Is it fantasy with just dreams/visions?

I would think this is general fiction. Possibly magical realism, although I kind of think not. Definitions of magical realism have sometimes confused me.

Without reading it, I'd guess it might depend on how central these things were to your story and on how strongly they were implied to be real. If the supernatural elements are pretty clearly real and drive the story or figures prominently into a character arc, maybe it's paranormal? If they're something the characters believe in, but there's no evidence that said belief is more than just a quirk or superstition, then maybe contemporary.

It comes down to what the story is about. Sometimes it's also a matter of whether you're known primarily as a writer of fantasy or a writer of more contemporary stuff. Amy Tan's written books that have supernatural elements--past lives, a ghost narrator in one, someone who can see/talk to ghosts in another. Yet her books are shelved with the mainstream/literary fiction, not the paranormal or fantasy.

Judg said:

Possibly magical realism, although I kind of think not. Definitions of magical realism have sometimes confused me.

Click to expand...

I hear you, as there are some conflicting accounts of what it is out there.

I think something is only really magical realism if the magical or supernatural elements are an accurately manifested representation of a real world culture or tradition as experienced by its practitioners. I have a friend who writes magical realism, and in his stories, the magic and supernatural is not really fantasy, as in it's not made up from scratch with whatever rules he needs it to have for the story. It's not just loosely based on real-world beliefs or traditions. He's basing it's representation on his real experiences and beliefs as a member of his religion and culture.

Back to the op, I've seen mainstream/contemporary stories that have dreams or psychic things in them that are presented ambiguously. Sometimes it's pretty clear the writer intends the reader to think it's real (it may even be revealed eventually that it is), other times it's presented so it *could* be a coincidence, and it's never clear whether it's just a quirky superstition the main character has or if there's more to it.

The general rule of thumb I have with distinguishing fantasy from sci-fi is that sci-fi is still within the realm of possibility, even if the technology doesn't exist yet, while fantasy is something that could never happen, regardless of how much time passes.

Animal crossbreeds and tracking chips could certainly happen in the future, so that makes The Hunger Games sci-fi, but people are never going to have their souls live outside their bodies in the form of animals, no matter how much time passes, so The Golden Compass is fantasy.

And as far as dreams go, a lot of that could depend on whether there is a scientific explanation for what causes them or not.

Roxxsmom said:

I think something is only really magical realism if the magical or supernatural elements are an accurately manifested representation of a real world culture or tradition as experienced by its practitioners.

Click to expand...

Nah. Though magic realism is often strongly tied to and draws from cultural beliefs, it doesn't often use them literally.

Would your book strongly appeal to fantasy readers? i.e. the dragons and wizards and spell-slinging-private-investigators crowd?

If the answer is no, don't call your book fantasy.

Instead, figure out which readers your book would appeal to strongly, and then classify it in such a way that it will wind up shelved where those readers go looking for books.

As a fantasy reader, if I saw something like this marketed as fantasy, I'd be disappointed.

Unless there are hints that there is, indeed, supernatural divine intervention at work, I'd go with general fiction on this. The "visionary dream" thing would go fine there, as long as it could be explained as either coincidence or the character's own subconscious giving them a hint - we often observe more than we realize, and there are active parts of our brain that our conscious doesn't connect with on a waking level, but which might (especially for fiction purposes) give us a nudge when we're open to it, as in a dream state. That's not fantasy or God, just us finding a way to help ourselves.

kuwisdelu said:

Nah. Though magic realism is often strongly tied to and draws from cultural beliefs, it doesn't often use them literally.

Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, then, what distinguishes a magical realism story with spirits or ghosts in it from, say, paranormal stories with spirits or ghosts in them? I was thinking it was down to how closely the story tracked a culture's real experience with or belief in these things. But there's a lot of conflicting advice out there. The most basic is that the magical or supernatural elements are a natural and seamless part of the world where the story is taking place, but that could apply to a lot of secondary world fantasy also.

Roxxsmom said:

Out of curiosity, then, what distinguishes a magical realism story with spirits or ghosts in it from, say, paranormal stories with spirits or ghosts in them? I was thinking it was down to how closely the story tracked a culture's real experience with or belief in these things. But there's a lot of conflicting advice out there. The most basic is that the magical or supernatural elements are a natural and seamless part of the world where the story is taking place, but that could apply to a lot of secondary world fantasy also.

Click to expand...

I've had this discussion several times, with several people, over several years.
NO ONE has yet given one example of anything that seperates Magical Realism from Literary Fantasy (, and in some cases Literary Science Fiction). So, in my experience Magical Realism is what you label Fantasy when you want to market it to LitFic fans and other people who (say they) do not read SFF.
I think Magical Realism has value as a marketing category, I'm for anything that helps people find the books they want to read easier. But it's not something authors need to think about at all, especially since books may be marketed as different genres in different territories.

A large number of the authors I've seen billed specifically as writing magical realism are from Latin America. So really, it might be down to whether or not you see your novel appealing to fans of Isabel Allande, Gabriel Garcia Marquez etc.

As for the OP, it's probably safe to say it's not magical realism, but something closer to paranormal (if those elements are real in the story). Paranormal is often shelved with fantasy, but given that fantasy is a broad genre and it's nearly always shelved with SF, fantasy readers are pretty adept at picking up the book, looking at the cover and at the back cover copy, and deciding whether or not it's the "kind" of speculative fiction story they're looking for personally.

"The Lovely Bones' by Alice Sebold was general or literary fiction, and that was with a dead character, in heaven, watching and interacting with people she knew.

There's no universally accepted definition for any genre, and there tends to be a lot of overlap between them.

What's the source of the visions? If it's supernatural in nature, this might be fantasy or magical realism. Even if it's not explained within the narrative itself, I'd recommend knowing for yourself what's actually going on behind the scenes.

Genre is a funnel that slurps readers to the correct shelf whereupon they will find the sorts of books they like.

Genre is not meant to be a precise classification system for book content. Figure out who your audience is, then figure out how to get your book in front of them. Choosing a genre is one facet of that process.

Roxxsmom said:

Out of curiosity, then, what distinguishes a magical realism story with spirits or ghosts in it from, say, paranormal stories with spirits or ghosts in them? I was thinking it was down to how closely the story tracked a culture's real experience with or belief in these things. But there's a lot of conflicting advice out there. The most basic is that the magical or supernatural elements are a natural and seamless part of the world where the story is taking place, but that could apply to a lot of secondary world fantasy also.

Click to expand...

Here are two posts I've made discussing magic realism, fantasy, and folk tales.

IMO it has to do with the motivation for the fantastic elements.

kuwisdelu said:

Here are two posts I've made discussing magic realism, fantasy, and folk tales.

IMO it has to do with the motivation for the fantastic elements.

Click to expand...

Cool! A nice, elegant explanation, and I've saved the bookmarks to link if the question comes up elsewhere.

Though I'm also still trying to get a handle on how paranormal with vampires and so on departs from urban or contemporary fantasy with the same