Writing the Paranormal Novel: Techniques and Exercises for Weaving Supernatural Elements Into Your Story.

by Harper, Steven

  This setting has a built-in draw. The world starts off comfortable and familiar — it's ours, after all — until the author whisks the lid off her metaphorical cookie jar, revealing an enticing treasure within. The reader feels pulled into “the know” and is made special right along with the protagonist. The most famous secret world setting is, of course, in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, but a horde of other authors compete for the title: C.S. Lewis, Stephenie Meyer, and many, many others.

  The secret supernatural is also, in some ways, the easiest setting to use. You're not changing the normal world at all. It carries on as normal, since it knows nothing of what's really going on. Sure, vampires may be secretly running the FBI, but everything looks normal. Cars, phones, TV shows, computers, schools — all are unchanged. A fair amount of conflict in these stories revolves around ensuring everything stays normal. After all, if the general public found out vampires were real and sucking blood … well, there are a lot more mortals than vampires, and mortals can walk around in daylight. They also have tanks and other inconvenient weapons that can wipe out public vampires. Other magical creatures and people are in the same boat — forced to keep things quiet lest a much more powerful government or powerful corporation should get hold of them and their powers.

  Secret History

  A variant of the secret setting is the secret history setting. Here, we're operating in the historical past — ancient Ireland, colonial America, the Ming Dynasty of China — with a twist: Magic works and has incorporated itself into history as we know it. The Seelie and Unseelie Courts really battled over Ireland. Witches wreaked havoc in Salem. Dragons secretly ruled behind the Chinese throne. But somewhere along the line, magic faded, resulting in the world we know now, and no one these days seriously believes those old stories. This is a fun one to play with, too. For example, maybe William, Duke of Normandy conquered England in 1066 so readily because he had supernatural help that history didn't record. Keeping things consistent with what we know of history while telling a paranormal story makes for a satisfying challenge. C.C. Finlay does a beautiful job of secret history with his Traitor to the Crown books, set during the Revolutionary War.

  THE SUNLIT SUPERNATURAL

  The contrasting idea is to blow the supernatural all out into the open. Paranormals operate in the bright of day — those who can, anyway. Everyone knows about magic and magical creatures, and they're simply a part of everyday life.

  This world takes a little more work. You'll need to figure out a number of factors, most notably the impact of your supernatural elements on history and culture. To do this, we'll need to back up a little bit.

  Old vs. New

  Actually, this is something to consider in a secret setting as well. You'll need to know if supernatural elements have always existed in your world (old) or if they were introduced some time later (new).

  In an old setting, humans have always had access to magic, and/or supernatural creatures have always lived in their world, perhaps in secret, perhaps out in the sunlight. You'll have to decide what supernatural elements exist, of course (check chapter two), and work out the impact on history and culture. You might decide to keep things as close to our own history as possible by deciding that if all the major movers and shakers in history had access to magic, everything would come out pretty much the same, but still sneak in a few fun surprises for the reader. Maybe Ben Franklin was actually a dwarf, explaining his almost casual propensity for invention, and hotheaded Andrew Jackson had some goblin blood in him.

  Or you can plunge ahead and alter history hugely. When Orson Scott Card wrote his Tales of Alvin Maker books, set in Colonial America, he made enormous changes to American history by giving the Native Americans enough magical power to keep the Europeans on the eastern side of the Appalachian Mountains. Since he didn't write anything past that time period, however, he didn't have to worry about what impact all this would have on the twenty-first century.

  In a more modern context, Piers Anthony uses the idea that magic and science evolved side by side in his Incarnations of Immortality series. So does Philip Pullman in the His Dark Materials trilogy. In this kind of world, people are just as likely to have a magic carpet as a gas-powered car, magic wands are as common as guns, sorcerers compete with senators for political power, and no one bats an eye.

  We get a new supernatural setting when some sort of event introduces a supernatural element into the world for the first time — or for the first time in living memory. The Apocalypse is coming for real, and as a result, demons and angels are walking the Earth again. Some fool opens a gate sealed by Solomon himself, awakening True Magic once again. Two orphans find the only dragon left in the world and wake her from her thousand-year slumber. This setting forces not only the protagonist but the entire world to deal with the new supernatural element.

  PERSECUTED, EQUAL, OR SUPERIOR?

  Humans divide the world into “me” and “not me,” “mine” and “not mine.”Out of this divide, we ultimately get family ties, property rights, and war. None of this would change in a world where the paranormal is natural. It's difficult to imagine a new world in which many sentient species would get along perfectly well, when the single sentient species on this world can't even get along with itself. So if you're writing in a setting in which humans share a world with nonhuman sentient beings such as elves or vampires, you'll have to work out how well the various factions get along — or don't. And you'll need to work out what the hierarchy is.

  Persecuted

  In this kind of world, the paranormals are a persecuted minority, a species that humans hate and/or fear and want to exterminate, enslave, or otherwise control. (Perhaps deservedly so.) This seems to be the most likely outcome if, say, vampires were revealed to the world. It doesn't feel likely that any government would want bloodsucking murderers to wander freely within their borders.

  Perhaps the paranormals live in their own strictly controlled enclaves, or are flat-out imprisoned. They might also live among the ruling humans as servants or slaves. Or maybe they're hidden, always on the run. (This last one works out well in a secret supernatural world as well.) Stephen King's Firestarter is based on this idea.

  Equal

  Another possibility is that paranormals are considered largely equal to humans. This sort of setting raises a great many considerations. Do the paranormals live side by side with humans, or do they have their own neighborhoods/cities/countries? How do humans interact with their supernatural neighbors? Does everyone get along fairly well, or does tension exist? What role do the different species play in the government? The legal system? The educational system? Entertainment?

  Obviously, this setting requires a fair amount of world building. J.K. Rowling does quite a lot of it with her Harry Potter books, and the magical side of her world oft en seems more real than the mundane side.

  Superior

  The paranormals have taken over. Humans exist as a subjugated class, perhaps in a post-apocalyptic setting. The conflict will probably revolve around a human trying to expel the paranormals, escape them, or otherwise find a way out from under the thumb of the supernatural rulers. Robin McKinley wrote Sunshine with such a setting. In her book, voodoo wars have decimated the human population, and vampires control a large chunk of the world. Other supernatural creatures control the rest of it, and the few remaining humans are caught in the middle. This setting is fun to explore because humans are normally supposed to win and stop the paranormals from taking over, but this type of book assumes the opposite, that humans have already lost and are now just trying to hang on.

  CULTURE

  Put two people (or beings) together for an extended period, and they'll create a culture. Assuming any supernatural people you create aren't unique or extremely widespread, they'll create a culture, too. This applies to worlds where the supernatural is a secret and to worlds where the supernatural sits in the sunlight. Since culture helps determine behavior, you'll need to settle a few cultural details abo
ut your paranormals so you can predict how they'll behave. Besides, readers love watching a character who is introduced to the supernatural world by being thrust into it (such as someone who is turned into a vampire and discovers an entire hidden world of them) and who has to learn about this new way of life the hard way.

  Creating a culture for your paranormals will also lend richness and depth to your supernatural characters. When the reader first encounters your werewolves, for example, they may behave strangely or unexpectedly, but they'll behave consistently. This is because you, the author, have a deep understanding of their culture and have figured out why they're acting so strangely from a human perspective.

  Imagine an elf who had never seen a human before somehow arrives in a human household just in time for a very strange sight. The parents spread fat and sugar over a rounded pastry, set it on fire, and place it right in front of their young daughter. (Isn't that dangerous?) Everyone sings a ritual song, and then the girl extinguishes the flames by blowing them out. (Isn't she spreading disease?) The pastry is divided up, and everyone eats it. How strange!

  An author who created the scene would know perfectly well what everything is for and what is happening. The reader would find this culture strange and compelling, continue reading to find out what the deal is, and eventually learn the significance of the cake and candles. Next year, when the birthday came around again, the reader (now in the know) would know what to expect and understand why everything was done.

  An enormous number of elements make up a culture, more than we can explore here, but in general you'll want to consider at least eight primary elements when creating a culture.

  GOVERNMENT

  Sure, the local humans may live under a particular government, and the paranormals may go along with it, but that doesn't mean the paranormals wouldn't also have their own rulers who enforce their own laws. In a secret supernatural world, the paranormals may hold mortal law in contempt as something to be flouted or ignored. Or they may find it an inconvenience to be skirted. Or they may see it as an outright threat. On the other hand, paranormals in a sunlit supernatural world may be an open part of the legal process.

  Regardless, someone has to be in charge of your supernatural world. If your paranormals choose their leader or leaders, they use a democracy — and you'll have to decide how these leaders are chosen. If your paranormals live under the rule of a single person, they have a dictatorship, whether the leader is evil or benign. (Lord Vetinari of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books is a prime example of a benign dictator.) If a single group of people remains in charge all the time, such as an eternal council or single political party, you have a totalitarian government. A monarchy uses a single ruler who keeps the power within one family. In a parliamentary system, the people choose members of a political party to rule. In a republic, citizens vote for leaders to rule for a limited time.

  There are many others. A gynarchy is rule by women only. An oligarchy is rule by a tiny elite. Plutocracy is rule by the rich. Feudalism combines monarchy with a dash of oligarchy, and mixes in a dollop of rule by the warrior class. The rule of law sets the law itself as the supreme power in the land.

  Even small groups have governments, though they might not realize it. Look at families. Some are oligarchies, run by Mom and Dad. Some are gynarchical dictatorships, run by Grandma, who makes sure all branches of the family stay in line. And some are republics, giving even the children a voice in what happens. So if your paranormals have any kind of group identity, it's quite likely they'll have some kind of government, complete with a leader or leaders, however informal.

  As the author/creator, you should know how this ruling body is selected. You can use all the usual tools available to modern humans — election, right of birth, ballot stuffing — but let your paranormals add their own twist. A “fight to the finish” might mean a real fight. The term dictator for life holds powerful connotations when the dictator — and his subjects — are immortal. European folklore, for example, holds that King Oberon and Queen Maeve rule the fair folk forever, and they appear in a number of modern paranormal novels, including Raymond E. Feist's Faerie Tale.

  Additionally, this person or group will create laws, which must then be enforced. This might be done through simple peer pressure or by a draconian police force. You probably won't need to work out every single rule or law that governs your paranormals, but work out enough so you know what restrictions your people work under — and how these laws will affect their behavior. For example, your mortal protagonist may be startled to discover that his new vampire girlfriend won't kill, or even nibble on, the muggers who try to knife them in a dark alley one night, even though she clearly has the strength of a small freight train. Only later does he learn that the Vampire Council has declared harming mortals a capital crime, since vampires need to avoid mortal scrutiny. As the author, of course, you knew this from the beginning.

  ECONOMY

  Economy is based on ownership — who owns what (or whom). You probably learned in high school that we have three kinds of ownership. In a capitalist system, citizens own their own businesses and property and must buy what they need from each other. In a socialist system, the government provides most of the bigger services such as education and health care, and citizens own everything else. In a communist system, the government owns nearly everything, including housing and food production. In a stewardship system, all ownership is temporary; the world owns everything. If you can come up with a fifth kind for your paranormals to live under, use it. You'll probably win an award. But economics don't stop there.

  In an openly supernatural world, you may have to deal with the idea that different species find value in different things. Elves traditionally don't care about money, but do value undeveloped land — and the natural beauty that comes with it. Dwarves care about nothing but precious metals that they can work. And we all know what vampires want.

  In other words, economics are about more than money. Economics are about resources and how they are distributed. Resources can be physical objects like food, clothing, cars, wood, and computers, or they can be intangibles, such as services and diplomatic favors. Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman worked out a very strange barter economy between heaven and hell in their book Good Omens when both sides understood that infernal corruption and divine inspiration were both going to happen no matter what, and there was no reason for angels and demons to inconvenience each other. If a demon realized he was going to be on the same side of town where a mortal was scheduled to be inspired for a good deed, the demon could happily take care of it, provided his angelic counterpart was willing to make a man covet his neighbor's wife for a moment or two while the demon was tied up in traffic. The cosmic balance is maintained, angels and demons keep their schedules with a minimum of fuss, and everybody wins.

  Different species have different desires — and access to different resources — which can make for an interesting economy. What might vampires be willing to pay for dwarven blood? If elves play the most beautiful music ever heard, what would humans do in order to attend a concert? Might a modern-day dragon hoard classic cars instead of gold? Working with these elements adds depth and reality to your supernatural world.

  SPIRITUALITY

  Spirituality is a powerful force in the real world, and there's no reason it shouldn't be one for your paranormals. This isn't to say that your werewolves must all worship the moon goddess and bow to a complex pantheon of forest spirits. But you should at least be aware of how your paranormals view eternity. Immortals don't fear old age, but many of them can still die, and they have a long time to think about what might happen afterward. Some paranormals have firsthand experience at it. Others — angels and demons leap to mind — have their origins in spirituality, and in that case, you need to know exactly how the spirituality works.

  Spirituality also lays down rules for behavior, which in turn develops character. Rules about good and evil, marriage, sex partners, treatment of children, religious r
ituals — all these and more are dictated by spirituality. There's oft en overlap with government.

  Finally, you'll need to know your individual character's attitude toward spirituality. Fundamentalists follow every spiritual rule and law with terrifying zeal, and might even kill in the name of spirituality. At the other end of the spectrum are characters who scoff at the very idea of a spiritual world, even in the face of the sort of evidence only a paranormal novel might provide. Most characters will probably exist somewhere in the middle, but you need to know where they land.

  FAMILY AND COMMUNITY

  A paranormal novel is an excellent place to explore alternate family structures and the impact they can have on people. True, your paranormals may very well come from a family structure similar to humans, but there's no reason they have to.

  Families have pecking orders, divisions of labor, customs, traditions, in-jokes, rivalries, oral histories, black sheep, and in-laws, and all of them can benefit from a supernatural twist. Tanya Huff took the idea of a wolf pack and merged it with a human family to get the very strange Heerkens clan in Blood Trail, for example. In her book, brothers and sisters grow up with a close, near-telepathic bond. But when the girls reach sexual maturity — and go into heat — the boys have to be sent away so their relationships don't become incestuous.