right now, you won't see it until 2025-2026. That's three to four years without a new release or the income I get from publishing those books.

On top of that, Big 5 publishers have started closing imprints (namely their diverse imprints) and have started telling their marginalized YA authors to just go. I've had multiple authors tell me their publisher basically said, "eh, we don't care to put in the work for you anymore. You can just go somewhere else". Of the authors who *are* getting offered new contracts, we're being offered pay far below the cost of living and we're being handed contracts that split our payments 4 or 5 ways and require we sign over our work to be used to train AI so they can replace us a few years down the road.

Authors are freelancers who own our IPs, which means we can't unionize the way Hollywood writers can, and despite authors showing up in droves to support HarperCollins employees when they went on strike for fair wages, we're being hung out to dry when it comes to our own rights.

If you enjoy diverse books, especially diverse YA, please understand that many of the authors you loved over the past 3-5 years are being forced out of the industry. We're being exploited, and we have no way to defend ourselves. Our books sales are drying up thanks to anti-queer legislation, our rights are being eaten up by AI, and our publishers are degrading us while profiting of us and refusing to share those profits with us.

Within the publishing industry, we've all been watching this decline happen over the last decade, but outside of it, I know most people have no idea what's going on so please spread the word. And if you care about diverse books especially in YA, please support marginalized authors in any way you can. The industry needs to be reminded that it needs us before we're all eliminated from it.

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October Spirit Poetry Contest

alright, alright, alright,

spooper season is here, along with your new prompt:

reblog this with an original poem of any size, length, or style,

BUT

the poem must be about spirit, either conceptually, religiously, occult, in the singular, or even in clusters i suppose.

as with Bugcatching, the winner of Spirit Poetry will be announced and reblogged on the 1st of the following month, in this case November.

much like how i feel about the annual arrival of Spirit Halloween stores, i can't wait to see what poems you all haunt me with.

thanks

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isnt it insane that merry and pippin spent like the span of weeks apart in different countries and immediately made new besties whose lives they save in their final battles. like merry strikes the blow on the witch king that lets eowyn kill him and pippin pulls faramir out of denethor's pyre. and then eowyn and faramir ended up marrying each other. isn't that wild. were merry and pippin conspiring in the houses of healing like hey i think my new best friend would be great with your new best friend how quickly do you think we can get them to fall in love. was there great hobbit cacophony when faramir kisses eowyn on the ramparts. i think yes.

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Dracula: October 6 - Another surprise. She is calling to me.

Matt here with a quick note: if you’re around South Bend, Indiana tonight - I’ll be at this showing of Nosferatu with live music happening downtown. And then on Monday, I’ll be at UVA in Charlottesville talking Dracula. OK, back to Jonathan!

Jonathan Harker’s Journal.

6 October, morning.—Another surprise. Mina woke me early, about the same time as yesterday, and asked me to bring Dr. Van Helsing. I thought that it was another occasion for hypnotism, and without question went for the Professor. He had evidently expected some such call, for I found him dressed in his room. His door was ajar, so that he could hear the opening of the door of our room. He came at once; as he passed into the room, he asked Mina if the others might come, too.

“No,” she said quite simply, “it will not be necessary. You can tell them just as well. I must go with you on your journey.”

Dr. Van Helsing was as startled as I was. After a moment’s pause he asked:—

“But why?”

“You must take me with you. I am safer with you, and you shall be safer, too.”

“But why, dear Madam Mina? You know that your safety is our solemnest duty. We go into danger, to which you are, or may be, more liable than any of us from—from circumstances—things that have been.” He paused, embarrassed.

As she replied, she raised her finger and pointed to her forehead:—

“I know. That is why I must go. I can tell you now, whilst the sun is coming up; I may not be able again. I know that when the Count wills me I must go. I know that if he tells me to come in secret, I must come by wile; by any device to hoodwink—even Jonathan.” God saw the look that she turned on me as she spoke, and if there be indeed a Recording Angel that look is noted to her everlasting honour. I could only clasp her hand. I could not speak; my emotion was too great for even the relief of tears. She went on:—

“You men are brave and strong. You are strong in your numbers, for you can defy that which would break down the human endurance of one who had to guard alone. Besides, I may be of service, since you can hypnotise me and so learn that which even I myself do not know.” Dr. Van Helsing said very gravely:—

“Madam Mina, you are, as always, most wise. You shall with us come; and together we shall do that which we go forth to achieve.” When he had spoken, Mina’s long spell of silence made me look at her. She had fallen back on her pillow asleep; she did not even wake when I had pulled up the blind and let in the sunlight which flooded the room. Van Helsing motioned to me to come with him quietly. We went to his room, and within a minute Lord Godalming, Dr. Seward, and Mr. Morris were with us also. He told them what Mina had said, and went on:—

“In the morning we shall leave for Varna. We have now to deal with a new factor: Madam Mina. Oh, but her soul is true. It is to her an agony to tell us so much as she has done; but it is most right, and we are warned in time. There must be no chance lost, and in Varna we must be ready to act the instant when that ship arrives.”

“What shall we do exactly?” asked Mr. Morris laconically. The Professor paused before replying:—

“We shall at the first board that ship; then, when we have identified the box, we shall place a branch of the wild rose on it. This we shall fasten, for when it is there none can emerge; so at least says the superstition. And to superstition must we trust at the first; it was man’s faith in the early, and it have its root in faith still. Then, when we get the opportunity that we seek, when none are near to see, we shall open the box, and—and all will be well.”

“I shall not wait for any opportunity,” said Morris. “When I see the box I shall open it and destroy the monster, though there were a thousand men looking on, and if I am to be wiped out for it the next moment!” I grasped his hand instinctively and found it as firm as a piece of steel. I think he understood my look; I hope he did.

“Good boy,” said Dr. Van Helsing. “Brave boy. Quincey is all man. God bless him for it. My child, believe me none of us shall lag behind or pause from any fear. I do but say what we may do—what we must do. But, indeed, indeed we cannot say what we shall do. There are so many things which may happen, and their ways and their ends are so various that until the moment we may not say. We shall all be armed, in all ways; and when the time for the end has come, our effort shall not be lack. Now let us to-day put all our affairs in order. Let all things which touch on others dear to us, and who on us depend, be complete; for none of us can tell what, or when, or how, the end may be. As for me, my own affairs are regulate; and as I have nothing else to do, I shall go make arrangements for the travel. I shall have all tickets and so forth for our journey.”

There was nothing further to be said, and we parted. I shall now settle up all my affairs of earth, and be ready for whatever may come….

Later.—It is all done; my will is made, and all complete. Mina if she survive is my sole heir. If it should not be so, then the others who have been so good to us shall have remainder.

It is now drawing towards the sunset; Mina’s uneasiness calls my attention to it. I am sure that there is something on her mind which the time of exact sunset will reveal. These occasions are becoming harrowing times for us all, for each sunrise and sunset opens up some new danger—some new pain, which, however, may in God’s will be means to a good end. I write all these things in the diary since my darling must not hear them now; but if it may be that she can see them again, they shall be ready.

She is calling to me.

—-

Original Substack Post

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You know what? I believe that you can finish your writing project. I believe you can update your fic. I believe you can work on your WIP. I don't care if you think it's cringy or bad. I don't care if we've never met or interacted in our whole lives. I believe in you. Keep going - you've got this.

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Matthew Dickman, from “Grass Moon,” in Wonderland [ID in ALT]

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“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” — Terry Pratchett

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The Subcategories of Fantasy

As an author who loves Fantasy, I wanted to help my fellow writers understand all of the different elements that fantasy can fall under, ranging from the well-known to the specific. I figured that doing so could help other writers like myself understand exactly what sort of story they’re writing, and how these stories differ from one another. I’ll also be giving examples of these types of stories, as well as my own thoughts on the different genres at the end.

What is Fantasy?

Fantasy in its simplest term, is any form of media that diverges from the mundane reality of our ordinary everyday world in one facet or another. A story does not need to have magic, or dragons, or princesses to be called a fantasy story. While those are common motifs, in truth, all it takes to be considered fantasy is to not adhere to the real world in one form or another. Good Omens is a fantasy story, despite having no dragons or princesses anywhere. A Song of Ice and Fire has dragons and princesses, but magic is scarce and seldom ever seen. The Song of the Sea has a lot of magic, but a lot fewer dragons.

MEDIEVAL FANTASY

 The story takes place in a fantastical world of the author’s design with a medieval or renaissance inspired setting, world view, and/or political structure. Renaissance Fantasy doesn’t really tend to exist on its own, so any setting with Renaissance aspects tends to just get lumped in with Medieval Fantasy. I don’t even really need to explain this one to you. It’s the most common subgenre of fantasy. A medieval fantasy does not have to be set in the real medieval period of Earth’s history, but rather, a medieval fantasy is any story set in a fantastical world that makes use of a medieval-based society as its setting.

HISTORICAL FANTASY 

This is a story in which fantastical elements are included in real world historical settings. This is any historical setting where there’s a King of England but also a dragon or trolls to deal with. There’s almost this sort of unspoken rule that any story set in Ancient Greece will inevitably be Historical Fantasy. Arthurian Fantasy, Mythology Fantasy, and Fable Fantasy could all be considered subcategories of Historical Fantasy, since most instances of these genres would be classified as Historical Fantasy, though there are exceptions. As an example, Once Upon a Time and the Fables comics series are both Fable Fantasies, but are not Historical Fantasy. Likewise, Rick Riordian’s Percy Jackson-verse is clearly Mythology Fantasy, but is not Historical Fantasy. Classic examples of Historical Fantasy would include tales like Beowulf, The Journey to the West, and Robin Hood. It’s worth mentioning that technically, a story is not Historical Fantasy if it’s set in the era it was written in. However, the Illiad was set in Mycenaean Greece, Robin Hood’s rivalry with Prince John was a later addition to the folklore, and most Arthurian mythos was penned long after the supposed real world figure might have lived and died. But, any story set in a contemporary modernity, such as Percy Jackson, will eventually become Historical Fiction as time moves forward, though it clearly was not written to be that way.

MYTHOLOGY FANTASY

Angels, Demons, Gods, the Underworld, mythological heroes, this is a supercategory that encompasses everything from The Chronicles of Narnia to Supernatural, as well as Good Omens, American Gods, Sandman, Rise of the Guardians, Percy Jackson, Paradise Lost, Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel, Smite: Battleground of the Gods, Teen Titans, Dante’s Inferno, and Lore Olympus. Some people get squeemish about lumping Judeo-Christian ideologies in with Mythology (even though it is a mythology) such that the Christian sub-category sometimes gets called Religious Fantasy or Bible Fantasy. But regardless, this is the category for any sort of fantastical work in which supernatural forces are at work. Some divide this section differently. For instance, some will say that since faeries are part of Irish mythology that faeries count as part of mythology fantasy, while others will argue that this is more for the religious aspect of fantasy, with things like vampires and faeries relegated to a subcategory of more generic fantasy creatures.

ARTHURIAN FANTASY

The story revolves around Arthurian mythos. Whether it’s set in the real world of Britain, a fantasy counterpart to Britain, or in some author-created setting, King Arthur is still King Arthur. Sometimes, though very rarely, Arthurian stories have little to no magic, fusing this subgenre with Historical Fiction and not Historical Fantasy. While Arthurian mythos has evolved over the years, the big players are practically household names. Most people are unfamiliar with Sir Galehaut and Sir Dinadin, but almost everyone recognizes Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin, and all the other big players in Arthurian folklore. However, Arthurian myth effectively spans the entire breadth of the Medieval Period, first being mentioned in the Annaels Cambriae which places Arthur in 6th Century Britain, and his stories continued to be written until Le Mort d’Arthur in 1485. Keep in mind, the Medieval Period is from 476 - 1500, and Arthurian mythos spans about 800-900 of those 1,024 years. Due to his story spanning so much time, many elements of Arthur’s story have been forgotten or quietly put aside over time. Try to tell someone that Arthur put every newborn born in the month of may on a boat and sank it to prevent the prophecy of Mordred from coming true, and you’ll probably get a bunch of horrified looks from people who swear up and down that the Good King Arthur would never do anything so cruel. Even other elements shifted around. Ask who mordred’s parents are, and you could argue Arthur, Morgan le Fey, Morgause, Anna, King Lot, and more. Depending on how deep down the rabbit hole you’re willing to go, you can read stories of King Arthur fighting his nephew Oberon for control of Fairyland. Arthurian mythos, like mythology fantasy, tends to get the curbside drive-by approach. People repeat the elements they’ve heard a million times, while never dusting off any of the lesser known elements that would give the story a breath of fresh air.

FABLE FANTASY

Technically, all Arthurian Fantasy falls under this umbrella. Fable Fantasy is the genre term for fantasy based on fables, folk tales, and folkloric figures. Robin Hood, Reynard the Fox, Fairy Tales, Mother Goose, Baba Yaga, if it has persisted through generations of storytelling, and has had a lasting impact on the cultures that know the story, it can be considered a Fable Fantasy. Any story that pulls from these elements can likewise be considered Fable Fantasy because they are pulling from these fabled origins. So, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast is a Fable Fantasy… unless the storytelling has twisted the story so much that it’s no longer in the Fantasy genre. For more variations of this genre, well-known pop culture characters, much like Robin Hood and Fairytale characters, can be considered Fable Fantasy. So, Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, Santa Claus, the Grim Reaper, Peter Pan, the Phantom of the Opera, the Wizard of Oz, and other commonly retold folk characters can be thought of as more contemporary Fable fantasies. As such, both Wicked and The Phantom of the Opera can be considered Fable Fantasy musicals, as well as the more obvious Into the Woods. Once Upon a Time and the Fable comic series are both modern Fable Fantasy stories. Not all Fable Fantasy narratives are retellings of classic folktales. Peter Rabbit, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and The Wizard of Oz have all become widely considered folkloric staples, despite being written in the 19th and 20th centuries. Over the Garden Wall, a Cartoon Network miniseries from 2014, is considered to be a modern fairy tale, despite not being an adaptation of any other story, but instead using the tropes and ideas common to traditional old-school fairy tales. When they enter the public domain, I suspect that Dr. Seuss’ characters will likewise be effectively Fable Fantasy, well-known characters that see use and reuse over and over again in other media. Shrek and Disenchantment take a satirical approach to Fable Fantasy, poking fun of Disney and other fairytale narratives and tropes. 

HISTORICAL ROMANTICISM

This setting often goes hand-in-hand with Arthurian Fantasy and Fairy Tales. This is any story that romanticizes and glorifies life in a historical setting. Popular variants include Medieval Romanticism, stories which romanticize medieval settings, Victorian Romanticism or Edwardian Romanticism, for stories that romanticize the time period between 1837-1913, and Period Romanticism, which is more of a blanket term that glorifies the eras popular with Period movies, namely, the 19th century, but sometimes earlier as well. Full of handsome princes, fair damsels, large palace-like castles, and knightly codes of honor, historically inaccurrate period gowns, debutante balls, and steamy Jane Austen-style love affairs, this story paints the past with the most optimistic and flattering image possible. Everything is flowery, poetic, and awe-inspiring. This is the type of setting Sansa Stark thought she was in at the start of A Game of Thrones before G.R.R Martin pulled the rug out from under her and revealed Westeros to be a Cynical Low Fantasy. By the very virtue of the company’s child-friendly marketing, Most Disney movies, and by extension, most movies set in the past aimed at children can likewise be categorized as Historical Romanticism, as they brush the darker side of history under the rug. The Princess Bride, Bridgerton, Don Bluth’s Anastasia, and most versions of Robin Hood and Arthurian mythos fall into this category. For contrast, Downton Abbey is not Edwardian Romanticism even though it tries to make life in the 1910s look glamorous, it’s also not afraid to blatantly point out the economic and socio-political issues that were going in in the world at the time. Downton Abbey does not sugar coat the darker side of history, and can therefore not be considered Historical Romanticism.

HISTORICAL CYNICISM

The exact opposite, Historical Cynicism is the name I give to settings that use the trope “The Dung Ages”. Like Historical Romanticism, the most popular variant of this category is Medieval Cynicism. These settings seek to make life in historical time periods look as miserable and depressing as possible. They are designed to make life seem bleak, undesirable, and disgusting. Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Disenchantment take a comedic approach to this, while A Song of Ice and Fire gives a more Epic Fantasy take. Sweeney Todd makes life in Victorian London look positively putrid, and that’s without the cannibalism subplot. The Witcher games seem to merge Medieval Cynicism with Dark Fantasy and Horror Fantasy. This subgenre hinges on Dark Fantasy, but the two are distinct from one another. Expect plenty of plagues, muted color pallets, a cruel aristocracy that enjoys crushing the lower classes under its heel, and mud or dung on everything.

HIGH FANTASY

 Magic and fantastical elements are abound in this setting. Expect wizards, dragons, fantastical races, and more. Very frequently overlaps with Epic Fantasy, though they are different. The Lord of the Rings is classic High Fantasy. Most Dungeons & Dragons settings are also High Fantasy, as is The Legend of Zelda. Avatar: the Last Airbender is a High Fantasy Wuxia show, though Legend of Korra veers more toward Historical Fantasy, Steampunk, and Magitech Fantasy with its 1920s Shanghai meets New York City hub location of Republic City. The Elder Scrolls is also a High Fantasy, with plenty of elven races, the Beast Races, and star signs that actually impact those born under them. Each province has its own sort of vibe or subgenre, with High Rock being more Medieval Romanticism while Skyrim is more Dark Fantasy or Medieval Cynicism, but as a whole, Tamriel falls under the High Fantasy umbrella.

LOW FANTASY 

A medieval setting where magic and fantastical elements are rare, if not nonexistent. A Song of Ice and Fire is an excellent example. Magic is real and does exist, but it only rarely comes into play. Magic is extremely scarce, and most people one might meet are humans. Even the sight of someone casting the simplest spell is so rare in Westeros that it’s practically unheard of, and the few supernatural elements that do exist in the setting live far out into the wilderness, rarely being seen by people. It’s quite rare to find completely fictional fantasy settings with no magic whatsoever, but they do exist.

EPIC FANTASY 

This is any fantasy story on an epic scale. I’m talking well over 50+ named characters. A Song of Ice and Fire, The Wheel of Time, Lord of the Rings, all of these are Epic Fantasy. Yes, these stories usually end up with long book series and a lot of words behind them, but I am defining a genre, not a reading level. Epic Fantasy is about scope, not page length. Common sights in Epic Fantasy are grand battles, multiple POVs, world-spanning events, extremely high stakes, very powerful players in the narrative, and The Final Battle Between Good and Evil.

QUEST FANTASY

Any fantasy work which is primarily driven by The Epic Quest. Often overlaps with Chosen One narratives. Lord of the Rings, Eragon, The Legend of Zelda, Avatar: the Last Airbender, and the Percy Jackson books are all examples of Quest Fantasy. The bulk of the narrative is centered on The Journey and the trouble the heroes run into along the way, or are otherwise all about The Adventure, not the destination. Our band of heroes have a goal given to them and the story is focused on following the heroes on their journey. However, this is not strictly a Chosen One category. The Legend of Korra is a Chosen One Fantasy, but is not a Quest Fantasy because Korra’s main objective changes every season. Percy Jackson toes the line due to the Oracle’s prophecies, but I wouldn’t call him a Chosen One because his birth wasn’t written in the stars or anything. He just happens to be a child of Poseidon and at the center of the story. If you switched him out for Nico di Angelo or Jason Grace, the story is still functional. In Lord of the Rings, Aragorn is the True King, but Frodo is the protagonist, so I wouldn’t call Lord of the Rings a Chosen One Fantasy either. This can also tip into other genres. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a Quest Fantasy. The entire premise of the movie is Arthur and his knights questing for the Holy Grail. Likewise, The Princess Bride is all about Wesley’s quest to rescue Princess Buttercup from Prince Humperdink. Treasure Planet is a steampunk quest fantasy telling the story of Jim’s search for Flint’s treasure, where the journey there is the bulk of the story. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas is a quest fantasy with elements of Historical Fantasy and Mythology Fantasy all about Sinbad’s perilous voyage to the edge of the world to save his friend’s life.

DARK FANTASY

It’s like normal Fantasy, but bleaker and darker. The Witcher and Skyrim are good examples of Dark Fantasy, where monsters roam the wilderness, and people live in fear of the unknown beyond the safety of their villages. The general tone is more cynical, desolate, or hopeless. Some Dark Fantasy is more about just being gloomy or creepy. The movies Labyrinth and Dark Crystal are two good examples of a Dark Fantasy that’s less bleak as they are weird, yet still dark. The Black Cauldron is a perfect example of a Dark Fantasy with a dreary and macabre aesthetic paired with a genuinely horrifying necromancer villain. Pan’s Labyrinth is another good example of a Dark Fantasy. Over the Garden Wall and A Tale so Dark and Grimm are both Dark Fantasy stories as well as Fable Fantasies, reveling in the darker aspects of Grimm fairy tales.

HORROR FANTASY

It’s like Dark Fantasy, but scarier. Expect there to be horrifying monsters unlike any seen on earth. Your protagonist is probably either hunting or being hunted by something horrible. Either a monster is trying to kill them, the world is trying to kill them, the gods or demons are trying to kill them, or magic is trying to kill them. Again, The Witcher is a great example of Horror Fantasy. Geralt is a hunter of monsters, and often fights things like Werewolves, ghouls, wraiths, and lesheys. Red Riding Hood (2011) is a great example of a vaguely medieval Horror Fantasy. Depending on where you stop the line at what’s horror, what’s fantasy, and what’s Horror Fantasy, you could justify just about anything as Horror Fantasy. From The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim with its undead Draugr and vampire clans, to Resident Evil VII with its vampires, or even certain Scooby-Doo! media (though Scooby-Doo! is certainly on the mild end of horror.)

PARANORMAL FANTASY

Unlike Dark Fantasy or Horror Fantasy, Paranormal Fantasy takes horror elements and spins them to be more romantic. This is where you’d slot in romantic or atmospheric ghost stories. Tales of witches and vampires in a macabre setting where they’re not the villains. The Addams Family fits the Paranormal Fantasy, as does Sweeney Todd, Sleepy Hollow, The Phantom of the Opera, Hotel Transylvania, most Scooby-Doo! media, Beetlejuice, the Halloweentown movies, The Nightmare Before Christmas, or Hocus Pocus. Basically, if it could be a child-friendly Halloween story, or was made by Tim Burton, it’s probably Gothic Fantasy. I guess you could also call this Monster Fantasy, Gothic Fantasy, or Spooky Fantasy.

CONTMPORARY FANTASY

The setting is medieval with castles and princesses, but there’ll also be modern conveniences or nods to pop culture in the land and setting. Dave the Barbarian is a good example of this. The royal family are all barbarians (which basically just means vague warriors that wear fur loincloths), but then they also have malls, and Dave made a megaphone out of a squirrel, some string, and a megaphone. Shrek does this too, especially in Far Far Away with nods to Starbucks and Burger King, among other modern franchises. Disenchantment also uses this as a basis for comedy. Typically, Contemporary Fantasy only uses modern conveniences in a medieval setting as more or less sight gags, punchlines, or to poke fun of corporations and consumerism. These are also the fantasy stories most likely to reexamine tropes and shine a critical light on the genre, whether by showing the farm-boy turned king being royally inept, the mental issues caused by locking the princess in a tower for years of her life, or how quickly princesses married the first man that came along without so much as a conversation beforehand.

URBAN FANTASY

The wizard has a smartphone, the prince has a Grindr, and the city watch patrol the streets on motorcycles. A standard fantasy world has come to the modern age, with skyscrapers, internet, cars, and cellphones. The familiar world gives the audience a firmer foot to ground themselves in this sort of story, compared to something set in the past, but it has its own hurdles. Namely, a modern world still needs a rich history. You also need a story that can’t be solved with a gun and an internet connection. Urban Fantasy is a very broad genre, from Hidden World Fantasy like Percy Jackson or Harry Potter, to Merged World Fantasy like RWBY. There’s also some head scratchers like the Warriors Cats books. It’s definitely Urban Fantasy. A cat society living in the forest is a fantasy, and the story is set in our modern contemporary world. But labeling the series beyond Urban Fantasy is where it gets tricky. Isekai borders on Urban Fantasy, as the magical overlaps with the modern world. The Magic Treehouse and the Arthur Spiderwick Chronicles are two great examples of Urban Fantasy in children’s literature. Goosebumps is Urban Horror Fantasy.

ISEKAI FANTASY

These are stories in which an ordinary human (or group of humans) are transported to another world in order to learn a lesson, grow, and come back home wiser, stronger, and ready to face the problems they ran away from. The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan and Wendy, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, as well as movies like Stardust, Coraline, and Spirited Away, or TV shows like Over the Garden Wall, The Owl House, and Amphibia are all prime examples of this type of story. The Chronicles of Narnia is an excellent example because as the series goes on, the older Pevensee children stop needing to go back to Narnia. By Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Peter and Susan have learned all they need to from the other world, and don’t go back, leaving only Edmund and Lucy to go with their cousin instead. Because their arcs are over, they have no reason to return.

ROMANCE FANTASY

It’s a romance novel with supernatural elements. Usually, it’s a human falling in love with something inhuman, which we often call Paranormal Romance. However, this can also include stories of a fairy falling in love with a dwarf, so there’s a wider net here. This isn’t just a story with a romantic subplot, this is your Romeo and Juliet type love stories. Your Beauty and the Beast retellings. The romance is the main plot, and the supernatural elements simply make the romance more exciting or the problems of the couple more entangled in cultural baggage. Obviously, Twilight is a popular example, as is The Cruel Prince, The Captive Prince, and Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay.

MAGITECH FANTASY

This is when a fantasy setting has magic-powered  technology. The guardians and Divine Beasts from Breath of the Wild are a fantastic example of Magitech in a medieval fantasy setting, as are the steam-powered automatons of the Dwemmer in The Elder Scrolls. The Legend of Korra sort of fits here. The world of Avatar has advanced to include airplanes, cars, and radios, none of which are powered directly by bending, but benders do work in power plants, performing lightning bending to generate electricity. It’s certainly a middle ground between steampunk and magitech fantasy. However, the world doesn’t have to necessarily include technology, any setting where magic is a power source for anything can work. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is a great example of Magitech Fantasy. Eco is a natural magical resource that give magical powers and effects. So, having doors that open when exposed to the electrical energy of blue eco makes sense. And while it’s never stated, Jak II has many automatic doors in Haven City that may very well run on an electric power grid fueled by blue eco veins. But eco largely gets dropped in the sequel games in favor of guns, though the guns themselves may actually be powered by eco as well. So it’s hard to say. RWBY surprisingly fits into Magitech Fantasy. Like Eco, Dust is a magical natural resource that can be used to create magical effects. The world is full of airships, shape-changing weapons, bullets and other weapons being infused with dust to give them magical effects, and Penny, a definitely real girl.

GASLAMP FANTASY

This is what happens when Steampunk has just enough fantasy elements to land in the Fantasy section. Gaslamp Fantasy is any fantasy story set in the era of gaslamps, while still incorporating fantastical elements. Dracula, Springheel Jack, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula, basically, as long as it’s set in a Victorian setting and has supernatural elements, it counts as Gaslamp Fantasy. However, it’s definitely one of the less popular subgeneres, and I couldn’t really name any others.

WUXIA

A fantasy setting that focuses more on East Asian history, folklore, and mythology to craft its setting. Wuxia is a broad term, including everything from Spirited Away to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Dragonball. However, often times in fantasy, European-inspired regions are complicated and diverse, while Asian-inspired regions are homogenizing, if not orientalist. We can differentiate Irish, Scottish, and Welsh folklore from English, but somehow, not treating all Asian cultures like they’re the same is too taxing for some writers. So, if you’re going to tackle writing Wuxia Fantasy, do your homework, try to make the cultures thorough and intricate, and don’t profess yourself an expert on another person’s culture if you’re not Asian yourself.

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don't leave me!

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Writing Resource: Character Driven Storytelling VS Plot Driven Storytelling

We’re stepping back from romance tropes to talk about a fundamental building block of narrative storytelling. Today, I want to explain the difference between a story that is driven by its Characters, and a story driven by its Plot. Going into this, I wanna make it clear that I have no bias between either. Both forms of storytelling are good. But as we’ll see in my examples, one of them does have a weakness that the other does not. More on that later.

CHARACTER DRIVEN STORYTELLING

In a Character Driven Story, the narrative is used to create avenues to explore the characters. The characters, their relationships, dynamics, and flaws come before the story being told. The characters are the true heart and center of the story. Most Sit-coms and other such comedic stories follow this approach where the characters are used to tell the jokes, while the deeper world or story is used to give these compelling characters a world to inhabit. Daria, Futurama, and Bob’s Burgers are three such examples of excellent comedic shows that are Character Driven. Futurama may have compelling narratives and deeper lore, but it is still a comedy with a cast of lovable characters at the center of the story being told. This is not to say that a character-driven story can’t have an ongoing narrative, but rather that said narrative takes a backseat to the characters. Daria is great at using its characters to explore its themes and ideas. Let’s take an episode of Daria for our example. In the episode Through a Lens Darkly, Daria gets contact lenses. Her change to contacts from her former pair of glasses that seemed almost alienating and off-putting leads to many people complimenting Daria on the change, but the contacts are itchy and irritating. The next day, Daria doesn’t want to wear her glasses, but she also doesn’t want to wear her contacts, and lies about having her contacts in. After causing a mess in the cafeteria, Daria hides in the girl’s room out of shame, and her two closest female friends try to talk to her about what she’s going through. Daria confesses to feeling like a hypocrite, usually mocking the girls who care about their appearances, yet now being guilty of it herself. It’s not until popular girl Brittney comes into the bathroom that the situation improves. Britney tells Daria that knowing that someone as smart and antisocial as Daria cares about her appearance too makes Britney feel less self-conscious about how much SHE cares about her own appearance, and reminded Britney that Daria is a human being just like her. This is enough to finally get Daria to open the stall door and emerge, thanking Britney for her insight. Caring about her appearance doesn’t make Daria a hypocrite, it just makes her human. Daria the show isn’t full of bombastic action scenes or intense steaks, but the really good episodes have some amazing character work at their cores, exploring the identities and values of its cast.

PLOT DRIVEN STORYTELLING

When a story is driven by the Plot, the exact opposite happens. The narrative is the primary focus, while the characters exist to propel the story forward. However, just as a compelling story can exist within a character driven show, so too can compelling characters exist in a story driven show. Unfortunately, sometimes you end up with a story like RWBY, where the characters are only fighting the villains because they just happened to stumble into the larger narrative by accident. None of the characters have any personal steak in defeating the big bad. Most barely have a reason to even be heroes at this point. Blake has effectively completed her character arc, and Ruby is so stupid that another character had to make her sit down and learn about her protagonist super powers. Why are the heroes fighting the villain? Because… Qrow told them to? Hell, the girls now spend about half of every volume sitting around talking about what they should be doing while they wait for orders from Qrow, Oscar, or some other ally. You’d think that Ruby, the protagonist, would be the one leading the group towards the fight with Salem. But no, Ruby is as much a follower as the rest of the main cast while the grown-ups actually make most of the decisions. Does Qrow even need Team RWBY? Well… extra man power doesn’t hurt. That’s about how much Team RWBY specifically needs to be involved in this story. The Characters of RWBY do not exist to give the story shape, but rather, the narrative drags the characters through the story by their nose hairs. The girls have little to no agency. Qrow said go to Mantel, so they went to Mantle. Qrow said go to Atlas, so they go to Atlas. They haven’t been to Vacuo yet, so everyone heads to Vacuo. At this point, the main characters are just passengers in the narrative.

TEEN TITANS

Teen Titans is a perfect example of a character driven action cartoon. Every episode is centered around either nonstop jokes and comedy or a character having an emotional revelation. If one really stops and thinks about the villains of Teen Titans, one may realize how non-entities they all are. Almost every single villain is a two-dimensional bad guy with no redeeming quality, and some barely have a solid motivation. But that’s not why they exist as villains. The villains of Teen Titans are not nuanced people meant to be full characters in their own right. They are plot devices. A source of conflict to drive our heroes to act. Let’s take the episode Car Trouble from Season 1. This is a Cyborg episode. The episode begins with Cyborg showing the rest of the team the super car he built and is super proud of. A mission comes up, and the team gets in the car to thwart the villain, Overload. A couple thugs steal Cyborg’s car, and Cyborg goes crazy looking for it, with Raven questioning why he’s losing his mind over a stupid piece of machinery. The car gets stolen from the thugs by Gizmo, and finally possessed by Overload, who can assimilate into machinery. In order to get the car away from Gizmo and Overload, Cyborg has to destroy the T-Car, and Raven gives a heartfelt speech about how the car is a part of him and how he had to put a piece of himself into it when he built it. She then points out that the super chip of the car survived, and the episode closes on Cyborg rebuilding his car with Raven lending him a hand and giving him a rare and genuine smile as it fades to black. Did you notice how little the villains factored into that episode? Because the episode isn’t about Gizmo, or Overload, or the thugs that stole the car to begin with. It was never about them. The episode was about Raven and Cyborg making a connection. The car being stolen was simply the conflict used to facilitate this heart-to-heart between them. While Teen Titans did have arcing storylines that spanned season-wide arcs like the Terra Arc in season 2, H.Y.V.E. and Brother Blood in season 3, Trigon in season 4, and the Brotherhood of Evil in season 5, the show by large was still episodic, with most episodes featuring on two (or more) characters getting the spotlight as they work on better understanding one another, or realizing they were wrong about something.

VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER

Voltron is the exact opposite of Teen Titans. Where Teen Titans uses its narrative to put a spotlight on its characters, Voltron uses its characters to put a spotlight on the narrative. The story is the main focus, with many episodes in a row sometimes carrying on small arcs within each season as ongoing plotpoints. While the story shines in its storytelling (at least in the early seasons), a few characters clearly get neglected in the process. It’s clear the writers liked Keith and Pidge since they get the best storylines and development, but the same cannot be said for Hunk. Hunk has a small arc in season 1 about helping Shae, a Balmeran alien he met. He doesn’t get another real heavy focus again until season 7, when he reminds a group of Galra the cultural significance of ‘Vrepit Sah’, an often repeated verbal salute that the Galra use. Hunk went 6 entire seasons being a background character with little if anything to do. What’s worse, Team Voltron has two tech people. Pidge, who is the hacker softwear specialist, and Hunk, the engineering hardware specialist. But when the warp core needs fixing, does Coran ask the engineer to help him with the engine? No, he asks the hacker to help with ship maintenance. The main thing Hunk should be doing for the team, and it’s handed to Pidge instead because she was clearly a writer’s pet character for the crew. To a lesser extent, this lack of attention from the writers effected many of the characters. Lance never really completes his arc, his friends constantly mock his lack of book smarts, and he gives up on his dreams at the age of 21 to spend the rest of his life pining over a girl he knew for about 4 years, and dated for a maximum of a few months. Allura started off as the effective team leader, telling the Paladins where to go and what to do to keep the ship operational, but once she becomes a Paladin, she’s actually demoted to taking orders from Keith. Also, she repeatedly makes it clear she has no romantic interest in Lance, he keeps persisting despite her telling him to stop, and then they start dating. And Shiro, poor Shiro, once they bring him back to life he has nothing to do. His dynamic with all of the Paladins has completely evaporated, his role in the team is gone, his brotherly bond with Keith has cooled to a highly formal workplace dynamic, and until the Atlas is finished being built, he has nothing to contribute to the team. In most scenes, he’s just … there. Voltron is so focused on telling a story-driven narrative that it abandons its characters by the side of the road. And by the late seasons, the characters are so disregarded by the show that the story-driven narrative starts to crack and break apart without good characters to hold it together. When most fans talk about why the show isn’t as good later on, it’s because the great character writing from the first few seasons deteriorated. And even a good story is meaningless without compelling characters at the heart of it.

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER

Avatar is objectively the perfect balance between story-driven and character-driven storytelling. The overarching narrative of Aang needing to defeat Fire Lord Ozai propels the characters through the story, but several episodes take the time to make sure each character has compelling personal storylines as well. Whether it’s Iroh teaching Toph that it’s okay to let people help her, Sokka telling Toph that he can’t remember his mother’s face, Katara and Haru talking about the price of war and the loss of family, or just Zuko’s everything, the characters are the true heart of Avatar, and they get the love and attention that the characters of Voltron never did. I would say that Book 1 is more character-driven as it’s more episodic and light-hearted with occasional plot episodes, while Book 2 is the most plot-driven, as it has several tightly interwoven storylines between the day of black sun, Appa’s kidnapping, the Dai Li, and Azula’s coup, it’s the best season in terms of Avatar firing on all cylinders in the story-telling department. Book 3 is also story-driven, but a little weaker than season 2, as it loosens up on as much of a narrative focus to balance between character and plot. Yes, several important plot points appear in Book 3, but the season also takes several episodes to show Zuko going on friendship field trips with the three main heroes, Aang having a severe anxiety attack about the invasion plans, and The Beach is just a masterclass in character writing. Avatar strikes the perfect balance between Teen Titans’ character-driven action show, and Voltron’s narrative-driven action show to make Avatar an action show driven by both its characters and its narrative in equal measure.

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The Mythical Queens of Britain

Queen Gwendolen of Britain

After Brutus of Britain left Rome to conquer the British Isles, he divided his new kingdom between his three sons. Locrine got Logres (England), Camber got Cambria (Wales), and Albanacht got Albany (Scotland). Gwendolen was selected to be Locrine’s wife, but he had to be forced into the arrangement. He much preferred a German girl he’d captured, and kept her for a mistress for seven years. Regardless of whether Gwendolen knew of their affair or not, after her father died, Locrine abandoned her and installed his mistress as his new queen. Scorned and discarded by her husband, Gwendolen rode back to Cornwall and raised an army against her husband, where he was shot by an archer, and Gwendolen had his mistress and their bastard daughter drowned in the river, which was later named after the daughter. Gwendolen then ruled England as the ruling Queen of Britain for 15 years before stepping down willingly to give the crown and throne to her son, Maddan.

Queen Cordelia

Yes, the one from Shakespeare’s King Lear. She too is part of the early ruling family of England and a descendant of Maddan. As in the play, her sisters Goneril and Regan exaugurated their love for their father, each getting a quarter of his kingdom as their dowries, while Cordelia was married off to Aganippus of Gaul to be rid of her. However, Goneril and Regan eventually overthrew Leir, and he fled to Gaul where Cordelia and Aganippus raised an army to take back England. Leir was reinstated on the throne, and ruled for three years before he died and passed his kingdom to Cordelia. However, her reign was short-lived, as just five years later, her nephews, Margan and Cunedagius, inherited their fathers’ lands and rebelled against her. Cordelia was desposed and imprisoned, taking her own life while in their custody. With Cordelia overthrown, the brothers tried to split the kingdom between them, but Margan got greedy and tried to take all of Logres for his own and attempted to take it by force from Cunedagius, was unsuccessful, and killed for his treachery, leaving only the descendants of Cunedagius, the son of Regan, to continue the family bloodline.

This was just something I wanted to do for fun because it’s not every day you see a ruling female monarch in mythology. Especially one written by Christians. It’s pretty apparent that not much happened during either woman’s reign, but considering many of the kings in the Historia Regum Britanniae are just a list of names, a date of rule, and who begat whom, it’s nice to know that the only two mythical women to have been the sole ruling female monarch both actually have interesting stories attached to them.