So You Want To Be A Paranormal Writer...

Have you read your fair share of scintillating novels featuring debonair vamps and sexy werewolves? Think you have what it takes to write books like these yourself? There is no doubt that modern society has become obsessed with these types of stories, especially when they involve a Romeo and Juliet like love story that just ties it all together. You might think you could make a killing writing stories like these, and you could be right. But don't get started just yet. There are a few little rules you should follow when making a paranormal masterpiece.

1. Choose a Sub-genre You Are Good At

If you are new to paranormal, it is best to stick to a sub-genre of it you feel confident in. They do say write what you know for a reason. The two most popular are paranormal romance and paranormal mystery.

2. Keep It Simple At First

A lot of new paranormal writers make the mistake of taking the story and characters way too far. By this I mean, putting in three or more types of paranormal creatures into the novel with no way to keep up. Unless you are going for Game of Thrones stuff here, keep your first paranormal novel simple; 1 or 2 species.

3. Study Your Lore

Sure, you may have this awesome new idea about how vampires or werewolves should look or a new way that magicians can do spells, but for the most part, readers expect there to be similarities in the creatures they read about. Change too much and you might have a whole lot of people confused if you really meant fairy instead of vampire (ahem). Creativity is awesome. i would never ask anyone to stifle that, but most books that delve completely into a new realm of lore do not sell well. You can ditch the garlic allergy, but the blood drinking probably needs to stay.

4. Build Strong Characters Inside and Out

The previous step will easily lead into this. These characters need to be believable as whatever paranormal creature you're using. Love, food, death....these things are going to bring up totally different feelings from someone who has lived a long time or cannot easily die than it would in a human. It is also likely that a vampire or werewolf will be infinitely more beautiful than humans; perfect muscles, asymmetry in their faces, ect.