The Write Slice: Write or Wrong

Sometimes I've kind of wondered about the genre category of "speculative fiction" because it seems to be a collection of seemingly unrelated things. Basically, you can fit into spec fiction if your story can't be "real," but that leaves a broad range of styles. The four most common forms of spec fiction are: fantasy, science fiction, paranormal, and horror. I think most people are fairly familiar with the first three categories and what distinguishes them, so I'll spend most of my post today on the "horror" category. (If you already know the basics of the subcategories, don't bore yourself and skip down until "But...") Fantasy - Fantasy tends to be just that - things that are fake and often magic-based. Usually we think of magical creatures, like dragons, wizards, elves, etc. (think Lord of the Rings ). These types of stories tend to have a medieval setting (though not always). There are also stories of urban magical series tha...