Humans live mundane lives, except for those who have experienced the smell of gunpowder in the field, held on for dear life in a crashing plane, or ran until they collapsed from a genuine threat. This is why people introduce the element of the supernatural to create an escape from their real lives. This is why supernatural stories will always capture the imagination with endless possibilities. However, when it comes to writing, there should be a balance between natural and supernatural.
Start With The Blend And Introduce The Unusual
The setting matters the most when beginning your story, which is why this specific genre relies on the mundane, everyday life before ultimately introducing a twist. It can be a society with very human elements or somewhere else in history.
Next, you can start building one part above the other until you end up with a moving world. For instance, you tell a story of an individual going through their every life, until they encounter a supernatural element and it impacts it. Then, introduce another and show its impact, and then another. Not only how it impacts the individual but also those around them and their environment.
Strictly Follow The In-World Rule
This is a technical rule, but a rule nonetheless. As a writer, you should follow your rules for the characters. As such, the supernatural has its own rules to follow, and even if you want to change them, it’s important to keep them in mind as you write more. Once you have chosen your supernatural element, explore its power structure and limits.
Building Unique Supernatural Characters
A supernatural character is a very thin line between what is magical and what is realistic. This is important because, despite their skills, the character’s motives, fears, and needs must be easy to relate to. When creating a supernatural character, one should pay attention to where the character comes from, what the character can do, and how these influence the character’s perception of the world.
Creating The Right Supernatural Plotting
The setting of a supernatural story is not a passive background. A setting is an active participant in the story. They make readers enter a world where the extraordinary is made to appear ordinary and improve the experience. When using a supernatural setting, considering its size and kind is important. It is not a familiar place, but with a touch of the supernatural, it can be an entirely different world. The location has to be appropriate to the story and match the themes and tones where the supernatural is to happen.
The Supernatural And The Real
Despite the supernatural, many things occurring are not a far departure from our world. The supernatural reveals our phobias, vices, and the unexplained. That is how the authors transform everyday life and create worlds that are close and intriguing for readers, where one may think about the existence of the supernatural.
