On Fantasy: Why I Selected This Fantastic Genre

Greetings!

Now, I've been asked by some of my friends and relatives why I picked fantasy out of any genre to write when I began taking this path seriously. The answer to that is that I grew up with a lot of fantasy media from Lord of the Rings to Harry Potter, and some Studio Ghibli films like Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away. All of these works have left a deep impact on me and the imagination that came with it. I also had an easy time coming up with elaborate and sometimes nonsensical scenarios that helped quell my boredom. It's been a steady growth of my love for the genre since then.

I always viewed fantasy as a more polished and professional form of that in using your imagination and testing the limits of what reality can't replicate. And frankly, I felt it's rather an oxymoron, in my opinion, to use realistic fiction as a form of escapism from reality because in my philosophy I feel the purpose of telling a story is to make it as different and unfamiliar from our own world to make it feel as wonderous as it can be. Still, I see the value of adding realism in terms of character development and motivation and the flaws attached to their history and personality because otherwise I'd feel I'm just writing pure nonsense! I'm not bashing the existence of realistic fiction as something worthless because it can have a lot of relatability factor to it, but it's not something I'd ever want to be known for because I write stories to escape from reality.

You may or may not agree with my sentiments, and that's completely fine! We all have our own tastes and views in any subject, and in this case, writing.

If you're a writer, what genre are you specializing in? And why does that genre speak to you the most?

Thank you for reading! Here's a photo of a fantasy fest I went to a few years ago.