{"id":2814,"date":"2015-06-15T06:57:57","date_gmt":"2015-06-15T13:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestfantasynovel.com\/?p=2814"},"modified":"2015-06-15T06:57:57","modified_gmt":"2015-06-15T13:57:57","slug":"what-is-fantasy-romance-guest-post-by-amy-raby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/2015\/06\/15\/what-is-fantasy-romance-guest-post-by-amy-raby\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Fantasy Romance? (Guest Post by Amy Raby)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Loving<\/a>
\nAre you a fantasy reader who enjoys pairing the characters off in romantic relationships? Do you sometimes wish a fantasy novel would spend more time on the characters, go a little deeper into what makes them tick? If so, fantasy romance is the genre for you.<\/p>\n

When I started writing my own fantasy novels, I found myself beginning not with situations but with characters. I spent a lot of time on worldbuilding, but I didn\u2019t create my characters for the purpose of revealing the world. Rather, I created my world for the purpose of revealing the characters. My first novel (never published) was about two men on an adventure. They were a mage and a thief, essentially, and I put them in constant conflict with each other.<\/p>\n

Someone beta-read the novel and was confused. \u201cIt reads like a buddy movie,\u201d he said. Yes, it was supposed to! The reader seemed to think a fantasy novel couldn\u2019t spend so much time on the characters and their relationship. Maybe that novel didn\u2019t work, but I knew that writing about characters and relationships was what I wanted to do.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d been reading science fiction and fantasy since childhood. I discovered the romance genre later in life, and when I did, I realized this was what I\u2019d been missing. Here<\/em> were the character-driven books I\u2019d been looking for. This<\/em> was the genre I was meant to write. But I didn\u2019t want to give up my fantasy worlds and magic and dragons. So I started writing romances that took place in fantasy worlds.<\/p>\n

Fantasy romance novels sit astride two genres. They are romance novels, fulfilling all the requirements of the romance genre. And they are fantasy novels, fulfilling all the requirements of the fantasy genre. I aim for a 50\/50 split between romantic content and fantasy adventure content.<\/p>\n

At this point I don\u2019t even know how to write a novel that\u2019s not fantasy romance. Having two intertwined storylines gives me so much narrative freedom, as well as advantages in pacing. We\u2019ve just had a big action scene as part of the adventure storyline? It\u2019s time for a quieter scene focused on the romance. My romantic couple just had a big fight and they\u2019re not speaking to each other? Get them together with new developments in the adventure storyline that force them into contact.<\/p>\n

Adding magic to a romantic relationship can be all kinds of fun. I had a great time writing the playful love scenes in one novel, in which the man had the power to turn invisible. Magic can also serve as an equalizer for female characters. I enjoy writing powerful, magically gifted heroines.<\/p>\n

When I started writing fantasy romance, I thought I was the only person doing it. I\u2019d never read a novel in this hybrid genre in my life\u2014although several novels shelved in the fantasy section might have qualified (one by Ellen Kushner, several by Barbara Hambly).<\/p>\n

But I was wrong. I wasn\u2019t the only one. It\u2019s a lesser known genre, but a few fantasy romance authors have been published by Penguin, and self-publishing has really<\/em> flung open the doors for fantasy romance, adding many talented authors to the mix. We\u2019re an emerging genre, and we\u2019re building steam. The world is full of readers who grew up reading fantasy novels and also love romance. Those are the readers we\u2019re writing for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are you a fantasy reader who enjoys pairing the characters off in romantic relationships? Do you sometimes wish a fantasy novel would spend more time on the characters, go a little deeper into what makes them tick? If so, fantasy romance is the genre for you. When I started writing my own fantasy novels, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,577],"tags":[643,647,650,698],"class_list":["post-2814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amy-raby","category-writing","tag-fantasy-romance","tag-genre","tag-guest-post","tag-romance-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}