Paranormal romance is a subgenre of romance that combines supernatural elements with the central structure of the story being a romance. Stories that fall under paranormal romances tend to include things like werewolves, ghosts, vampires, and other beings with supernatural powers or abilities. The plot typically interacts and revolves around a human character interacting with this supernatural other. Paranormal romance has been a very popular subgenre of romance and for today’s post, I’ll be talking about what paranormal romance is and how to write a paranormal romance book.
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What is Paranormal Romance?
Paranormal romance is a subgenre of romance but it delves into a different world than the one we typically see. Many paranormal romance stories also fall under fantasy because of the Gothic and supernatural elements present in these books.
Paranormal romance involves romance with a character that is not a human, so something like a werewolf or vampire–these are typically the most common ones we see. A lot of paranormal romance stories also combine elements from horror books as well to create a sort of interesting genre-blend.
Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight has been one of the most popular paranormal romance books and stories out there in recent times. Many people are die-hard fans of the series. I remember being asked the “Edward or Jacob” question as a kid so many times. Obviously, Twilight played a pivotal role on a new generation and introduced them to the subgenre of paranormal romance in a much more mainstream light.
What Makes a Paranormal Romance?
The first thing that any paranormal romance story needs is the element of the supernatural that exists in this world. Firstly, you can include characters with magical abilities or characters that are creatures such as dragons or fae.
The supernatural aspect is a big deal and can exist within our current world or you can create an entirely new world that has supernatural elements built into it.
The second part of any paranormal romance story is obviously the romance aspect. Paranormal romance stories include a relationship between the protagonist and some other character. Oftentimes, these stories are built around the female character being human and the male character being the supernatural. However, you can easily switch these around or make both supernatural. However, the idea is that at least one of the partners in the romance cannot be a typical human.
Standard romance novels can get away with little to no world building and that’s fine as if you’re setting a story in a real location, you don’t need to do much of the world building yourself. However, in paranormal romance, it’s a bit more expected. If you’re including things like supernatural creatures and strange cultures and histories, then you’re going to have to include some level of world building at some point. If you want to learn more about world building, check out my ultimate beginner’s guide.
Furthermore, paranormal romances will need some level of conflict. This could be external conflicts that are related to the supernatural world and you can include conflicts related to the romance itself. However, a lot of people reading paranormal romance will expect some type of high stakes conflict in the story.
Common Tropes and Themes
Before we really delve into how to write a paranormal romance book, let’s just take a bit of a dive into some of the more popular tropes and themes present in this subgenre.
Firstly, most paranormal romances tend to revolve around concepts of forbidden love. Forbidden love tends to be a really popular trope in romance because the stakes involved are much higher than in other romance forms. Forbidden love could be because a relationship between the supernatural and the human world is strictly forbidden, or it could be related to ancient laws, social status, etc…
Enemies to lovers is another popular trope in paranormal romance books where the characters start out the story as hating each other and then by the end they fall in love. This tends to be a really popular trope (especially over on BookTok), and it does have a lot of good things about it. I personally am a fan of enemies to lovers, but I do prefer it more as a romantic subplot. Either way though, this trope works well in a story where there are different species and groups.
The ideas of identity and what it means to be human are also pretty well-explored in paranormal romance stories. Characters may struggle with decisions presented, such as remaining human or transforming into something else like a vampire. Additionally, the supernatural being might not know how to navigate these feelings for a species that is not of their own.
The dynamics of power and control are also really popular in paranormal romance. While I’m not the biggest fan of the idea of “alphas” and “mates” and such things, I do acknowledge that these are really popular tropes in paranormal romance and that they tend to be well-liked.
How to Write a Paranormal Romance Book
Start with a Concept
The first thing that you need to do when you go write your book is to actually start out with a concept. In this phase, you should just be brainstorming different ideas on what you could make the major plot of your story be about. A concept should not be super in-depth, as that is what plot planning is for, but the concept should cover the biggest conflict in the story.
For instance, a concept can be something like this: “A mortal girl stumbles into the world of vampires and fae and quickly discovers that she is caught between a conflict of the two sides.” This is a super brief concept and doesn’t indicate much, but we at least know that our main character is going to be a human and the supernatural elements will be vampires and fae.
Create the Characters
The next thing that you want to do is to actually start to create memorable characters that will resonate well with readers. Characters should have distinct personalities, motivations, and backstories. They also need to be interesting and should have a good role in the story if you will be spending time on developing said characters.
In addition to this, you want to actually create the supernatural creatures in your story. Supernatural characters will be different than humans, both in look and in ability. As the writer, you want to show your readers that there is a difference between the two groups. Giving your supernatural characters wings only doesn’t really help. Add some sort of twist to it, give them magic, etc…
World Building
After figuring out what our characters will be like, it’s time to actually build the world. World building can be simple or complicated depending on what your goals are for the story. Simple world building would probably be a situation where your story is set in the real world while complicated world building will involve a second world or at least an alternate version of Earth.
As you build the world, you want to think about things like what the rules are for the supernatural and if there is a magic system or not. You want to think about the history and the lore of the world, as well as any potential religions and cultures. You want to create creatures and potentially even government systems.
The idea is that the world building in paranormal romance depends fully on your goals as a writer and on what sort of complexity you want the world to have.
Outline the Plot
The next thing that you want to do is to actually outline the plot of your story. Since this is a paranormal romance, you will be following the structure that any other romance novel will be following.
Most stories follow the three-act structure, and this has been adjusted to fit romance stories as well. For romance stories, the acts are centered around the progression of the romantic relationship. You will have to introduce subplots in order to keep the story going and to add tension and conflict, but you need to center most of the major events and consequences and changes around the romance. You want to introduce the romantic conflict earlier in the story than other conflicts, and this conflict could be something like forbidden love or something like a love triangle.
You want to balance the romance with the other subplots but you need to remember that the main plot is the romance and not the other subplots. Those subplots should, at the end of the day, work to enhance the plot.
If you want to learn more about plotting and outlining, check out these articles:
- The Ultimate Guide to Creating an Amazing Plot for Your Story
- Here’s Why You Should Outline a Book Before the First Draft
- How to Outline a Romance Novel Easily!
- How to Outline an Entire Novel in One Day!
Dialogue and Banter
One of the biggest things when it comes to writing any romance story in general is the idea of dialogue and the same can be said for paranormal romance stories. Dialogue in these stories is important and can play a significant role in the way the plot and characters are perceived. If your dialogue doesn’t feel like it fits within the world of your story, readers will have a hard time feeling as immersed as they could’ve been.
Furthermore, banter is a good way of building a relationship in a story, but you don’t want to overdo the banter. Too much banter will eventually just feel cheap and boring. You want to mix moments of seriousness with moments of banter and you want everything to feel like it’s natural.
Make Sure the Ending is Satisfying
The expectation of most romance stories is that the ending is a guaranteed happily ever after, or HEA. Most romance readers tend to look for this point because it allows the story to feel satisfying and they won’t feel like they wasted time watching a relationship build up only for it to fizzle and die.
You want to resolve whatever romantic conflicts are left, you want to finish up any of the subplots, and you want to wrap things up so that readers leave the story feeling like the ending was well-deserved.
You also want to leave a bit of room for something if you want to create a series or spin-off because a lot of readers will demand more from the story if they enjoyed it a lot! A lot of series that you read out there may not have been series prior but readers enjoyed it a lot so the writer was able to take a plot point from the first story and expand upon it.
Conclusion
Paranormal romance is a subgenre that blends many different elements and a lot of readers enjoy the mixture because it provides romance but with a different twist to it. Blending romance with the supernatural is something that many enjoy because it gives way to exploring different types of relationships alongside complex characters and intricately built worlds.
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