I think the key to writing a good paranormal is to make the world somehow normal for your reader. Through the last year, I've come up with five tips for writing a paranormal romance:
1)
Remember even if your hero is a six foot genius
vampire with huge pecs and perfectly rugged features who single-handedly has
saved humanity three times…he has to have a flaw somewhere. And no…being too kind, endowed, or brilliant
don’t count. My favorites are when the
character has to fight his own flaw, usually in the nick of time to beat the
bad guy.
2)
Remember that your reader probably isn’t a six
foot genius vampire…nor is she dating one.
So it’s crucial to find a way for your reader to relate to the
characters. I have two sisters and a
strong family life, and so my vampires deal with family life daily. The Dark Protector Series is about five
brothers and how they not only find love but work together to save their race.
3)
Remember that whatever exciting, complex, deep
world you build in Book 1…you’re stuck with for the rest of the series. Leave yourself some wiggle room. Also, you don’t have to build your entire
world in book one. You just need enough
of your world for that book to make sense.
4)
Remember that there are tons of paranormal books
out there—make your world different. Put
your unique spin on it. I’m a lawyer and
things have to make a sort of logical sense to me. So I had to figure out HOW a male vampire
(who in my world is very much alive) could make his mate immortal—turns out
genetics and the mutation of chromosomes made sense. It was a different spin, at least enough of
one that my editor was intrigued.
5)
Finally, don’t hold yourself back. As writers, we often stop and think about how
the next editor/reader/reviewer/our first grade teacher/our neighbor…etc. will react to our secret little worlds. Don’t worry about them. Let yourself go and have some fun with
creating.
BIO: Rebecca Zanetti is the author of the sexy
Dark Protector Series from Kensington.
The fourth book in the series, CONSUMED, released on July 5th. To find Rebecca on the web or to read an
excerpt, drop by her website: http://rebeccazanetti.com/
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3 comments:
Rebecca, thanks so much for a VERY timely blog. I created a paranormal world "by the seat of my pants" for one book. Now readers are clamoring for more in that world and I got myself stuck!
Great guidelines for unsticking
This is great advice! Thanks for the terrific post. :)
These are some great ideas especially as I am writing a paranromal series. I wasn't sure if I should build they entire 'world' at once, so thanks.
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