Writing the Paranormal Novel: Techniques and Exercises for Weaving Supernatural Elements Into Your Story. by Steven Harper Page B
Authors: Steven Harper
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for him with fanatic loyalty, but where this loyalty comes from is never explained. (High salary? Benefits package with no co-pay? Matching 401(k)?) His attempt to take over the world stems from a lust for power or from a simple need to do evil deeds. Story-wise, the only reason he exists is to give the hero something to fight.
Dark Lords make for fun writing. There's something cathartic about creating on paper someone who does dreadful things we'd never even consider in real life. Unfortunately, Dark Lords make for dull reading. They're flat and unrealistic. Some writers try to counter this by taking their Lords further and further into debauchery. Except blood and gore can't replace character.
THE DREAD DRAGON
It's big, it's bad, it breathes fire, and it eats maidens for lunch. Oft en it can fly and speak a dozen dead languages (even though it never goes anywhere). The Dread Dragon always guards a treasure. It sleeps for a hundred or a thousand years at a time and then, when the story requires it, the creature wakes and hunts for food. Ordinary weapons can't penetrate its armored skin, which means the hero has to find the right magical tool to defeat it, though some Dread Dragons have a single weak spot that allows the hero to kill the creature with a single skillful shot.
Lately, a number of Dread Dragons have been transformed into Misunderstood Dragons — creatures who are not evil but merely persecuted. Humans, of course, assume that any giant lizard that breathes fire must harbor a hankering for virgin flesh, and they react with sharp, pointy efficiency. Once the hero learns the truth about the Misunderstood Dragon, he changes from dragon hunter into dragon helper, even though it means appearing to betray his own people.
Another subset of the Dread Dragon is the Mighty Steed (see below). The Dread Dragon may not actually be a dragon. It could be any awful monster — griffin, sphinx, basilisk, kraken, take your pick. Funny how many of them turn into Dread Dragons if you look closely enough.
A big scary monster is an easy target. You know it's evil, and it has to be exterminated before it hurts someone. The appeal lies in the drama inherent in a small man fighting an enormous beast and risking his life to save someone else. The problem is that the reader feels pretty sure the monster's going to lose, so there isn't much suspense.
THE MIGHTY STEED
The Mighty Steed is more than a white charger. It's a best friend, a lifetime companion, an ally who becomes closer than any mere lover. The Mighty Steed can be any large creature — a horse, a unicorn, a dragon, a griffin. The Steed's strength and speed makes it a powerful protector, the perfect guardian angel. Everything the Dread Dragon isn't.
Best of all, the Mighty Steed can read your mind. At an early point in the story, the Steed forges a telepathic bond with the protagonist because the protagonist is there when the Steed is born, the protagonist feeds the Steed at a critical stage in its development, or the Steed simply decides the protagonist is worthy in some way. This lifelong bond cannot be broken, and if one half of the pair dies, the other soon follows. The Steed and the protagonist become inseparable, the perfect friends, even as some terrible disaster threatens their lives.
The appeal here is obvious. The protagonist — and therefore the reader — ends up with a friend who loves her unconditionally, without judgment or ridicule and regardless of flaws, who will always be there and who will die to protect her. What's not to like? The trouble is, it's been done and done and done.
THE VAGUE PROPHECY
The future is set. No way to change it. And Certain People know what that future is. These people might spout it out loud or they might scribble it on a scroll for future generations. But they never, ever say anything useful. Vague Prophesies are always couched in odd metaphors (“The hand of darkness will steal the treasure of the sky”) or in deliberate
Dark Lords make for fun writing. There's something cathartic about creating on paper someone who does dreadful things we'd never even consider in real life. Unfortunately, Dark Lords make for dull reading. They're flat and unrealistic. Some writers try to counter this by taking their Lords further and further into debauchery. Except blood and gore can't replace character.
THE DREAD DRAGON
It's big, it's bad, it breathes fire, and it eats maidens for lunch. Oft en it can fly and speak a dozen dead languages (even though it never goes anywhere). The Dread Dragon always guards a treasure. It sleeps for a hundred or a thousand years at a time and then, when the story requires it, the creature wakes and hunts for food. Ordinary weapons can't penetrate its armored skin, which means the hero has to find the right magical tool to defeat it, though some Dread Dragons have a single weak spot that allows the hero to kill the creature with a single skillful shot.
Lately, a number of Dread Dragons have been transformed into Misunderstood Dragons — creatures who are not evil but merely persecuted. Humans, of course, assume that any giant lizard that breathes fire must harbor a hankering for virgin flesh, and they react with sharp, pointy efficiency. Once the hero learns the truth about the Misunderstood Dragon, he changes from dragon hunter into dragon helper, even though it means appearing to betray his own people.
Another subset of the Dread Dragon is the Mighty Steed (see below). The Dread Dragon may not actually be a dragon. It could be any awful monster — griffin, sphinx, basilisk, kraken, take your pick. Funny how many of them turn into Dread Dragons if you look closely enough.
A big scary monster is an easy target. You know it's evil, and it has to be exterminated before it hurts someone. The appeal lies in the drama inherent in a small man fighting an enormous beast and risking his life to save someone else. The problem is that the reader feels pretty sure the monster's going to lose, so there isn't much suspense.
THE MIGHTY STEED
The Mighty Steed is more than a white charger. It's a best friend, a lifetime companion, an ally who becomes closer than any mere lover. The Mighty Steed can be any large creature — a horse, a unicorn, a dragon, a griffin. The Steed's strength and speed makes it a powerful protector, the perfect guardian angel. Everything the Dread Dragon isn't.
Best of all, the Mighty Steed can read your mind. At an early point in the story, the Steed forges a telepathic bond with the protagonist because the protagonist is there when the Steed is born, the protagonist feeds the Steed at a critical stage in its development, or the Steed simply decides the protagonist is worthy in some way. This lifelong bond cannot be broken, and if one half of the pair dies, the other soon follows. The Steed and the protagonist become inseparable, the perfect friends, even as some terrible disaster threatens their lives.
The appeal here is obvious. The protagonist — and therefore the reader — ends up with a friend who loves her unconditionally, without judgment or ridicule and regardless of flaws, who will always be there and who will die to protect her. What's not to like? The trouble is, it's been done and done and done.
THE VAGUE PROPHECY
The future is set. No way to change it. And Certain People know what that future is. These people might spout it out loud or they might scribble it on a scroll for future generations. But they never, ever say anything useful. Vague Prophesies are always couched in odd metaphors (“The hand of darkness will steal the treasure of the sky”) or in deliberate
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