My new story, The Stelton
Legacy: Mine Forever (working title, at least the Mine Forever part), is about a family’s quest and the seven deadly sins. I came across a great
article, The Seven Deadly Sins in
Paranormal Romance, written by friend and author Stephanie Draven.
Stephanie's list identifies the things not to do in paranormal writing and
matches them to THE seven deadly sins. Paranormal or not, the information is virtuous.
Taken into consideration, the angels will sing with your results. I know, get
off my harp!
Here is my interpretation of her seven sins.
- Sloth: Too much world building at the beginning. Let it reveal
slowly
- Lust: Too much of a good thing. Description of weird stuff is good
but it’s a great story that hangs it all together.
- Gluttony: Make dialog sound real but keep it short, we bore easily
- Greed: Too much of a good thing. Paranormal based on reality with
only a few things maneuvered lend reality and hold the reader’s attention
- Wrath: Too much violence
- Pride: Make it challenging but don’t make the reader need a
glossary
- Envy: Heroes and Heroines may be perfect in our dreams but they
need a touch of reality and something to strive for.
Her full post is copied in below with her permission. Thanks
Stephanie. Stephanie will be reprising her workshop, Love, Monsters & Mythology at the NJRW Conference October
12-13.
SLOTH: Info
Dumps. Nothing turns me off faster than a book that starts off with a long
narrative explaining all the world building. Info dumps are lazy. They’re bad
form. The details of your world should come to light slowly, layer upon layer,
immersing the reader in the experience. For hints on how to do this, paranormal
romance writers should study the best written fantasy.
LUST:
Fetishism of the Supernatural. There’s a tendency for paranormal romance
writers to fetishize the supernatural elements in the same way that science
fiction writers sometimes fetishize the buttons and gadgets of their worlds.
That your character is a werewolf isn’t all that interesting in and of itself.
Not being a furry, I’m not turned on by long descriptions of fangs and
silver-grey coats. And while the fact that your hero can identify anything with
his superior sense of smell lends flavor to his persona and reality to your
world, it’s not actually characterization. Obsessing on the blood sucking, the
mysterious brotherhood, and the magical abilities may appeal to other readers
who share this fetish–but it isn’t storytelling. There has to be more to hold
the book together than a collection of neato cool superpowers. Paranormal has a
place, but don’t use it as a crutch.
GLUTTONY: Big
Chunks of Boring Dialog Meant to Convey Realism. Writing teachers
everywhere tell budding young authors to listen to real dialog and use it as a
model for what their characters should say. This only gets you so far. In real
life, people wander off on tangents. They pause and hem and haw. In short, they
bore the pants off one another. Why would you want to do that to your reader?
Paranormal romance characters live extraordinary lives. We don’t have to hear
them talk about their car trouble or what kind of ice cream they’re going to
eat unless this has some bearing on the plot, or conveys something about their
character, or is a delightful little detail sparingly tossed into the mix. Real
life conversations can go on for hours. Conversations in fiction need to be
tight and lean! Never overindulge.
GREED: Too Many Speculative
Elements. The best paranormal romance takes the world as we know it, or
the past as we imagine it, and twists one or two crucial elements, following
the repercussions from those changes like ripples on a pond. The worst
paranormal romance turns itself into a carnival for every strange and
unexplained myth, magic, and phenomenon in the cosmos. Elves and vampires,
mining together on Epsilon 4 with space aliens who are ruled by the Wicked
Witch of the West in a kingdom called Oz…readers need to be able to focus. In a
world where everything is possible, what is truly at stake? (A perfect example
of how too much of a good thing can ruin a series, is the beautiful television
series LOST which started out with an intriguing premise, but eventually piled
so many new paranormal elements onto the stack that the whole thing collapsed
under its own weight, bleeding viewers and disappointing fans.)
WRATH: Violence Overload. Most
paranormal romance follows the trend of urban fantasy to put existential
concerns at the forefront. It’s the fate of the whole world, country, city,
species, brotherhood, or pack at stake. It’s gotta be bloody, too. A struggle
for survival. Just once, I’d like to see a good secret baby vampire romance or
a simple mistaken identity story between witches, or a marriage of convenience
between werewolves. At the very least, I’d like to see interpersonal conflicts
that focus on a developing relationship at the center of the book, rather than
the danger and violence.
PRIDE: A Glossy of Terms. Look,
if you want to put a glossary of terms at the back of the book for curious
readers to look up terms as they arise, go for it. But putting it at the front
of your story signals to me that you think you’re just too special to weave
your special special language into your special special special book. It says
that artful exposition is something paeans must use, but you are too good for
it. You will make your readers actually look it up instead of being able to
figure it out in context.
ENVY: Mary Sue Characters. We
all want to be six foot bombshells who can kick butt in high heels, smite
evildoers, and capture the heart of the sexiest angel ever to fall from heaven.
But such heroines can’t be all wish fulfillment, quick-witted, never afraid,
never at a loss for a words, and always right. It’s held as a given in
paranormal romance circles that your hero can be a bastard but your heroine
can’t be a bad girl. However, a reader can’t love her if she’s perfect. Put
some dents in her armor and let the hero call her on her bullshit once in a
while.
