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Product Description
Book Description
Vampires, werewolves, and zombies, oh my!
Writing a paranormal novel takes more than casting an alluring vampire or arming your hero with a magic wand. It takes an original idea, believable characters, a compelling plot, and surprising twists, not to mention great writing.
This helpful guide gives you everything you need to successfully introduce supernatural elements into any story without shattering the believability of your fictional world or falling victim to common cliches.
You'll learn how to:
- Choose supernatural elements and decide what impact the supernatural will have on your fictional world
- Create engaging and relatable characters from supernatural protagonists and antagonists to supporting players (both human and non-human)
- Develop strong plots and complementary subplots
- Write believable fight scenes and flashbacks
- Create realistic dialogue
- And much more
About the Author
Steven Harper is the author of several SF books, including In the Company of Mind, Corporate Mentality and The Silent Empire series. He's also written books based on Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and The Ghost Whisperer, as well as the movie novelization for Identity. His numerous short stories have appeared, among other places, in Esther Friesner's Chicks in Chainmail anthologies.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.7 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely helpful and thoughtful ideas on approaching fiction, April 4 2011
By James Beswick "In my day, we had 9 planets." - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Writing the Paranormal Novel: Techniques and Exercises for Weaving Supernatural Elements Into Your Story. (Paperback)
This is one of the best I've ever read about writing fiction and although the content is geared towards paranormal stories, most of the advice extends to any type of genre you care to write. Steven Harper clearly has an encyclopedic knowledge of storytelling techniques which he shares with good humor and practical examples. Surprisingly, it's quite a page-turner too, making it hard to put down.The chapters cover a significant amount of ground, but some of the most helpful parts discuss the problems of cliche, maintaining realism, and developing a series from a single idea without "superhero creep" or other problems that can derail the world created by the author. He also looks at sources for the paranormal storyline, the various types of protagonist and antagonist, and how to avoid many of the two-dimensional repetitive characters that appear in books over and over.
I've read quite a few really bad books on writing fiction so I'm pleased to say that I can't recommend this enough. Although I don't write paranormal fiction, there's more than enough food for thought here to apply to other genres and even screenwriters will probably find the content useful.
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not for everybody., April 16 2011
By Liz SL "browncoat" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Writing the Paranormal Novel: Techniques and Exercises for Weaving Supernatural Elements Into Your Story. (Paperback)
I would recommend this book to people who are completely new to the genre. The author has excellent taste and clearly knows what he's talking about.At its worst, the book reads like an intervention for teenagers who want to plagiarize Twilight. The material is very basic and the tone is occasionally patronizing. The author dwells on the value of being original and the need to do research; he even provides instructions on how to use a library and cautions against trusting Wikipedia.
At its best, the book is a solid reference. It has thoughtful advice about how to handle cliches and kill a Mary Sue, and I got a few flashes of insight about writing that I haven't seen elsewhere. As others have said, the information about getting published is superb.
I was expecting to go through the book with a highlighter and a pen over the course of several days. Instead, I skimmed it and was done in an evening. I'm glad I read it, but I wish I had gotten it from the library.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Advice, Easy To Use, Fun To Read!, Mar 27 2011
By J. H. Iovino - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
I am working on a Zombie Apocalypse novel, so I bought this book thinking it might be good as a reference, but I never expected to be riveted to the page! It is filled with clear, detailed, easy to follow advice and chock-full of humor along the way! (I've never before caught myself laughing out loud while reading a "how-to" book!)Although it doesn't cover Zombies as extensively as I would like, it's a fantastic guide for anyone hoping to break into the Paranormal genre, and a great read in and of itself. I do wish it had a table of contents for the Kindle edition, but reading it from start to finish is far from a chore. I have read several books about the nitty-gritty details of novel writing, but this one is exceedingly well-written, arming the aspiring novelist with everything he or she needs to manifest an exciting and solid piece of fiction. For anyone trying to write a good Paranormal novel, consider this book a MUST-READ!
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