Scribes: TOP IT OFF!

I have discovered a truth about myself that is probably very obvious to everyone else; I love paranormal stories. Ghost stories, vampire stories, weird monster stories. I have read Stephen King since I was 8 or 9. Yes, my parents were paying attention. I guess another element I enjoy is horror or mystery. Not the slasher-like gore that is popular now but a Hitchcock-esque plot structure and some off-kilter situation, be it mental derangement or just something wholly and fabulously fictitious. That is the glory of writing. That is the deep and fulfilling well that is imagination!

I have also figured out why I am so picky about my paranormal/otherworldly choices. You writers need to TOP IT OFF! Yes, certain abnormal events or characters will naturally lead to others... to some degree. Hey, Tolkien created an entire world of weird majesty. But you aren't Tolkien. And Tolkien had a point and a reason for each race and character. Do you? Or do you just feel like adding faeries since there's a talking emu? Stop it! Your story becomes a circus instead of a real world we can inhabit. (Unless, of course, you are writing about a circus, in which case, proceed).

I just finished reading Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger who also wrote The Time Traveler's Wife (which I also LOVE). I love Niffenegger. She takes a very obscure and otherworldly occurrence, something magical and impossible, and then she writes a completely genuine tale in which it is a vital element but not the piece d resistance. It is so beautiful to me that she can make characters, real people, come alive and breath and exist even next to this seemingly ridiculous element. She is the kind of author I want to be. She is concise, she is clever AND she is magical.