Genre Guides

If you like your urban fantasy with a side of romance; if you like Twilight or True Blood; if you think werewolves are underrepresented in modern fantasy; then paranormal might be a good fit for you.

The real thing to figure out is do you like romance? Because most of what is referred to as paranormal is actually paranormal romance.

Paranormal is a subset of intrusion fantasy that gets its own page here as it is unique in both its popularity and the fact that it's almost never written except in genre combinations.

There is some confusion/discussion about what paranormal fiction actually is.

If you want to write epic fantasy, you must read epic fantasy. Experts in the industry are consistent with their advice that you must be an avid reader of a genre to write well in it. The books listed below will teach you about the genre and help you get a feel for all the different things you can do with it. 

There are only a few books noted here, because most likely your portal fantasy will owe more to its genre combination than this genre. It is especially important to look at what is hitting the top of the list when you type in portal fantasy. If your book doesn't fit with these (currently mostly romance, erotica, and LitRPG), then I wouldn't bother using portal fantasy in your advertising/search term strategies

For this exercise, you should have a document open where you can write. Now copy the text in the box and paste it into that document. This will be the blueprint for your story.

Portal fantasies are a great way to take your reader away from their world for a while. If that's what you read for, then it might be a good fit for you. And it works as a mechanism for nearly every other genre, as well.

For the portal fantasy blueprint, I'm going to use the Three Act Story Structure with a few touches of Campbell's The Adventure of the Hero thrown in for fun.

The first question for historical fantasists is "What history shall I add fantasy to?" Here's some sites to help you pick.

Khan Academy's World History Course — Khan Academy is a non-profit organization aiming to provide free, quality education to everyone

Do you spend all day thinking about other times, perhaps when magic still worked? When faced with a historical mystery, do your thoughts immediately turn to magical answers? Do you think Pride and Prejudice is a peerless masterpiece, yet could still be improved? Maybe by the addition of zombies?