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What is paranormal?

If you're a practicing Wiccan or lead people in past life regressions, you might be understandably confused as to whether or not these things are normal or paranormal. After all, they're normal for you.

The general rule of thumb is that "paranormal" is anything that can not be explained by traditional Western science, regardless of whether or not you believe in the reality of the elements.

Which brings us to the topic of including paranormal elements in your stories. The first dividing point is whether or not you personally believe in the reality of the paranormal elements. Some people insist that you can't write about things you don't personally believe in. I find that to be a very limiting attitude -- after all, we can write male point of view without having been men, or set stories in locations in which we've never been.

But if you're uncomfortable with a concept, such as reincarnation or psychic powers, you have two choices. You can have the character be a skeptic -- in essence, representing your viewpoint -- or you can be inconclusive. The character may believe she or he has magical powers, but nothing happens in the book which does not have a more mundane explanation. Readers who believe in the character's magical powers will interpret the facts one way, while disbelieving readers are free to believe in chance coincidence, without destroying the story.

We'll come back to that in a bit, but I wanted to address what to do if you do personally believe in the paranormal element you're adding. Aside from those authors who write for the inspirational market, you can not assume your readers share your beliefs. You need to give enough details to explain the paranormal element to someone who may be seeing it for the first time, yet not dwell on it so much that it seems like you're trying to convert the reader, or worse yet, take the tone that the belief is self-evident, and anyone who does not believe in this element is a misguided fool. Your characters can think that, certainly. But you, as the author, must always be careful to remain respectful of the wide range of readers' beliefs.

So, now, you're going to add a paranormal element to your book. How about, the hero is the reincarnation of someone who lived in the 1920's, because you think that's a cool time period and you could have fun with it. And let's say the heroine is psychic, so she can sense his previous incarnation. We need a conflict, so let's say the hero doesn't believe in psychic powers. And we need a romantic complication, so let's have his wife from the 20's be a ghost, who recognizes him and wants him back. What would we have?

We'd have my first attempt at a paranormal romance, but we wouldn't have a very good book. Let me go thorough why my choices didn't work, so you can see how you can make paranormal romances that are so great, they fly off the shelves.

First of all, I had a ghost, a psychic, and reincarnation (I also had a werewolf, but it was just a costume). For each paranormal element, I needed to explain the rules. Did I have the kind of ghost that was invisible, visible only to some, visible under certain conditions or at certain times? Could she affect the material plane? Was she even aware that she was dead? Was she tied to a certain place or object? The same with the psychic. What were her powers? Were they reliable? Could she use them at will, or did she get unexpected flashes? Were her insights exact, or disturbingly vague? And for the reincarnated hero, the reader needed to know my ground rules on reincarnation (Did everyone reincarnate? Just some people? How much would they remember?) and also, the basics of his previous life.

That's a lot of backstory. Did I mention this was going to be category length?

You've probably already guessed the problem. So much of the book was devoted to explaining the paranormal elements, I had no room left to develop the characters and their mental and emotional backstories, which resulted in a flat, cardboard relationship. She fell in love with him because he was the hero, not because two idiosyncratic human beings met and meshed so that their individual strengths complimented and compensated the other's weaknesses, enabling them both to grow and become better human beings.

Remember I said I'd get back to the idea of belief or disbelief in a paranormal element destroying a story? This is what I meant. If your characters are defined by their paranormal elements -- if your heroine is a psychic, your hero is a reincarnated master architect -- if your reader doesn't believe that premise, you've blown your story. If the reader doesn't accept reincarnation, she won't accept your story's resolution based on reincarnation. On the other hand, if you have rich and detailed characters, with conflicting powerful drives and desires, one aspect of which is the paranormal element, you'll have hooked your reader and the paranormal element in question will be included in your reader's general suspension of disbelief.

Which neatly gets me back to the second flaw in my story. The conflict between the hero and heroine was her psychic powers. If the reader believes in psychic powers, or adamantly disbelieves, she'll have the resolution worked out as soon as she sees the premise. Where's the suspense? The edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting fear that these people won't be able to get together and live happily ever after?

And finally, what about my ghost? The only way she would work would be if she had been an absolutely horrible woman who had driven her husband away. Unable to accept his decision, and the fact that they were wrong for each other, she clings possessively, now trying with his reincarnation to take back something that was never hers to begin with. That would have worked.

But what I'd originally written was a sad and rather tragic woman who had waited all these years for her husband's return. I broke the reader's sacred trust. The hero's and heroine's love should not hurt anybody else (or at least, no one who doesn't deserve to be hurt). It's why we don't like stories about adultery, or why there are very few stories with two worthy heroes competing for the heroine's attentions. We don't want anyone to suffer -- except, of course, the hero and heroine, as we torture them on the road to happiness.

Paranormal elements give you a much broader spectrum of ways your hero and heroine can make others suffer. You need to be mindful of them all, and make sure you don't hurt any innocent characters.

Finally, let's discuss using paranormal elements in the writing process.

One method I've heard of for helping to create character personalities, goals and conflicts is casting horoscopes for each major character. Similarly, there are those who do name analyses or enneagrams for the characters.

Another technique that is popular, especially with historical writers, is past life regression or self-hypnosis. I know of one woman who does virtually no research, because she bases the stories she writes on times and places she has experienced in past life regressions. When she has finished a book, she'll go through and check facts, but invariably she is correct. I envy that ability -- I can't accurately recall what I did a few days ago, let alone a complete lifetime ago! But it's something that works for her.

Another tool used by many writers is to do tarot readings, either for the characters or their conflict. Or, like Claire Cross's Love Potion #9, the tarot deck itself can provide the structure for the story and the characters' growth.

The paranormal can do more than just provide plot help. Relaxation and visualization, guided meditation, or inducing a light trance, have all been used by writers to help them break through writers' block, to produce better first drafts, or just write more efficiently.