Supernatural and Sci-Fi are my favorite genres. They explore the writer's capabilities do see a complete different possibility of reality, and that is not easy. In a world where the most revered fictions are Crime Investigations, Lawyers and Doctors, is praiseworthy that someone tries to write anything else. If you are one of those who also enjoy a good Sci-Fi or Supernatural novel, I hope that this article help you to write your own. Maybe you become so good that in a few years that I might place your novel in my recommended list.
Well… First of all, writing a novel demands time, patience and investment. In Writing Your Novel I pointed the importance of reading a lot, and I will repeat it. To write a novel you must read as much as you can from the genre that you love. If you can't find time to read, I seriously doubt that you will find time to write a novel. Some books helped me more than others when I wrote those genres, and I want to point the ones that empowered my abilities to write this kind of novel.
The Lord of The Rings
image source
I know… some of you will say that this book is not Sci-Fi or Supernatural, but Fantasy. Well… My list is about books that help writing novels in Sci-Fi and Supernatural, and a book doesn't need to be from those genres to be helpful.
I read “The Lord of the Rings” when I was 14 years old, and that book taught me about perfection and devotion. J.R.R. Tolkien invested much time and research to this book. His descriptions are flawless and the scenario is fantastic. You must admire a man who can write a novel for grown ups around the story of tiny hairy creatures with large feet. He developed a whole world to host his story and his characters. It would be presumptuous to say that you need the same amount of dedication that Tolkien had for you to write your novel, but if you can develop 10% of it, you're on the right track. In Sci-Fi and Supernatural stories, one of the most important things is to build the background of the place where your characters dwell, and Tolkien's is the example you must follow.
Harry Potter
image source
I'm not a huge fan of J.K.Rowlling's story, but I must admit that that woman knows how to set pace and induce an addiction in the reader. Harry Potter teaches us that we don't need to write the best characters to our novel as long as we have erratic events that push them through it. I mean… the character Harry is stupid as a blind rodent, but things keep happening around him in that supernatural and intriguing environment just compelling him through the story. What I want to say is that you don't need all the characters in your novel to be perfect. In genres like Sci-Fi and Supernatural, is natural that bizarre things happen all the time during the novel, giving motion to the story and the characters. Motion is J.K.'s trick. When action happens all the time, the reader gets eager to the next page of the novel.
J.K. used action most of the time, but I think she made the mistake to give to much voice to her characters in the last novel. I read it, and I got so bored about Harry Potter's whining that at some point I just wanted him to die.
From J.K. we learn two important things: when writing your novel, use the most action you can, and don't let your main character becomes so boring that the reader wants him to be cruelly assassinated by Voldemort.
Ender's Game
image source
In this book, Orson Scott Card does something unbelievable. His background is so well built and is so easy to empathize with his main Character, that we forget that the whole novel happens in a Space Station orbiting around the world. Believe me; he didn't hold back in writing Sci-Fi elements, but the story is so good and the characters are so well placed, that we simply forget that none of that is possible yet. Is like watching a movie filled with special effects so good that we don't even remember, during the movie, that all those things are just Computer Generated images. When you write your novel, think about Ender's Game and try to reach that effect. It will worth it.
Wuthering Heights
image source
I know you must be asking what this 19th century novel is doing in this article about writing Sci-Fi and Supernatural novels. See… Emily Bronte wrote her only novel in 1847, and Hollywood made movies of it in 1920, 1939, 1948, 1962, 1967, 1970, 1978, 1988, 1992, 1998, 2003, 2008 (production) and 2010 (pre-production). What is so special about this novel that Hollywood can't stop making movies of it?
In my opinion, it is the Characters. Emily Bronte's characters are so deep and powerful that it is impossible not to be captivated by them. If you never read the book, I will spoil a detail for you: the characters are hideous and mean, and yet, it's impossible not to love Katherine and Heathcliff. The way Bronte introduces us in their mind and personalities is hypnotic.
I'm not saying that you should write your characters like that. In Supernatural and Sci-Fi novels there isn't much room for overwhelming characters. If you want to have it, write just one for your novel… no more than that. The important thing is the connection that Bronte produced between the characters and the reader. Try to achieve it, and will be impossible not to empathize with your characters.
Dune
Dune is my favorite novel, and should be the guideline of how every sci-fi story should be. Dune has it all. The background, the characters and the action. Everything is there. Dune is the utmost perfection in its genre, and if you ever plan to write Sci-Fi in your life, you can't even consider typing the first word before reading Frank Herbert's Dune. If you have to choose only one of the five books I mentioned to read, choose Dune. You won't regret it.
Interview with the Vampire (the Bonus Book)
image source
If you ever want to write a vampire novel, read this book. When you end, if you still want to write a vampire novel, read it again. Keep repeating this process until the desire to write a vampire novel fade away. I mean it. Anne Rice did a nice job with “Interview with the Vampire”, but during her lousy “vampire chronicles”, she exhausted all the possibilites of writing about vampires. She didn't destroy vampire only for her wrtinting, but for everyone else's. A good theme turned into a boring one. Maybe, and just maybe, if people stop writing about vampires for 20 years, it will become interesting again.
