Get Published – What Genre Fantasy

Choosing a genre should not be a decision made in haste. The writer should have a good grasp of what it entails. Researching the chosen genre in depth is essential. A young writer may have a preference of genre built on the fact that it is currently popular, fashionable, has made the author a lot of money or that it seems the easiest to write.
Looking at the efforts of new young writers lately it seems that fantasy fiction is the most likely to be chosen. It looks so easy. Create a fictitious world which includes a stalwart knight, some magic, a wizard or mage and of course a dragon and it appears that is all it takes to attain publication.
This is a very naive view and will only bring disappointment to the new writer. The great works of fantasy fiction did not just happen arbitrarily. They were conceived in imaginations of immense scope. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is a masterpiece, unlikely to be topped. J K Rowling’s boy wizard is a masterstroke in that the author perceived a niche and took it. There may be another niche so far gone unnoticed which some young writer will spy and fill, but it will have to be something totally different from what has gone before.
We have already discussed the fact that there are no new ideas, so old ideas must be given a new slant to make them appear original. If the new writer is drawn to fantasy fiction it must be for valid reasons. He has something new to say. In the case of J K Rowling, wizards and magic are ancient ideas, but a school for young wizards is refreshingly new. Another fresh aspect of these books is that Rowling’s world of magic runs parallel with the modern real world. As has been said, a masterstroke.
Rehashing previous popular fantasy fiction will not do. More than any other genre fantasy fiction needs the most imaginative of writers. Bear in mind that a writer’s imagination need have no limits to what it can perceive. Imagination can be larger than the universe itself. It depends on whether the writer is prepared to exercise it to the full. The writer of fantasy must get to work on old ideas, letting his imagination examine them from all angles until some new slant is discovered.
Once a genre has been finally decided for good reasons, the writer needs to remember that this genre will be his arena for many years to come if he is successful. He needs to know that he can go on writing in this same category for book after book, always producing something fresh. This is why it is important to be sure that the genre chosen is suitable to the writer’s imaginative scope.