There was a time when I used to believe that a book need to be sorted between one of these two options; fantasy or fiction.
Of course many years have passed since those days for me. However, there could be other people who don’t know what genre their book is. So they wonder; what is the difference between fantasy and fiction.
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The difference between fantasy, and fiction is that fiction is any work based on events that imagined events by the author, while fantasy takes this further by being a story about imagined events with a central conflict that can only be solved with magic.
In essence, all fantasy are fiction, but not all fiction are fantasy. Much like how all squares are a parallelogram but not all parallelograms are squares.
However, this may not be as clear as one would like it to be, so let’s jump right into the broader explanation:
What Is The Primary Difference Between Fantasy and Fiction?
The main difference between fantasy and fiction is that fantasy requires magic to solve its primary focus, while magic is not necessary to solve all the problems that fiction has.
The genre of a story is built up entirely from the central conflicts solution.
If the central conflict can be solved through violence, then its action. If it can be solved through travel, than it is adventure. And if the central conflict can’t be solved without magic, then the story is a fantasy story.
This leads to a number of facts.
Fantasy and fiction end up have differing traits.
For example, fiction tends to be realistic, while fantasy tends to be mythical/mystical. This is shown in either the setting (a story taking place in bizarre places), in the ecological/biological make up (with different races such as orcs, vampires, and elves).
Finally, in the different magical setting. This does not mean no fiction has this, but it does mean that all fantasy has this. Fantasy then works as a portion of fiction.
However, even though fantasy is a part of fiction, that does not mean the two have no observable differences and traits.
For example, fiction is realistic, and fantasy tends to be mystical or mythical. Fantasy tends to have specific emotional/ virtuous themes, mystical themes, while fiction tends to have general emotional/intellectual themes.
What Other Differences Does This Primary Difference Cause?
1 Themes In Fiction and Fantasy
| Fiction | Fantasy |
| –Fiction tends to have general themes. Themes about the human experience, intellectual philosophies. Maybe even theories on how one needs to live in the world. | –Fantasy tends to have themes that are more specific than fiction. Fantasies themes are mythical, and speak of the human’s spiritual potential for virtue and general goodness |
2 Characters In Fiction and Fantasy
| Fiction | Fantasy |
| – The character development of fiction characters tends to feature a more internal change. Even if they learn the same thing that a fantasy character may learn, their self-realization is only experienced internal. The only external sign of the change that the character has gone through is usually something along the lines of a final action showing the characters change in behavior. i.e. a guy sacrifices himself in the end. | -The character development of fantasy characters tends to feature an external change. In fantasy, the power system is used to show the characters internal weaknesses, so when they finally overcome their inner self, it is shown through an external transformation. Maybe they gain new abilities, or lose ones they used to have. This change is also followed by a final action, but the difference is that the final action is impossible without the power up/down. |
3 Magic systems In Fiction and Fantasy
| Fiction | Fantasy |
| -Fiction stories tend to have realistic power systems. By realistic power systems, I mean things like guns, swords, arrows, spanking paddles, and spears. If not weapons, then it may be a fighting style like in the 80s kung fu movies. These power systems may show a trait of the character, but they are never tied to the characters personal development… well, except for kung fu movies. | –Fantasy stories tend to have non-realistic power systems. These are the typical magic systems. There’s to great a diverse range of example of these, but they are all unified by one thing in fantasy; they are intricately tied to the character’s development. They show the characters inner weakness, and when he/she finally overcomes this, he/she gains or loses a set of the magic system abilities. |
4 Settings
| Fiction | Fantasy |
| -The settings of fictional worlds tend to be realistic and contemporary, only representing the story through excesses or lacks. One of the uses of settings is to represent the theme of the story. A world with two cities, one rich, and one pour, tells you a lot about the story. Or maybe a setting where some of the characters live at top, or below, like a mountain, or city. That tells you a lot about the themes of the story. In fiction, they may have excesses and lacks shown through wealth and lack of said wealth. | -The setting of fictional worlds tend to be unrealistic, and mythical/mystical, and may represent the story through a number of diverse techniques. This can be seen through how some stories may take place in a world where other characters live in the dark underworld, and others live in a cloud, high place. That tells us about the roles of these characters, and the main conflict of the story. Due to magic, fantasy is free to create as diverse a world as it can. But as we observed in our fantasy flaws article, that is unfortunately not abused by most fantasy writers. |
5 Stakes
| Fiction | Fantasy |
| -Fiction tends to have internal, and realistic stakes. The contemporary nature of fictional worlds means that the story tends to feature modern technology. This means the stakes in the story are usually miniscule. They are more likely to be loss of family members, or things like loss of morals that the character used to hold. | –Fantasy tends to have external and mythological stakes. The world of fantasy stories, which tends to take place in mythological places means that the technology tends to be mythological. This means the stakes also grow. Suddenly they stand to lose the kingdom, the continent or even the world. These stakes can only be solved through the magic of the world. |
6 Realism
| Fiction | Fantasy |
| –Fiction tends to emphasis the realism. This is seen through the world building which tends to take the contemporary world of the period, the plot development which tends to be solved through recognizably technologies, or human alliances/interactions/bargains, and the contemporary biology of the world. | –Fantasy tends to emphasis the mythological. This is seen through how the world building tends to be mystical/fantastical/logic defying, the plot unfolding tends to be fixed through magic, and the biology of the world features strange creatures, and types of anthropological races. |
What Can Writers Learn From Fantasy vs Fiction; what is the difference?
“Tends”
What you will observe throughout this article is that there is an over reliance on the word “tend”. This speaks to how the different genres are not truly as different as we may believe them to be.
However, it is not easy to understand this fact. After all, we often speak of the differences between genres in this website. it is almost too much to ask that you now begin to understand that the differences may actually be thinner than we often make them out to be. For beginners, it would be best if they simply ignore this. But to the more advanced writers, pinkies, the minute you begin to understand those differences is the minute you will be beginning mastering mastery.