Researching the paranormal

I firmly believe that research is important to any work. But how do you research things which aren't easily proven?

Let's take fairies, for example. My current work in progress has some fairies in it. My deleima becomes how to portray the fairies. Do I use the popular "Tinkerbell" model? Or do I go more traditional with the belief that not all fairies are good or cute or sparkly?

It would be easy to go the Tink route. Who hasn't heard of Tinkerbell and her friends? Fearless, determined, a little bit spoiled -- that would be easy to write. Add in that they are cute and not a bit scary, and why not pick them?

What about a species of fairy covered in course brown hair who love to help, but aren't all that smart? Sea monsters thought to be fairies? One that can only be seen right before you die? According to A Witch's Guide to Faery Folk by Edain McCoy those are just three of the real fairies.

Having never actually seen a fairy (that I know of), who's to say which idea is correct? And if I haven't seen a fairy, how will Cerri? Should it be a talent she has? Are there "spells" or "potions" that could help her?

When building a paranormal world (or a world where paranormal is a little more normal) it's important to make each scenario believable within that world. It requires the author to know what's what in that world and stick to the rules already established. I might not have all the answers, but in Cerri's world I have a pretty good idea of how everything works.

By the way, I've opted for a more traditional fairy.

Blessings!

Nichole

What's going on in my world?

Have you ever been going along, minding your own business, and found out that something just wasn't right? All the sudden the sky is green and grass is blue? (In that case, you might want to see if you've fallen and landed upside down!)

But seriously, the rules of your world are important. As authors we can't decide half-way through that the sky will shift from a light lavender to neon pink, can we? The Harry Potter dynasty wouldn't be what it is if J.K. Rowling kept changing the rules.

In my writing, the overall world is right here in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. The streets are mostly real (hey, we don't want the bad guys on our REAL streets!) and the terrain is VERY much real. You won't find a swamp here, nor will you find a lake on top of George Washington's head. (Don't know what I'm talking about? Check out the second National Treasure movie.) The things I get to change are in the spirit realm.

And that's OK. For me, that grounds my writing. Sure, I may create a fictional construction company for my victim to work in, but it's on a real street (near two real construction companies, I might add). Is that a good thing? I think so. It ensures that Rapid City natives and visitors alike can believe that Cerri is a real person and really lives here. But no one who works for a certain construction company needs to fear for his or her life, either!

Authors who can't follow the rules of their own worlds are the authors I don't re-read. They're the ones I can't bring myself to recommend to others, either. What about you? Do you expect authors to follow those rules? Or is "anything goes" okay in your reading?

Blessings!

Nichole

A little bit of history, a little bit of mystery

For you writers out there, how well do you know your characters before you write them?

For you readers, how much of the character's past do you really want to know?

I get the idea that authors need to know their characters.  Unfortunately, I have a tendency to want to share all that I know!  So how much history do readers want?  Do you want to know what makes my antagonist do what he or she does?  What makes them into murderers and such?  Or is it enough to know why my protagonist feels the need to help bring the killer to justice?

To be honest, I don't always know what motivates my characters.  Maybe that's why I want to share the things I do know.  As a writer, it's enough for me to know what makes my antagonist act at the moment.  As a reader, I am usually OK with that, as well.  I want to know how and why the crime was  committed, but I don't necessarily need to know everything that led the "perp" to that moment.

Its almost like a balancing on a tightrope, this fine line between what to give a reader and what I need to know as the author.  Give the reader enough information to care -- to show that even the "bad guy" isn't all bad, and the "good guy" has some issues to work out -- but not so much information that the story lags.  

And I know most of it before I start.  Maybe its because I write mysteries, but I feel like I need to at least know who the antagonist is before I write the first words of the story.  I couldn't imagine having my characters decide they needed to change their past on me!  YIKES!

But I do want to know.  Do you, as a reader, want to know their whole pasts?  Or just enough to make the story flow?  

Blessings!

Nichole

A White Knight? Or a Black King?

Ok, so I stole the title of this blog from the TNT show "Leverage," but it makes my point about bad guys.

My view of characters will probably surprise those who know me, but here goes. Very few characters — fictional or otherwise — are pure good or pure bad. Don't get me wrong! I think that when someone breaks the law, they should be punished — both in fiction and in life. But I also think that the reason someone breaks the law can be pretty dang fascinating.
In the show, "Leverage," the team breaks laws and performs cons to get justice for people who can't find justice any other way. The Showtime series "Dexter" features a serial killer who's mission is to rid the world of really bad guys. Heck, even Fox's Dr. Gregory House is a first-class jerk, but the best doctor around.

Aren't those all bad guys we love to hate? As a mystery writer, I have spent a lot of time working on my protagonist. Cerri will appear in multiple books and I tried very hard to make her "come alive" on the page. My antagonist, on the other hand, will only appear in one book. (Murderers don't usually get an encore!) Everything about that character needs to be just as "fleshed" as it is for Cerri if the story is to survive.  

And since very few people — fictional or otherwise — are all good or all bad, those villains need to be, well, likable.  Just like our main characters usually have some flaw that makes

 readers relate, our bad guys need to have some trait that makes them....human, don't they?

Does it matter if the wrong thing is done for the right reasons?  Or should we all grab our cowboy hats in either snow white or midnight black?   Life would be so much easier if that were the case, but I think most of us would have hats in some shade of grey, don't you?

Blessings!
Nichole

World Building

On my desk I have a notebook, a folder, pens, and three books.

On my wall I have a whiteboard scribbled with text and a storyboard pasted with pictures.

Why?

Because I’m beginning a new series filled with brand new concepts, characters and storylines. In essence, I’m building a world and these are my tools.

World building is one of the most exciting aspects of the writing process. You get to research, brainstorm and basically make stuff up. What’s not to love?

So let me breakdown how I use these tools and why they are necessary.

The notebook is the bible for my series. This is where I jot down ideas, research notes, dialogue snippets, plot points, character sketches and anything else that hits me along the way. Eventually, most of the stuff from the notebook gets recorded into my writer’s word processing program. I use WriteWay. But Word and Excel work great too. I use the same notebook for the entire series.

Next is the folder. Each is a different color for each book. The folder holds news clippings I may find interesting that tie into the theme, internet research, loose paper with notes I made when I didn’t have my notebook, photos, sketches and anything else I stumble across that rings of my story.

Pens and post-its are what I use to mark pages in research books I buy or borrow. The research books help tremendously when building a fictional world, even in the paranormal, sci-fi, or fantasy genres.

There are at least twenty authors I can think of off the top of my head who write about vampires and most of them differ greatly, but they all know the myths of the traditional vampire stories. That doesn’t mean they adhere to them. But they know what they are and if the garlic, sunlight, stake issues are ignored, you bet readers notice. Not to mention Fae, witches and weres. Real research comes in handy even in the mythical genres. In fact, employing lore makes for a more realistic storyline. A truer fantasyland.

To the whiteboard goes the brainstorming ideas. The what ifs? Of the plotlines. And the ‘rules’ of the world. What do I mean by that? Here’s an example.


Sookie Stackhouse can mind-read. But only if she’s in the room with the person. And only if the person is human.

These are rules. You can’t have a character who is all-powerful or all-knowing or the story wouldn’t be much fun to read. So even if you have a demon hunter, a werewolf, a sprite, a medium, or a ghost in your story, there has to be restrictions to their capabilities. Figure out what they are, then figure out ways around them and be consistent throughout the story. If that sprite only has a twenty year life-span, he better be dead by book three.

Last, the storyboard. This is fun. I get a poster board and clip images from magazines or websites that pertain to the story and glue them on. Right now, the board has photos of my protagonist, my villains, the setting, and a map. It’s a great way to visualize the story before you start writing. It also helps if you’ve been away from the work for a while, to guide you back to it.

So there you have it. How do you plan a new novel?

Barbra Annino