Urban Fantasy vs Paranormal

[Mark.W.Carson]

Where are the lines drawn for these? Is there a "Suburban Fantasy?"

[Doug Pardee]

I'm certainly not an expert, but to me, "paranormal" means ghosts and ESP, while "urban fantasy" means fairies and magic in a contemporary setting. Paranormal also tends to be lighter, while urban fantasy tends to be darker.

[Margo]

Where are the lines drawn for these? Is there a "Suburban Fantasy?"

"Suburban Fantasy" would fit more into "Contempory Fantasy" or "Paranormal " than the current definition of urban fantasy. Much depends on style and story elements. In recent years, modern fantasy has been fused heavily with noire elements.

Generalized Examples:

Urban Fantasy: Jim Butcher's Dresden File Novels, Laurell K. Hamilton's early Anita Blake novels, Seanan McGuire's Toby Day books.
Contemporary Fantasy: Charles de Lint (frequently set in rural areas), some Neil Gaiman titles, Seanan McGuire's Sparrow Hill Road stories.

Most people, when they hear paranormal, are going to think vampire/werewolf romances due to the current market.

[Margo]

I'm certainly not an expert, but to me, "paranormal" means ghosts and ESP, while "urban fantasy" means fairies and magic in a contemporary setting. Paranormal also tends to be lighter, while urban fantasy tends to be darker.

Also good rules of thumb...

[AMSchilling]

I think by definition urban fantasy is supposed to be set primarily in a city. Though by that definition Cassandra Clare's "Infernal devices" series could be classified as urban fantasy as it's in London. But....it's Victorian London. So maybe UF is modern day fantasy in a city? And the classification of contemporary fantasy would then be modern-day fantasy primarily outside a city.

I think most people assume "paranormal" fiction means magic boyfriends or sparkly vampires. So personally I wouldn't query my book as such but as urban or contemporary fantasy even if there was a romance element, too. Just personal choice--the market seems to be pretty glutted with magic boyfriend books, where the main plot is the relationship. I might write one, or read some, but If I were an agent I'd be awfully tired of seeing thousands of queries for it a month.

[Margo]

Just personal choice--the market seems to be pretty glutted with magic boyfriend books, where the main plot is the relationship. I might write one, or read some, but If I were an agent I'd be awfully tired of seeing thousands of queries for it a month.

Actually, an agent recently mentioned to me that's still a really strong fiction market right now. He can sell paranormal romance all day every day. Urban fantasy...not so much. So it's actually the opposite right now for debut authors. Paranormal romance is an easy sell. Urban fantasy, check back in six months.

[AMSchilling]

Hmmm.....food for thought, Margo. I'm going for the whole debut author status so maybe I need to rethink. Especially when there's such a fine line between the two classifications in some cases. Thanks!

[polymath]

Paranormal in a simple sense is imaginative cultural belief systems part of a society's zeitgeist. Supernatural is imaginative spiritual belief systems, again, from a society's zeitgeist. Both metaphysical, contrasted with mundane, meaning earthly. However, mundane as a term for imaginative fantasy set in the earthly realm invokes a relatively recent connotation meaning boring, dull, common place that emerged simulataneously with the subgenre of "urban fantasy." Probably due to dissaffected, directionless youths thinking the earthly, mundane realm is dull. So urban, though it too has a similar and tenuous mundane connotation connection, a la urbane, emerged victorious instead. For the present time.

Urban fantasy or whatever self-imposed term for cultural belief zeitgeists imagined as overlapping the mundane realm a writer or the fickle marketplace chooses merely signifies a paranormal overlap with real-world settings.

Magic realism blurs the distinction boundary between the supernatural and the mundane, where a natural occurrence can have spiritual significance and spritual, supernatural significance can be taken, taken for granted, as a natural part of the mundane world.

Paranormal is vampires and fae, telepresence and clairvoyance and such. Supernatural is demons and dead ancestor ghost worship and supernatural superstition and so on. Witchcraft overlaps paranormal and supernatural, consorting with the devil, oh my.

It is a best practice to keep one's world order setting motifs straight so readers' willing suspension of disbelief aren't challenged, though no absolutes when exotic secondary imagined realities engage an audience in the all important participation msytique reading spell.

[Mark.W.Carson]

So based on this, my story would be elements of multiples, aside from not being set in an urban setting. This will surely be fun during the querying stage. How does one actually go about giving that information a go when you build a, hopefully, unique world with slight nuanced differences from the one we live in?

It's weird in that there IS a romance involved, and it is integral to the plot, but surely not the focus of the story, and is seriously one sided. I guess I'll just have to write it and worry about how to categorize it later.

[Claudie]

So based on this, my story would be elements of multiples, aside from not being set in an urban setting. This will surely be fun during the querying stage. How does one actually go about giving that information a go when you build a, hopefully, unique world with slight nuanced differences from the one we live in?

It's weird in that there IS a romance involved, and it is integral to the plot, but surely not the focus of the story, and is seriously one sided. I guess I'll just have to write it and worry about how to categorize it later.

If the romance isn't the focus and doesn't end in a HEA (that's how "seriously one-sided"), I don't think you count as paranormal romance. Of course it could be supernatural/paranormal without the romance, but it doesn't sound like you have the shining magical boyfriend thing going on.

[Mark.W.Carson]

Well, here's the crux. This is, at least hopefully, going to be a series based on the same few characters. There might be a HEA at some point, but not this one. It is also not told from the girl's perspective.

[Nicole R]

The advice so far has been great. Personally, I think it sounds like you're leaning a little more toward urban fantasy. I don't think it matters as much if it takes place in a city vs. rural environment, as long as it's set in our basic world with "fantastical" elements.

Don't worry about your MC's gender. That shouldn't be a factor in categorizing it, except possibly from the paranormal romance perspective (but there ARE some dude-based paranormal romances too).

Good luck!

[Sommer Leigh]

I think it is important to remember that a story can go wading into MANY genres/subsugenres. A story with romance doesn't have to be catagorized as a romance, a paranormal story set in a city isn't necessarily urban fantasy, a gritty victorian novel is not necessarily steampunk. You can pick the best stuff from lots of genres.

But when you categorize your story, you'll have to pick one genre that fits the very best - where it would be shelved in a book store or library. This is where reading others similar books to your own is so important. It lets you know what the current market is calling certain genres and which new subgenres are emerging.

In the 90s, YA was filled with vampires and witches and cultists and ghosts and mysteries - Christopher Pike, R.L. Stine, L.J. Smith, Caroline B. Cooney, and Richie Cusick to name a few. But they were categorized as YA Horror. I think some of my paperbacks from back then even have the word "HORROR" written boldly on the spine. There was no paranormal romance, though many of the Horror stories of that time would have fit very happily in the YA Paranormal Romances of right now. Both time periods enjoyed hot boys, cute girls, themes of social awkwardness and rejection, acceptance, first love, first betrayal, and family issues in a world with vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts, murderers, time travelers, and aliens. But they were very clearly categorized differently. There's no better example of this than the revival of some of those 90s horror books by Christopher Pike and L.J. Smith with new covers,new tv shows, and a rebranding of "Paranormal Romance."