Reader Expectations in Paranormal Fiction

I'm beta reading a manuscript for a friend right now that's chock full of zombie goodness. Moans and groans and shambling and rotting and flying body parts -- not of the "her eyes flew to him" editing variety, either. Basically everything you'd expect from zombies plus some unique touches the writer is adding to make the concept her own. I can't tell you those; that would be spoilage. Stinky zombie spoilage! But I can discuss how readers, like you and me, come to certain types of stories with preconceived notions and how the best authors recognize what's arguably common knowledge about these tropes within the text (like zombies or vampires) yet avoid creating works that seem derivative.

Let's look at one very famous example of an author remaking a paranormal trope, the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. What do we know about vampires going in? Well, they drink blood and they're undead and sunlight burns them to a crisp, so they frequently sleep away the day whether they want to or not. They look like Bela Lugosi and it's highly likely they are super strong, mesmerizing and can fly. So an author, like Meyer, who wants to write about vampires has got a century or more of preconceived notions on the part of her readers to tinker with.

A conscientious author is going to field those notions somehow, since readers picking up the book will expect certain things about the bloodsuckers therein. The author may also transform her vamps into something unexpected. That's how Meyers' vampires ended up with the Very Special Trait of Sparkliness. They can't go into the sunlight--which readers expect of vampires--but it's not due to the burning and the screaming. It's because sunlight makes them sparkle, which attracts notice, and Meyers' vampires, like so many vampires in cinema and literature before them, don't want to be "discovered" by humanity at large.

This isn't to say that an author can't utilize paranormal beings in their traditional format. But even an author writing classic Dracula vamps has to establish their characteristics with readers, although it's possible to use more shorthand in these circumstances. The writer doesn't have to infodump that the vampire will burst into flames if touched by the sun, but it wouldn't hurt to have the protagonist make a break for a sunspot to get away from the vampire. Since it's established vampire canon, readers will understand why the protagonist is headed for UV without needing it spelled out.

I've seen the shorthand tactic also used a lot as I watch "Being Human" on the Syfy channel. The show never came right out and trumpeted that vampires can't enter homes into which they aren't invited, but in the very first scene it showed a vampire specifically asking a character if he could come into her apartment. If I knew nothing about vampires, that might have seemed like politeness, but I recognized it for what it was -- vampires in the "Being Human" mythos have to be invited into homes.

In my own work, I have yet to tackle vampires, but my most recent release does contain a panther shapeshifter (which is kind of a spoiler--sorry!). Panthers aren't as settled in traditional mythology as vampires or werewolves, so I didn't have as many reader expectations to juggle. However, in the past ten years, shapeshifters of all sorts have stalked their way through the romance genre, so I knew many of my readers would have expectations about shifters based on that.

So what do we know about shifters in paranormal romance? It seems they're frequently big and bad in human form and have "fated mates". They tend to adopt a standard alpha-in-charge pecking order and survive their habitiation of the human world in packs. Often they live in more rural areas so they have space to run free when they change. Their control over the change itself varies--sometimes it's lunar-bound and sometimes it's voluntary. And their control over themselves in their animal format also varies.

So how did I portray my big kitty?

Easy. I set the story in the suburbs. Readers get to share the heroine's amazement during the discovery process that something so wild exists right in the middle of normalcy.

If you're interested, my short story is called "Cooley's Panther", it's really cheap, and it's available at several online retailers:

Places you can buy "Cooley's Panther":

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Diesel Ebooks
Smashwords

So what are your favorite traditional uses of paranormal creatures? What are your favorite "new" versions?

Jody Wallace
www.jodywallace.com * www.meankitty.com