If you’ve been hanging around enough speculative fiction writers, you’ve probably heard the terms ‘high fantasy’ and ‘low fantasy’ tossed around. They both have their devotees and their conventions. But is there another way?

Crossover fantasy, a blending of high and low fantasy genres, is one of the most popular and enduring types of storytelling. Read on to learn how to write novels that ‘cross over’ from one world (and one readership) to the next.

What is ‘crossover fantasy’?

Crossover fantasy, sometimes called portal fantasy, is a genre which takes place in both primary and secondary worlds — in other words, in both our own known world and another, fictional world.

Many of your childhood favourites probably fall into this category. The Chronicles of Narnia, The Wizard of Oz, Inkworld, and The Folk of the Air series (C.S. Lewis, L. Frank Baum, Cornelia Funke, and Holly Black, respectively) all feature characters who cross over from this world to another.

These stories can be fun, escapist fiction, but they can also be a powerful way to communicate important themes about our own world. Unlike high fantasy, which takes place entirely in a secondary world, crossover fantasy puts the real and the surreal side by side.

Elements of crossover fantasy

Here’s a closer look at the key elements which make up not just any crossover novel, but one that’s going to stand out and hook your readers.

A strong protagonist

It’s been said that the best fantasy artists are the best realists. This is also true of fiction. To get your reader to invest in a magical, fictional, far-off world that’s lifetimes away from their own, they’ll need to first invest in the main character.

What draws readers to a protagonist is their humanity – even if they’re not ‘human’ in the strictest possible sense. By humanity we mean the fears, strengths, weaknesses, and desires we all recognise within ourselves. Whether your protagonist is an everyday person, a faerie, a vampire, or a centaur, they should have relatable human authenticity that makes us want to follow them on their journey.

A really good example of this is Sarah Beth Durst’s The Spellshop, a novel about renewal, oppression, and jam. There’s not a single human being to be found in the pages of the book, and yet each main character is human in the ways that truly matter.

A secondary world

Now, onto the set dressing. What makes a crossover novel ‘crossover’ is the addition of a secondary world, sometimes called a magical or fictional world. This is then juxtaposed against the primary, or ‘real’ world.

In a fantasy novel, this might be another realm which exists in parallel to our own. In science fiction, it might be a far-off planet or underground terrain populated by who-knows-what. This is a really good place to explore symbolism and metaphor, communicating important social themes in an indirect and subtle way.

Consider: what are the cultural norms of this world? What does this world look like, how does it function in the day to day? How is it different from the world we know, and how is it the same? Who lives here? What are the resources, and the dangers?

You can draw on other literary secondary worlds for inspiration, but be cautious of being too derivative (we don’t need another Middle Earth!). Try to blend beloved tropes with your own innovative approach.

A gateway

Now that you know a bit more about your magical world, ask yourself how your heroes are going to get there. This can be a literal gateway, a magical object, a sacred place, or something less tangible like a string of magic words, a confluence of events, a wish made at just the right moment.

Remember that everything comes back to character, so ask yourself why these characters have arrived here at this point in their lives. If it’s a physical gateway, it could be something like a class trip that takes them to an unfamiliar locale. If it’s accessed through a magical object, maybe they found it in an antique shop while searching for an engagement ring. It’s important to ask yourself: why this person, why here, and why now.

Restrictions

Additionally, your magical world shouldn’t be available to just anyone all the time. The reader needs to know why your story is happening here, today, and not last year or last week or next spring. Is your world only accessible on the full moon on a cloudless night during a rare constellational alignment? Can it only be reached by the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, or by a musician with an honest heart? Do the gates open only when this secondary world is in a time of great need?

These restrictions make the story feel more exciting and special. It also feels more authentic; we all know that a magical world that’s accessed too easily would attract the wrong kind of people for the wrong reasons.

Stakes

With a strong protagonist, a secondary world, a gateway, and restrictions to that gateway, you have your setup ready to go. The stakes are what create your story.

In other words, what do your characters have to lose if they can’t achieve their goals? What will they sacrifice if they don’t make it back to their own world in time?

Without stakes, there’s nothing pushing your hero forward on their journey. They might go to this new world, they might go home, and either option is really okay. It makes for a nice day out, but not for a compelling novel.

Ask yourself what this character needs, what’s preventing them from getting it, what they will accomplish if they succeed, and what will happen if they fail. This will make your characters work harder, and keep your readers flipping pages long past bedtime.