Young Writers Society

Ok i hope i dont post here too much but im always in need of help.

I wanted to have a look at story's of similar genre to my story to see how they are written but the problem is i have no clue whatsoever what category my story falls under. I dont mean broad category such as "fiction" well duh.. i want to find something to narrow it down.

so here some things that my help determine a category.

Its not fantasy. its set in modern time. Its almost realistic but its not, a few things happen to the characters that wouldn't happen for real such as sharing dreams. Other than that its mostly realistic until it gets to a certain point, in which a character die and there is an almost 'life after death' aspect.

I'm sorry I'm so confusing, but basically its realistic fiction with a small aspect of the impossible, or unreal added to it that comes into the characters lives.

Oh, its also not romance. There's a possibility i might add love between characters except the main ideas are not on loving relationships. It more focuses on friendships and family relationships. and values to a person (inner conflict of right and wrong)

i think finding a category will help me with me writing because i can see works similar genres to mine in order to see how they are done.

If I'm honest, I'd have said it was fantasy xD But not like wizard stuff etc. Maybe Urban fantasy? Depends if it's in a city though.

It could also be sci-fi, if it's not non-supernatural. I'd suggest you read 13 Days Before Midnight because it's sort of a combination of Fantasy and Sci-fi. I couldn't tell straight away what the genre was.

I think a bit more information on the plot would help a whole lot more in deciding what genre(s) your book is.

Good luck!

More info:
Its set in the country side (kinda) England. Its about the lives of these friends, but they go to see a medium and their dreams are interconnected so they understand each others thoughts and feelings more deeply but this creates even more conflict between them.

no1 take this idea please. i am always afraid of posting things about my ideas online.

i really don't think it fantasy. there's no magic. there's no epic battles. nor sci fi. no aliens. no scientific differences. the dream part is more based of spiritual, possibly religious beliefs. like ghosts and mediums.

The wikipedia definition of fantasy, which sums up the genre pretty well:

Wikipedia wrote:Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting.

Emphasis mine. Your story falls under "fantasy" with the spiritual/supernatural side of it. Fantasy is not limited to Lord of the Rings type plots. It's a genre where anything that can't be explained in the real world or by science takes place.

And, I'll be honest with you: a lot of people consider ghosts and mediums "magic", so despite you saying there is no magic in the traditional sense (the traditional sense being a force that lets you do practically whatever the heck you want within the world's limitations), there is magic to some people.

So, you're probably looking at magic realism or paranormal fiction. Paranormal includes such things as Ghostbusters, which, as the title suggests, just uses ghosts. I found both genres by looking up subgenres of fantasy (while this list doesn't include "paranormal fiction", it does include paranormal romance, which in and of itself is a subgenre of paranormal fiction).

Thank you, from your information i have concluded my work is possibly magic realism or surrealism