A relative newcomer to the list of genres (and widely popularized by the show of the same name), the Supernatural genre is a sort of urban fantasy that involves such factors as subtle magic, monsters, the occult, demons, ghosts, and even God and the Devil. Unlike Fantasy, it is not very limited by time-period, and has a much darker feel. It also often involves the use of the sciences—as it takes place largely in the modern era. Today, I'm going to give you some tips for crafting a story in this genre.
Tip 1: Craft the Origins of your universe, and of the human race, very carefully.
Within a realm where the supernatural and natural coexist, there must be reason, balance, and purpose. The natural world, for example, continually exists (arguably, free of the supernatural) because of natural selection that has created many interdependent forms of physical and natural life (plants, animals, etc). There must be a reason—dating back to the beginning of time—for why the supernatural is thrown into the mix (even if the explanation is just a god of chaos), and for why there is a balance between the natural and supernatural (why, for example, have vampires not taken over the earth, or why is every single place in the world filled with hundreds of ghosts). It is not critical that you share this information with your audience—only that it exists so that the elements in your story work together to create a visible sort of logic.
Tip 2: Give your Spiritual Entities motives and characteristics befitting of what they are.
Nothing is worse than coming across a piece of fiction with stupid demons or stupid immortals. Examples of this are vampires that act like mindless monsters or like teenagers, demons who spend their time trying to get humans to sin, and ghosts who spend their time spooking the living. Why? If you were an immortal being, I can guarantee that after a few hundred years, you would grow tired of being stupid or acting without purpose. So when you create a supernatural entity, put yourself n their shoes not only emotionally and intellectually, but also in realization of the time spent learning and experiencing life as an immortal. Of course, madness or a necessity (for example, sucking blood in order to live, or acting like a teen in order to disguise oneself) to act in those ways may often play a factor in your story. Also, make sure that each supernatural entity has genuine depth beyond the Monster which they are, if you want your audience to invest emotionally and intellectually in the story.
Tip 3: Create hard and clearly defined limitations for your supernatural entities.
While especially important when you are using a supernatural entity as a protagonist, it is always important to have clearly defined limits for supernatural entities. Right from the beginning, you need to establish what they are capable of, what they are incapable of, their needs, and their weaknesses. Of course, each of these should have a logic behind it. Holy water, for example, should not be able to hurt a creature just because it's holy water—only if the physical manifestation of holiness is something that specifically hurts a monster. This allows you to create a set of rules to abide by, as if you were playing a board game with your readers and were establishing the rules of the game—serving to increase the challenge, the fun, and to maintain your reader's trust that you aren't just cheating them with a game of nonexistent rules.
First, establish whether the world knows about the existence of the supernatural or not (beyond the superstitions and beliefs of the world-religions). If they do not, there must be an extremely good reason that it has remained a secret (your Universe Filler Characters should never be all idiots—that is an offense against the reader's sense of realism, and also creates a dull world). Then, create a relationship dynamic. What will happen if humans discover the supernatural is real? How are humans affected if they do not know about the supernatural? How do they justify all the strangeness around them?
Tip 5: Avoid the tired cliches of the supernatural genre.
The supernatural genre is a fairly new one, and already there are tired cliches to avoid. Ending the story with a question of whether the supernatural actually had a part to play in the story. Sexy Immortals that might as well just be humans for as little as their immortality and powers have to do with the story. Saying that traditional standards of the supernatural (vampires burning in the sun, for example) are just old myths, because it's an obstacle that the author is too lazy to explore or explain or deal with. The Devil—unless you have a truly original role for him.
Tip 6: Realize the reason for why the supernatural serves to better your story.
In all reality, the reason for using the supernatural should go beyond its popularity or your enjoyment of the creatures. Figure out what you are doing by utilizing the supernatural in your story. Are you questioning the idea of God? Are you exploring the theme of obsession through ghosts? Addiction through vampires? Good vs evil with angels and demons? Are you just exploring the theme of darkness and fear, through the presence of their incarnate forms? Or the feelings of being a social outcast/monster? Or of one person seeing the truth of the world, where all others are blind? The possible Themes and applications are endless. Figure out why you are using the supernatural, and then adjust the world and the plot to make that purpose even more dynamic.
Just because you know the reasons for the elements in your story, and have fully crafted a world down to the last detail, it does not mean that you should so easily reveal every single facet. In fact, mystery is one of the greatest pleasure of writing within the Supernatural genre. This doesn't mean that you should leave all of the answers out, only that you should reveal it with the level of subtlety that will best serve your story. Paint a verbal picture, and let your readers use what they see/feel/hear/smell/experience, in order to figure out the secrets of your world.
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A relative newcomer to the list of genres (and widely popularized by the show of the same name), the Supernatural genre is a sort of urban fantasy that involves such factors as subtle magic, monsters, the occult, demons, ghosts, and even God and the Devil. Unlike Fantasy, it is not very limited by time-period, and has a much darker feel. It also often involves the use of the sciences—as it takes place largely in the modern era. Today, I'm going to give you some tips for crafting a story in this genre.
I'm working on creating 'clearly defined limitations' for a group of wizarding families I'm working on.
The best I've seen this done was in Jack Campbell's 'Pillars of Reality'. His mages were absolutely wonderful. I was hoping you might have a few examples for me to help kick my brain into action.
