Is my story paranormal or fantasy?

Yeah. My general of paranormal is that it is an Earth setting with "not-normal" or otherworldly elements. So, if the characters are somewhere that isn't Earth, I'm not sure paranormal would be the best label for it.

And, elementals are not specifically a paranormal thing. Even though you might be presenting them in more of a "shifter" category.

I've recently corresponded with an editor who specializes in paranormal and fantasy, and this is the gist of what she said about paranormal: it's a romance with supernatural elements.

I would have thought this would have been the definition of paranormal romance myself, but what I took from her response was that "paranormal" might now be considered short for "paranormal romance."

Echoing MythMonger with admittedly anecdotal evidence: Wattpad uses the category paranormal, and over there, among mostly younger female writers and readers, I've come to understand paranormal as meaning paranormal romance, pretty much always.

Aggy B. said:

Yeah. My general of paranormal is that it is an Earth setting with "not-normal" or otherworldly elements. So, if the characters are somewhere that isn't Earth, I'm not sure paranormal would be the best label for it.

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I've always been a bit vague about the line between paranormal and urban or contemporary fantasy, though. To me, "paranormal" implies fantasy elements that are slighter or more subtle, things that some people really do believe in, like angels, ghosts, demons, psychic abilities and so on, but not told as a horror story (or it would be horror with paranormal elements, like some of Stephen King's stuff). And paranormal tends to treat these things in a way that is close to some societal consensus (or cultural canon) about how these elements work. The Exorcist, for instance, dealt with demonic possession as it is thought to work by Catholics (at least some Catholics), though it was told as a horror story.

Urban or contemporary fantasy is, to me, a bit more fanciful, and the speculative elements used in a more unconventional or inventive way. A story like "Penric's Demon," where "demons" have nothing to do with the creatures from Judaeo-Christian tradition and were actually someone benign entities who work as partners with the possessed feels more like fantasy (also, it's set in a secondary world, but even if it wasn't, it would feel more like fantasy than paranormal to me). With urban and contemporary fantasy, fantastic creatures and people with special abilities often live in a world within our world, hidden away from normal people (as with Harry Potter and many urban fantasies), where there's less overlap between everyday people and the characters/plot than in paranormal.

But I'm probably missing something, since Twilight was considered a PNR, not a fantasy. Werewolves and vampires are common in books that are considered UF as well as paranormal. What distinguishes them, I'm not completely certain.

And, elementals are not specifically a paranormal thing. Even though you might be presenting them in more of a "shifter" category.

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I'd agree that elementals feel like fantasy creatures to me. They certainly appear in many fantasy novels, both in secondary worlds and our own.

Marian Perera said:

Still, I suspect the fact that it's set somewhere other than Earth means it's fantasy. What are your thoughts?

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Sounds like fantasy to me, especially secondary world fantasy. The word "paranormal", as a genre, conjures up (for me at least) a "paranormal romance" where werewolves, ghosts, vampires, humans, etc., all interact with each other and have love affairs, usually with action. If the romance element isn't there, it's likely to be called "contemporary fantasy". So yep, I'd consider yours a fantasy story.

I love the concept, by the way. I'd read that.

There's no universal consensus on what "paranormal" means. As early as 1915 (according to Random House dictionary) it was just another word for fantasy. I noticed it being used that way thirty years ago, often as a synonym for contemporary fantasy.

More and more romance seeped into contempo fantasy, as sex in our fiction became more acceptable to SF/F readers, until in a lot of contempo the romance became the main plot instead of a subplot. That's when I began to see paranormal being called paranormal romance. Nowadays paranormal often is used as shorthand for "paranormal romance."

What should we do? I'd suggest using the term paranormal romance than just paranormal if it indeed is mainly a romance. And calling our works (that qualify) urban or contempo fantasy and avoiding the amorphous term paranormal altogether.

A story set in a secondary or alternative world/universe typically falls under fantasy, even if magical elements are very slight, or completely absent.

One trick is to ask yourself who you think would be most likely to want to read your book? Fans of high or epic fantasy authors like Sanderson, Hobb or Jordan? Mercedes Lackey fans (she writes stories with elementals in them)? Twilight fans? Harry Potter fans? Patricia Briggs fans? Some other writer?

Elementals and other worlds both sound like fantasy to me.

Marian Perera said:

So I've been querying a new manuscript and calling it paranormal. But it occurred to me today that I might be wrong, and there are a few agents who take fantasy but not paranormal, so any feedback on this would help.

The Paranormal Part

There are earth elementals. They can shift their shape between human and anything that's made of earth (landslide, quicksand, etc), and they rule over humans.

The Fantasy Part

The background is that, a hundred years ago, a cruise ship set out from a harbor somewhere on Earth, sailed through thick fog and emerged in another world (think Ravenloft or Twilight Zone). The ship finally made landfall at a continent which humans have now colonized. However, this is all backstory. It gets gradually revealed through the manuscript; what's front and center are the humans and elementals.

Still, I suspect the fact that it's set somewhere other than Earth means it's fantasy. What are your thoughts?

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Marian Perera said:

Shoot, I forgot to mention that every story set in this world has been a romance. Focusing on the development of a relationship, HEA, sex, etc.

So, who would be most likely to want to read my book? I thought it might appeal to fans of paranormal romance who like shifters and who are in the mood for something other than werewolves, werebears, etc. But with the caveat that this is set on another world. Which, other than the earth elementals, is pretty similar to ours (the colonists have towns named New Galveston and Little Prague) but it's not our world.

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I want to say I've seen alt-Earth but Earth-like settings with romance still labeled "paranormal romance," but all that's coming to mind is Anne Bishop's new series, which isn't really romance, it's UF with a romantic subplot. I do think I've seen it done that way, though, but I might be fooling myself.

But since the focus is the romance, and it does look/act like our world at first glance, I think it qualifies as PNR. I will say, as someone who avoids romance in all its subgenres (no offense to you and nothing to do with the quality; I'm aromantic and can't relate at all), that if this were marketed to me as a fantasy and I picked it up and found the main plot was the romance, I'd be disappointed.

Marian Perera said:

No, I make it very clear in my queries that this is a romance. The question for me is whether it's a paranormal romance or a fantasy romance.

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Hmm, if it's secondary world, I'd probably call it a fantasy romance. If it's on a different planet, set in a possible future of our own, then I don't know. It would appear to blend elements of fantasy and SF, so would it be a science fantasy romance?

Marian Perera said:

No, I make it very clear in my queries that this is a romance. The question for me is whether it's a paranormal romance or a fantasy romance.

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I didn't mean to imply you weren't making it clear in the query, sorry. But with that in mind, my distinction between the two wouldn't be "is it our Earth" but "how far in the book can I get before I realize it's not our Earth"? To me, for example, Bishop's Others series is absolutely urban fantasy, even though they have an alternate history and you can quickly realize they're not our Earth at all, because it looks like our Earth on the surface. Same level of technology, much the same government (for humans), etc. People act with very modern sensibilities (except the ages-old Others, but that's standard for fantasy.)

But I don't trust my instincts on this, because I look at words sideways sometimes. So I dug through Google for an official answer and stumbled on a list of fantasy subgenres and an old AW thread with a similar question. What I quite cheerfully realize from the AW thread is that the line between "paranormal" and "fantasy" is extremely blurry. So I would at this point ask if the agent in question also reps romance, and if they do, I'd query it as romantic fantasy and see what happens. (Bear in mind though that I'm still unpublished and unrepped, so if someone who's been through the whole rigamarole and came out on top disagrees with me, they probably know better than I do.)

I was thinking another planet, because you had names that were based on Earth cities, like Little Prague. That's something SF writers do a lot, and it makes sense. When Europeans colonized the Americas, they named many of the cities after places back home (New York, New Jersey, Madrid, Potsdam, Canton etc). But I wouldn't expect to see names like that in a secondary world, unless they're the kind of names that are ubiquitous to most human societies (I swear every state and country with a coast has a Newport, for instance) and would be arrived at independently of reference to an earth city.

Roxxsmom said:

One trick is to ask yourself who you think would be most likely to want to read your book? Fans of high or epic fantasy authors like Sanderson, Hobb or Jordan? Mercedes Lackey fans (she writes stories with elementals in them)? Twilight fans? Harry Potter fans? Patricia Briggs fans? Some other writer?

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These are great questions to ask, Roxx! Nice way of clarifying since the line between UF / PNR / contemporary fantasy is rather subjective from what I've seen.

amergina said:

My gut reaction is that it's fantasy because it's not "our world, but with magic/creatures" but an alternate world/Earth. Paranormal, especially when it has a strong romantic arc is more or less the same as urban fantasy or contemporary fantasy (which is real-world based). While fantasy, when paired with a strong romantic arc is... fantasy.

More or less.

You *could* query those agents that take fantasy and call it a fantasy and see what happens, since it's not vampires/shifters/ghosts, etc and is more secondary-world-like.

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+1 to amergina.

Marian Perera said:

Shoot, I forgot to mention that every story set in this world has been a romance. Focusing on the development of a relationship, HEA, sex, etc.

So, who would be most likely to want to read my book? I thought it might appeal to fans of paranormal romance who like shifters and who are in the mood for something other than werewolves, werebears, etc. But with the caveat that this is set on another world. Which, other than the earth elementals, is pretty similar to ours (the colonists have towns named New Galveston and Little Prague) but it's not our world.

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Marian Perera said:

No, I make it very clear in my queries that this is a romance. The question for me is whether it's a paranormal romance or a fantasy romance.

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Honestly Marian, I think you could call it either. Fantasy romance is something a number of agents seem to be twittering about of late, so you could go with that to not hit upon the over saturation ennui some folks have with PNR. Change it up based on the agent you are querying. I've done that, shifting between contemporary and urban fantasy on mine. The agent will tell you where they think it might fit best. But that way you can hit the best of both worlds as needed, and you have good arguments for both ways.

If you were to threaten to nail me to the wall for an answer, I'd say fantasy romance, based on what I remember from your queries in this world (which sounded really cool, by the way).