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This is a good point on the Fantasy genre

This author on Wordpress points out how the Fantasy genre has expanded with more YA works being published. And I think her use of the term 'hybrid' refers to Fantasy mixed with the YA point of view. Does hybrid in this case usually mean mixing elements of two different genres, like a sci-fi spaceship finding itself in a Fantasy universe?
I thought it was a good article. More readers finding stories they like in Fantasy is a good thing.
The Changing Fantasy Genre
 

Yora

Maester
YA is a format of story structure (I think?). Fantasy is one type of content. You can have YA fantasy just as well as fairy tale fantasy or horror fantasy.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
YA is an audience. If there were a fantasy audience, I'd be writing for elves. <g>

YA and MG come with other constraints--not in theme, but often with language and situations (little or no sex; or, if there is, the characters are new to it). That can indeed have implications for story structure, as Yora says.

Fantasy, otoh, is simply writing about one or more impossible things. It can be aimed at very young readers (talking animals, e.g.), or it can be aimed at adults. YA is a market; fantasy is a genre.

I honestly don't know what the blog author is on about. Fantasy for a very long time was regarded as being mainly for children, all the way back to folklore and fairy tales. In fact, one of the objectives of Tolkien and Lewis was to reclaim fantasy from the nursery and return it to the "good old days" of the epic.
 

gia

Scribe
YA my editor informed me is teenagers and above and need girlfriend/boyfriend stuff happening. MG is Middle graders...not so much romance stuff.
 
It's a weird blog post.

But things change. Classifications change. For me, too, there was a time when I could reasonably expect a certain type of fantasy story simply by reading the word "fantasy" on the binding of the book. Sure, not every story was the same; I then had to narrow down from the limited selection in Barnes & Noble, by reading the blurbs. But still....most of them seemed to fall within a narrow spectrum.

Admittedly, I no longer go into bookstores. Seriously. Haven't been in one for a very long time. I'm Amazon all the way.

"Fantasy" on Amazon isn't what "fantasy" on those books used to be circa mid- to late 80's, A lot more falls under that category; or else, the variety has simply exploded.
 
YA is a format of story structure (I think?). Fantasy is one type of content. You can have YA fantasy just as well as fairy tale fantasy or horror fantasy.
I think you're right. The article makes a good point that the genre has grown into the YA demographic, but she found some of the traditional Fantasy elements have been taken out.
I think it depends on if the writer is trying to create a Fantasy adventure, or cover "teen angst" issues that young people might recognize. I believe you can still have adventure in the traditional Fantasy setting, using a structure that is appropriate for the YA audience, and appeals to them.
 
Urban fantasy has exploded also. This helps with the growth into YA demographics. Add the subgenre of werewolves and vampires—traditionally relegated to horror before—and even fairies, etc., to the modern world, and you have about half of what constitutes the fantasy being written today. Add superhero tales, also.

Well, probably not half. I have no idea; I've not counted, heh.

Secondary world fantasy is still being written a lot, but where it once seemed to constitute the vast majority of what was labeled fantasy, now it's only a part of the fantasy genre.

These are just my own, limited impressions.
 
YA is an audience. If there were a fantasy audience, I'd be writing for elves. <g>

YA and MG come with other constraints--not in theme, but often with language and situations (little or no sex; or, if there is, the characters are new to it). That can indeed have implications for story structure, as Yora says.

Fantasy, otoh, is simply writing about one or more impossible things. It can be aimed at very young readers (talking animals, e.g.), or it can be aimed at adults. YA is a market; fantasy is a genre.

I honestly don't know what the blog author is on about. Fantasy for a very long time was regarded as being mainly for children, all the way back to folklore and fairy tales. In fact, one of the objectives of Tolkien and Lewis was to reclaim fantasy from the nursery and return it to the "good old days" of the epic.
What age range counts as YA and MG?
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
MG stands for Middle Grade. SFWA puts it at eight to twelve, with YA twelve to eighteen, but of course such fine divisions ultimately are rather silly. Still, it gives you a general idea.
 
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