I donât know if this will help, but look, I have wip examples. I write both magical realism and fantasy (and sci-fi). And my magical realism wip (9C) actually grew from a fantasy premise! Weâre talking about works in progress, so thereâs nothing wrong with changing genres as you draft, or even figuring out how to write something on the go. Like I canât throw a rock on that roof.
But if you look at even just the summaries I post, please tell me you can see how differently magical realism and fantasy approach a story?? Comparing a magical realism wip with a contemporary fantasy wip, which people often mistake as being the same thing:
Nine Tales (9C):Â Gael, a boy who wants to be a writer, arrives with his aunt and cousins (and uncleâs ghost) at a beach town, where theyâll be staying at a B&B, where his mother once âfound herselfâ after going through a divorce when Gael was a baby. Hope the same will happen to them, because all these characters are going through a rough spot. At the B&B, an old storyteller (who might not even be human) amazes Gael with his stories and inspires him to write his own.
Babsâ Journey:Â One summer afternoon when Babs and their friends were little, they came across a car accident. A girl lay motionless on the asphalt, their first contact with death. As the kids hurried away, though, something caught their attention: a pile of round red stones. Each of them took one, and later no one remembered where theyâd gotten it. That was nine years ago. Now a ghost called Luce is asking Babs their help to get back all the stones that represent her debt to the Spirit Court, so she can be free. Togetherâand with the aid of a spirit taking the shape of a giant owlâBabs and Luce will have to travel the human and the spirit worlds to find Babsâ friends and complete Luceâs last tasks, before the sun rises again on their journey.
I can cross out the magic elements in 9C so easily, and the basic plot of the story doesnât change. Itâs about a boy finding his place in a world that often doesnât make sense, while surrounded by people who are also lost. Only that⊠the âdoesnât make senseâ takes a physical form. Thereâs a ghost and a guy whoâs (ambiguously) not human. I canât cross out the magic in my contemporary fantasy wip, because that in italics is the whole plot of the story. The quest structure is optional for fantasy, but if magic is central to the story, it isnât magical realism.
Because, if you read magical realism, you see that it is either realism, and by that I do mean full-blown contemporary/historical literature, where magic is an âunimportantâ detail (see The House of the Spirits, for example), or something similar to surrealism. Think Kafkaâs Metamorphosis. Itâs a plot so wild thereâs no way to mistake it for fantasy, or any other kind of genre fiction.
And look above. Iâm not a published magical realism author or anything. Itâs my first time writing a magical realism novel. But I know enough about the genre to at least be able to tell what Iâm aiming for, and what I want it to be similar to. Something in The House of the Spirits style, but with a so much more simple plotâjust the protagonist and his aunt/cousins solving some personal issues.
Also, I didnât introduce 9C as magical realism when it wasnât yet. Actually Iâm still owing my friends a wip introduction, oops. My advice is: if you arenât sure what genre you want? Thereâs nothing wrong with saying that! Any of these, plus a vague summary of your idea, should be good for an early draft:
âIâm still figuring it outâ
âIâm considering [genre] or magical realismâ *
âMaybe magical realism with elements of [genre]â *
* IF YOUR IDEA COULD BE MAGICAL REALISM. RESEARCH FIRST.Â
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