Romantasy - appropriate for WotF

Posted by: @ease

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although a few have romance as a sub-plot

I would have thought more than a few?

Ok, took me a while to figure out we aren't talking sword, sandals and gladiators.

Does romantic fantasy even need sex?

I guess a "they stayed the night together," or such.

I don't think romance needs sex.

The events prior can be more interesting.

Perhaps the goal is the wedding and they aren't busy before.

Or it could be the tention before the first date.

Or maybe they just can't.

Think robocop, boy in the bubble, sort of thing. 

Maybe it's love by letter.

Perhaps thinking of why not to include it is the best way to come up with an interesting story?

Romantasy fits under the rules - there is definitionally a fantastic element. And I have read romance short stories before coming in way under 17,000 words. So it can definitely be appropriate.

And just because one hasn't won yet (I have not read all the winners from every year, so this is not to say for sure that one hasn't) doesn't mean one won't. Maybe someone else can come up with reasonably recent first-of-their-kind winners?

I think that romance as the primary plot would be a tough win. It's a romance in a fantasy setting, which is no different than a romance in any setting. The plot or throughline for most romance-driven novels is the two main characters being pulled together, torn apart, then bonded. 

While I'm sure that could be done under 17k (though the higher the word count, the better), the odds of placing in WotF are low because that's not what they're typically looking for. Not impossible, but, I think, damn near.

I guess we'll have to keep our eyes open and see what comes of future volumes! Given it's recent explosion in popularity, it might be a boon to the anthology to have a romantasy in there.

Very true that a straight romantic plot would be a tough story to win on here. Fantasy and sci-fi needs to drive the plot for this contest. As a secondary or even tertiary plot line though… maybe?

This isn't an example from WOTF, but since people are wondering how to even write a romantasy under 17K words, here is a romantasy written in only 2,400 words. (Content warning: torture). "The Breaker of Mountains and Rivers" by Aliette de Bodard published in Uncanny. 

@reigheena this is exactly what I was looking for/wondering about. Thank you so much! How refreshing to return to decent uninterrupted unmarred real talk about writing.

@ease Could not agree more!

Took a look through my records of what else I've read this year and discovered another romantasy. This one's cozy. 4,600 words "Mail Order Magic" by Stephanie Burgis published in Sunday Morning Transport. 

So there should soon be plenty of examples of short romantasy (even if not in WOTF specifically) - Flame Tree Press has been running a series of romantasy short fiction anthologies, keying in to the growing interest in the segment

https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/romantic-fantasy-first-submissions-0

I bet the subgenre is scattered through WotF history and isn't that obvious unless you're specifically looking for it?

"Romantasy" has been a thing as long as fantasy has been a thing and even before then (e.g. Lancelot and Guinevere), it just didn't have that portmanteau of a name until it was popularised recently for marketing reasons. There's no reason for it to have excessive sex.

Out of interest, I'll check out the stories above.