No, it’s not simply the best part of writing paranormal romance. It’s the best part of writing paranormal anything. The biggest joy to adding paranormal to any story – I get to make up how magic works.
Oh, it’s so much fun!
I not only get to decide what kinds of magic exist in the world I’m writing but also what kinds of magical creatures. What those magical skills, types, and creatures are called. What magic can and can’t do. Anything and everything about magic in my book is 100% up to me.
*rubs hands together gleefully*
In the world of Born, Not Made, for example, one type of person with magic is a sensor type. Someone with the ability to sense a specific type of thing like gemstones, carbon monoxide, or magic users – anything from antiques to illness and beyond. And those sensor types are commonly called geigs (and picking that reference made me pretty happy).
I may even add a backstory about one of the most famous of these types having the ability to sense radiation (because why not?), but that probably won’t make it into the book. Why? Because most people don’t know or don’t care about slang origin. They just use the word (unless they’re into language). My main characters aren’t the types to go on a tangent about where the word came from. I am, but they’re not.
And while tons of worldbuilding results like that aren’t actually used directly in the story, they’re still important because…
- It’s a lot of fun for me, which adds to the energy of writing the book, and
- Those details are in my head. They’re part of what influences the decisions I make about other aspects of magic and the world.
So even if readers never see or know about them, that doesn’t mean they don’t influence the end result.
They’re also excellent fodder for short stories. And though I’m not great at writing short stories (Somehow they always end up transforming into books to work on next…), it’s something I can work on. And should work on. 🙂
And more reasons to play with magic and come up with new types and rules, well, that might be the motivation I need to actually try some. Because, as much as I like writing romance, writing paranormal adds extra fun and excitement to it. I mean, love, sex, and magic? Win-win-win!
Savannah Knightly 