The Paranormal Romance Beats
I really like thinking about stories in terms of their beats instead of plot points. It gives a much looser structure to allow for surprises and spontaneity… says the woman who has the need to breakdown everything to it's smallest particle.
My favorite genre of romance is Paranormal Romance. Werewolves, vampires, fae oh my. I love them all. And because I read so much I keep noticing patterns. Here's the rhythmic beats I hear when I read a PNR.
ORDINARY WORLD
The hero is introduced to the reader amidst a background of their every day environment, society, and personal history. We need to get a bit of the hero’s personality to be able to identify with them and also have something to measure the new person they will become by the end of the story.
Combination of introducing character, situation, and setting. Either the character has extraordinary powers that we will see now or very soon, or the setting is extraordinary that they live in, they are dumped in a situation that is extraordinary.
For a quintessential text, let's use…. You know what I'm going to say. "Twilight."
In "Twilight," Bella is an ordinary girl placed into what seems an ordinary situation, until she learns that her beau is something out of the ordinary.
MEET CUTE
In a romance, this is where the Hero and Heroine meet for the first time or the first time on the page. Remember, these scenes don’t have to be in this order. The meet cute needs to be memorable and impactful.
In the PNR it involves an Awareness of the paranormal being or the magical world. A shifter scents his mate. A vampire’s heart might beat for the first time upon coming into contact with his bride. The beast inside the male might shout MINE.
In "Twilight," Edwards first is alerted to Bella when he can’t hear her thoughts. Then he gets a good whiff of her and all bets are off!
SHOW OF POWER
The hero or heroine reveal their power in this beat, depending upon their supernatural persuasion.
And elf might show dominance over the elements. A dragon could breath fire or shift. A vampire could show power with his age (knowing something historical or being involved in it), his bite because he has to feed, or he might show his weakness and have to go to bed at sunrise. A werewolf could scent his mate, show his strength in a fight, or show his weakness at the full moon which causes him to change. Bears could have the same strengths as wolves. Maybe their weakness is narcolepsy in the winter ;-)
Edward shows his power when he saves Bella from the wayward truck with just one hand.
EXTRAORDINARY WORLD
At the end of Act One, your hero or heroine should cross the threshold into the new and extraordinary world. Here the rules of the old, ordinary world, no longer apply. They need to learn the new rules quickly and be tested as they meet new allies and enemies.
In "Twilight," Edward takes Bella to the forest to expose his true, sparkly self.
FOUND FAMILY
At some point in your story, the outsider needs to come to “Sunday Dinner.” In shifter romance, one of key components of why readers flock to these tales is for the pack. The found family of individuals who choose each other or who share the same blood. Often times it's the heroine who is the outsider and she is eventually welcomed into the pack, which the reader experiences as themselves being welcomed into a pack.
You’re likely to find all kinds of characters in the family pact; tricksters, mentors, shapeshifters, etc. Translation; ex lovers, the black sheep brother or cousin, the wizened old crone, the alpha with the heart of gold, etc
In "Twilight," Bella gets invited to family dinner to meet the Cullens. These vampires are a true found family put together by the family patriarch Carlisle and Esme as the matriarch, there’s Alice as the soothsayer, Rose as the shapeshifting mean girl, and the two brothers who have Edward’s back no matter what.
MIRROR MOMENT
The mirror moment is often times in front their own reflection. Here the character gets a glimpse of the life the way they truly want it. The realize that either they can hack it in the extraordinary world, or they should go home.
Bella and Edward both know that they want to spend their lives together, however that might be.
POWER UNLEASHED
Now that the hero and heroine know how they want to spend their lives, they’re going to have to fight for it. This is the moment when the beast comes out and the hero shows off their full power.
For Edwards, he has to defeat the villain who is after Bella. But Bella is ready to die for him. I think this moment isn’t all about power. It’s about love.
THE CLAIM
A kiss would be enough in a standard romance. But you’ve got a paranormal beast to contend with here. The claiming scene puts everyone on notice that the shifter has a mate.
A bite
A mark
A kiss
A vow
HAPPILY EVER AFTER
And finally, there’s a happily ever after scene of the two characters in their new life. One of them will change to become paranormal now… or eventually.
Happy writing,
Ines
You just finished writing thousands and thousands of words in your manuscript and told an emotional love story with kissing. But wait, you're not done. Now you have to write a couple hundred words to sell that story.
It's the book blurb and why is it so hard to do?
Well, what if it doesn't have to be? I know the secret formula advertisers use to craft PSAs and Commercials. It's called AIDA.
The A.I.D.A. Formula
The purpose of the advertisement is to persuade. There is a system for persuasion. Essentially, four steps of persuasion can be applied to virtually every television or radio commercial or PSA. Or you can use it to sell your book to a new reader.
First, get the audience’s Attention. This can be accomplished by many means, including humor, a startling statement or visual, a rhetorical question, vivid description, a novel situation, or suspenseful conflict. Sound, such as pings, chords, or special effects, attracts attention.
My advice? Put the trope up top. Readers have so many choices and they often know exactly what they want, and what they want is their favorite trope.
Second, after you get the audience’s attention, hold its Interest. One effective technique in television is constructing the mini-drama, establishing a conflict that keeps the audience viewing or listening for the climax or resolution. Anecdotes, testimonials, statistics, examples and exciting visuals and sound are among the devices that can be used to hold interest.
This is when you introduce the hero and/or the heroine's and give us an Empathy Hit. Why should we care about them? This can be done with an adjective like SHE is an ugly duckling or HE is the new Alpha of the pack.
Then work in their GMC. What's their goal? What do they want? And what stands in their way? I like to do this separately and list it out for the hero and heroine. That ugly duckling heroine might want to convince that new Alpha to finally see her as a grown she-wolf, but she's his best friend's baby sister. That Alpha may need to mate a she wolf from a rival pack to keep the peace but he just realized his best friend's baby sister is his fated mate.
Third, arouse the Desire of the consumer. You must first understand how the target consumers think, behave, and make decisions, and then give them a reason to buy.
Our target audience are readers. But drill down deeper. My target audience is romance readers, women mostly in their sixties. I know this because of demographics I get from FB ads, my newsletter, and website traffic.
But you want to drill a little deeper and circle back around to subgenre of romance and tropes. My example is not just romance, it's paranormal romance, shifter romance with were wolves. It's also the trope of fated mates, ugly duckling, maybe cinderella.
There are timeless struggles and stakes that go with these genres, subgenres, and tropes. In PNR, the magical beings often struggle to stay hidden from the human world or else risk exposure where the stakes could be the end of their way of life. In the Fated Mates trope, the couple will struggle to stay together as outside forces aim to pull them apart. If their love doesn't last then a spiritual death is at stake. In a brothers best friend trope, the friend who's falling in love struggles against their emotions because their friendship is at stake.
All these play on the audience desires. I would signal as many of these points to the reader as possible because these are reasons that they would one-click if this type of story is their catnip.
Fourth, motivate the consumer toward Action by telling them what to do next.
We so often forget the call to action. Be sure to write at the end of the blurb to grab the copy or preorder or fall in love with this book. Make sure the last thing they read is you telling them what to do next, which is buy the book.
So, in the spirit of action…
Want a more in depth exploration of pacing, try out my course Page Turner Pacing: how to write a bingeworthy novel in 21 days at ineswrites.com/PTP for Page Turner Pacing.
Happy writing,
Ines
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