Alternate Universe With Few 'Fantasy' Elements?

Michael Colton

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What exactly would that be? As I continue to (slowly) plod away at my WIP, I am finding fewer and fewer fantasy elements in it. The primary exception being that it is in a world not our own. I am still very much a beginner when it comes to writing fiction so I was wondering if perhaps there is a downside of some sort to the amount of fantastical elements in a story? If there are few fantastical elements should I eliminate them entirely? Is it discombobulating somehow for the reader to not be sure if they are reading fantasy or not?

Any thoughts about the topic are appreciated.
 
I see a genre-danger in creating a world that is not our own, but then treating it exactly as if it is. Perhaps a little more information is required.

Is it set on an alternate earth? With the same countries, flora and fauna?

If you only have a few fantasy elements they could work in your favour, because however subtle they are, they will stand out against something very familiar.

Could you class it as magical realism? (like the challenge this month) everything appears to be much the same with the fantasy elements not taking the foreground?
 
The nations are different but the technological ability of the world is based in part on the Early Modern period in real history. But yes, for the most part, the fora and fauna are mostly similar on a day to day basis - with periodic exceptions. I thought about attempting to do straight historical fiction with some speculative fantasy thrown in, but I think I would miss the freedom of worldbuilding when constrained by actual nations and institutions. Right now, the fantasy elements are primarily environmental - they are not the point of the story or narrative, but simply brushstrokes on the world in which the characters live.
 
David Gemmell is known as a fantasy writer, but he always wanted to write historical fiction. However, his publishers made it clear that he'd have to strike out under a new name if he wrote historical fiction, so instead some of his books are essentially historical fantasies - based on historical settings, but with changes, and elements of mysticism and/or magic. Sword in the Storm is based on Celts vs Rome, and Lion of Macedon is set ostensible in Ancient Greece. In both instances, magic is limited. In case of help as a reference.
 
I think MC, that if you are clear in your own mind in your vision of the setting and all the world-building elements then you will be likely to also pass on a consistent and clear world for your reader. If it only has a few fantastical elements, then so be it!

However I'd argue that because you've 'mixed up the nations' you've deeply implanted fantasy into your WiP anyway (and more so if it is not alternative history). The question I think you are asking is that, because I'm in a different world do I need to really change lots of other things to draw attention to this. It sounds like you don't, as you are finding them appear less and less as you write. I think the occasional reminder in the form of some odd beastie or plant that we are not on Earth is fine.

I mean The Man in the High Castle is alt-history and quite close to our 'reality' but at the end of the day it tries to speculate about a world where 1940's Nazis Germany and Japan had taken over the world, which at the end of the day is just pure fantasy.
 
So you are still building?
You can always build up content later. if it seems a little sparce and dry.

there is much to be said for the gradual introduction of fantasy elements into a work, creating a snowball effect, as it were.
then the reader is introduced to the fantasy elements at the same time as the story protagonists.

.. instead of relying upon a thrust in aside. (i.e. thats melvin, he's just another unicorn pirate dragon slaving proto astronaut, and all that green goo is from when he saved the cave mice of gamma hydra four... watch out when he turns purple like that he gets all upset and spits acid.. thats why the princess doesn't have a foot and we call her peg leg prinny)
 
Alright, it sounds like it is not necessarily a problem. I rather enjoy introducing those few elements essentially incidentally. They exist but are not the focus.
 
It sounds like you need to lay out your alternate universe on a separate sheet of paper to highlight what's different.

If you want fantasy planet with strange creatures or a parallel universe that mirrors ours.

Working those unique elements into the story would be next.
 
What about Gormenghast? I don't think there's anything physically impossible in there at all, and there are hints that it exists in the real world.
 
Weird. I saw this in the threadlists and didn't think I had anything to say but, in looking through old notebooks (for what I wrote on the Charles Sheffield books I'd read, of all things), I came across a passage where I'm talking about my own juvenile writings and the categories they fit in. ("Cynthia" (named after the planet it's set on) and "The King Must Die" are two of those stories and Gedrin is the "hero" of the latter.)

Oh. I forgot a category. What I just call "alternate reality". It is one thing to stick an Orsinia somewhere on this planet in this historical continuum - no different than Hardy's Wessex or Faulkner's whatever-county, really. It is another to do a fantasy/planetary romance thing. It is still another to do A[lternate] R[eality]. In "Cynthia" or "The King Must Die" or what have you, I have it in mind that they may be "lost colonies" in an SF milieu, somewhat as Majipoor may be - but they don't have to be. And there is no fantasy or intrinsic SF to them - but they aren't alternate history or anything else. It's just a thing one can do to strip away all technology, history, connotations, etc., that are irrelevant to the story - the plot and character - and to put in only what one wishes. But this isn't a generally recognized thing. Mainstream fiction with no stream bed. I rather like this. [I like it less than] SF and fabulation, but I like to write it. If I don't want TVs and radios in my story it doesn't mean I have to have tonsured monks. If I want a war, it doesn't mean I have to deal with nationalism in history. Y'know, Cynthia is pre-industrial but it isn't necessarily "Medieval" and Gedrin may be religious but he isn't Christian, pagan, or anti-Christian or [anti-]pagan. But it isn't fantasy or fantastic, either. Just essences and ideas independent of accidents of time and place.

And now it occurs to me that you might be interested in this thread. (My amnesia was also complete in that, as I don't seem overly thrilled with the idea and had no recollection I'd written any of it. :oops: But the rationale I try to reproduce is basically similar.)

Anyway, point is, I don't believe it's a recognized genre and you might be setting yourself up for marketplace hassles but there are valid artistic reasons for doing it so, if it's floating your boat and you don't have to sell to eat, have at it! (Even if you do, who knows? - maybe you'll be the person whose book does so well that it becomes known for creating the genre and all those other books will come to be seen as "proto-whatever-you're-doing". :)) If the fantasy is not relevant, eliminate it. If it is, keep it in and try to make the sense of mystery and indeterminacy work for you and the reader.
 
I am early enough in the process of learning how to write that I am not particularly worried about marketability - it is so far away from where I am. I am primarily concerned with developing my skill, learning, educating myself, etc. So if part of that development process happens in a non-genre, I'm not too worried about it. Thanks for the thoughts and the link to the other thread. Much to think about.
 

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