Writing the Paranormal Novel: Techniques and Exercises for Weaving Supernatural Elements Into Your Story. (11 page)

Another production issue to consider is slavery. Many cultures practice it. The availability of cheap, intelligent labor has a tremendous impact on a culture, and people who grow up with slaves — or as slaves — think very differently from people who grow up in emancipated cultures. If your paranormals view humans as a lesser species, they may very well keep humans as slaves, either openly (in a sunlight supernatural world) or on the black market (in a secret supernatural world).

Most people think of nineteenth-century American slavery when the concept comes up, but many other types of slavery exist. People once sold themselves into slavery to pay debts. There's temporary slavery, sometimes called
indentured servitude
. Ancient Greece maintained a series of laws about the treatment of slaves, including what they must be fed and how much they must be paid. Medieval European serfs were basically slaves who were tied to a place instead of a person.

Just as in reality, humans aren't above keeping slaves in paranormal fiction. Isn't Aladdin's genie his slave? And, as I've already pointed out, the English essentially enslave the dragons in Naomi Novik's books. Mercedes Lackey and Andre Norton explore the concept of paranormals and slavery in their Halfblood Chronicles books. A less-than-idyllic set of race relations creates conflict and tension, which leads to more interesting stories, so don't be afraid to introduce such problems.

The transmission of ideas and information has an enormous impact on culture. New ideas transform people, energize them, and motivate them. It's why dictators try so hard to control the flow of information. Communication started with the invention of language itself. Then came people who traveled from place to place, carrying information and ideas. Written language appeared. The printing press started up the idea of mass communication. The telegraph and telephone introduced instant long-distance communication. Radio and television trotted out long-distance mass communication. And then came the Internet …

Paranormals can add new wrinkles to communication and communication technology. Humans don't communicate much by scent, but animalbased paranormals might. Tanya Huff's werewolves use scent quite a bit in their communication. Stephenie Meyer — and many other authors before her — made her vampires telepathic. These possibilities have major ramifications on the story and you'll need to consider them in your own work.

Communication technology actually provides one of the thorniest problems for many authors. Although it may be fun and interesting to give your main character a telepathic bond with her pack mates, or arrange for your lovers to find a set of rings that let them hear each other's voices whenever they want, you'll have to address the issue of isolation. At some point, you'll probably want to isolate your protagonist and get her into severe trouble with no hope of rescue. If she has a telepathic bond/magic ring/cell phone, you'll need to explain why she can't simply shout for help. And no, I'm afraid claiming she's “too proud to call for assistance” won't carry you through — readers won't buy that one, especially in a life-or-death situation. There should be a compelling, believable reason why your character can't call her friends or the cops. (More on this in chapter seven.)

This, by the way, is why many modern authors spend enormous amounts of time creating characters who forget their cell phones, fail to recharge the batteries, wander out of service range, drop their phones, break them, lose them, or otherwise find themselves without a working connection. One little call to 911, and Pauline Peril's problems go
poof
! The same problem will apply to characters with a supernatural method of communication, so you'll need to build in reasons why Pauline can't call the cavalry. Perhaps the person at the other end can't “hear” her, or the magical power has a limited range, or her captor has a way to block the magical ability, or …

Technology doesn't always develop evenly in all areas. The Egyptians, for example, developed fantastic methods of production, but their medical technology stagnated, mired down by tradition. Your supernatural people could quite conceivably come from a society that has advanced in one direction but slowed in another. We see slavery as a backward, primitive idea, for example, but other cultures see it as normal, even essential. Your fairies may be advanced healers who never developed writing and are puzzled by the very idea of “words that stay.”

We've always had a popular culture. We just didn't know it until the 1960s. (The term “popular culture” actually dates back to World War II, but no one paid attention. We were rather occupied.) Pop culture changes people, and people change pop culture. The difference between pop culture and “regular” culture is that pop culture changes
fast
.

Assuming you've set your paranormal novel on some version of our world, you'll have two facets of pop culture to consider.

Normal humans obsess over the latest episode of
Popular TV Show
. They listen to Popular Female Music Star. They connect with friends and family through Popular Social Network. Trends in clothing, hair, slang, movies, video games, and more surface, spread, and sink with devastating speed.

Why shouldn't paranormals experience the same thing? Vampires connect with potential blood donors online. Werewolf cubs argue hairstyles with their parents. Sirens sing rock music. Paranormals may well take things further and form their own pop culture. Fairies with the ability to fly might develop club dancing that goes beyond anything humans might conceive. Sorcerers with mind control powers might possess ordinary humans and wear them like suits of clothes, with certain types of people falling in and out of fashion. Young mediums (media?) develop their own subculture, complete with slang, while talking with dead teenagers. Esther Friesner edited a number of anthologies set in supernatural suburbia that explore these ideas, including
Witch Way to the Mall, Strip Mauled, and Fangs for the Mammaries
, if you want to see some examples in short stories.

The essence of pop culture is its malleability — and there's no way to predict what might mold it next. The public's attention is notoriously fickle. Today's hot trend is tomorrow's bargain bin. Remember boy bands? Beanie Babies? The Macarena?

In a secret supernatural world, magical elements may be behind a given idea's popularity. Who's to say fairies weren't quietly boosting Tickle Me Elmo? And perhaps the “I've fallen and I can't get up” commercial was an unconscious reference to werewolves and their prey. Anne Rice, of course, put her vampire on stage in a popular rock band in
The Vampire Lestat
, creating a fictional music sensation that bled over into the real world for a short time.

In a sunlit supernatural world, you can easily imagine the impact of the paranormal on pop culture. Although there might be much to fear from the supernatural, people would also flock to it, especially if it turned out to have good fashion sense. Music, TV shows, movies, food — all these industries and more would rush to incorporate cool supernatural elements into themselves if such elements revealed themselves to the world. Can you imagine real-life fairies showing up and McDonald's not using them to promote their Happy Meals? Me neither.

One way to explore the ramifications is simply to take an element of modern culture and add the supernatural. The fashion industry is built around expectations of impossible beauty. What would happen if you added impossibly beautiful elves to it? Reality TV shows pit ordinary people against each other in strange contests. Imagine pitting two rival clans of werewolves against each other. Hollywood complains that agents suck blood from the studios. What would a vampire agent be like? Running with an idea in this direction is a great way to explore theme as well. (More about that in chapter twelve.)

Absolutely not.

Every writer creates reams of notes that no one else will ever read, forms ideas no one else will ever hear, writes histories that will never see the light of day. And so will you.

A couple years ago, I took a research trip to Ireland. For ten days, I wandered Dublin and County Meath. I crawled through Stone Age tombs, and climbed over ruined castles. I drove on the left, drank Guinness, and got lost in Irish bogs. I learned how to behave in an Irish cathedral, start a fire with dried peat, and speak with an Irish accent. But I didn't learn
everything
there was to know about Ireland — or even about Loughcrew, the small, fairly obscure tombs I'd come to study. I didn't learn how immigration works, or how to use the Dublin train system, or how to open a bank account. But you can be sure that all these things existed while I was there! The banks and trains and immigration system all operated quietly in the background, and I barely noticed.

You're essentially taking the reader on a ten-day tour through your world. There's plenty they don't need to see but which
you
need to know about. Your deeper knowledge of the world will keep the world consistent and stop you from making mistakes in the way your characters react within your setting.