What makes Paranormal work
- Paranormal Phenomena (essential): Ghosts, psychics, ESP, hauntings, or other unexplained phenomena are central.
- Encounter with the Unknown: Characters experience, investigate, or coexist with paranormal events.
- Atmosphere of the Uncanny: The text creates a sense of things being beyond ordinary explanation.
- Investigation or Discovery: Characters seek to understand or respond to the paranormal.
Tone and themes
Tone: Eerie, curious, unsettling, wonder-tinged
Themes: the unknown, afterlife, perception, belief, connection beyond death, hidden dimensions, gift or curse, proof
Setting guidance
Haunted locations, ordinary places with strange phenomena, liminal spaces, or any environment where the veil between normal and paranormal is thin.
What Paranormal is NOT
- [Critical] Must feature paranormal phenomena (ghosts, psychic abilities, unexplained events) as central
- Should not be pure horror with no sense of wonder or investigation
- Should not fully explain all phenomena with mundane or scientific causes — some mystery or uncanniness should remain
Writing tips
- Balance the uncanny with the mundane — the contrast makes paranormal elements more powerful.
- Let characters react realistically — not everyone believes immediately.
- Use ambiguity strategically — was it really a ghost, or was there another explanation?
- Sensory details of the paranormal (cold spots, sounds, visual distortions) build atmosphere.
Example openings
“The recording played back clearly: her voice asking a question, and then — impossibly — an answer.”
“He'd been dead for six months. She still set a place for him at dinner. Last Tuesday, the fork moved.”
“The psychic held her hand and went pale. 'You're not the one I'm reading,' she whispered. 'Someone else is here.'”
Mood keywords
ghost, séance, psychic, haunting, spectral, cold spot, apparition, medium, veil, presence, unexplained, EVP
Related genres
- horror — Horror uses the supernatural to frighten; paranormal explores it with curiosity alongside unease.
- mystery — Mystery focuses on solving earthly puzzles; paranormal mysteries involve unexplained phenomena.
- fantasy — Fantasy builds systematic magical worlds; paranormal intrudes into the ordinary world.
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