Basically, I had a lot of ideas for a series of books ( I have ideas for at least 3 books) mixing paranormal and romance. To be short, it's about a college student ( girl) and her mom disappeared mysteriously a few months ago so she's been a wreck since, but after being threatened to get kicked out of college , she decides to try being the girl she was before, happy, lively etc, even if she has to fake it, and she has a nice group of friends, and among them, two guys, one who is openly flirty overly confident etc and the other who is just fun and a nice friend etc ( well actually he's not, he's into her but she doesn't know until the last chapters) [ so that's the romance part,] and when another person is missing in her hometown, she thinks it may be linked to her mom's case and decides to investigate, because the police doesn't make any progress, then she realizes many people around her disappear, and she'll discover who's behind it ( a god-demon / mythological creature) and that's when she'll know about her origins etc... BUT, the problem is that I wanted it to be more paranormal oriented and just a little romance and everyday college life stuff, but as I started writing, it just is the opposite, and while the disappearances start on chapter 2 , the paranormal elements ( and it's just a light hint, she is not aware of any paranormal doings and won't be until the last chapters of the novel) are presented in chapter 5, is it too late ? and is my story weird for mixing these two genres ? Because the result is that I have some fluffy and nice scenes, some sad and emotional scenes, some steamy scenes, and some gloomy ones... I'm afraid it would be confusing for a reader? because the tone would change all the time.
Just add in a brother that keeps all his feelings to himself and shows up right after the mom disappears. And he has to drive a 1967 Chevy Impala. In all seriousness though I would suggest the simplest answer: Try focusing more on the paranormal. When you write the paranormal parts try describing it more or make them more vivid then the romance and try to keep the romance to what it needs to be. That being said write what you wanna write.
Never fear! New Adult is here! Seriously though. In case you haven't heard of it, it's the age range between YA and Adult (basically college age), and it's being heavily overrun by romance. Google "New Adult novels" and you'll find most of them labeled this way: Paranormal Romance, Fantasy Romance, Horror Romance (maybe). It's very, very common in NA to mix romance with another genre. And since your characters are in college, they fit the NA group. So I wouldn't worry about that even a little bit. As for it starting in chapter five, I don't see a problem with it, though I'm sure others might. As long as you are focusing on important things in the first few chapters, it shouldn't be an issue.
Writing the first chapter (or two) would be best (my opinion) focused on her and whatever romance or emotions you have in mind to show the reader "Who she is before all of the stuff happens".
Barbara Michaels, aka Elizabeth Peters, pretty successfully combines paranormal and romance. Your description made me think of the first and third books of her Georgetown series--Ammie, Come Home and Stitches in Time. It might be worth reading one, just to get a feel for one author's successful merging of the two.
HAHA I LOOVE Dean Winchester ! Lol more seriously, the problem is that for the plot, the paranormal needs to be kept until the end of the book ( but in the ideas I have for the two other books, it would be the opposite, the focus would be more on the paranormal, and the romance would be put aside a little.) some romance/friendship characters will have a part to play in the paranormal action, so it's not like the romance and friendships parts are useless and not linked, but it just is taking over, as the plot is that way, but it's annoying :/.
But in these kind of books, isn't the MC or the romance interest some kind of non-human creature and they have a lovestory blabla? Because mine is not, it's someone in my main character's family who's non-human, not her or her love interests.
That's what I was going for , but the problem is that the way I outlined my novel,it's not going to work. The MC needs to get her life together and be happy, while looking for her mom, and when she's really happy and has leads about her mom, all her hopes and her life will be shattered again, and that's wherre the paranormal comes. I'm okay with this scenario, but the thing is I can't help but feel that it's weird that the MC talks about boys and classes and parties, while at the same time investigating her mom's case and also finding out about demonic creatures lol, it seems like I'm talking about two differents books :/.
I don't... really think it matters. You're overthinking it. lol There aren't "guidelines" to what makes a Paranormal Romance. If there's paranormal stuff in it, it's Paranormal. If there's romance in it, it's Romance. If there's both, it's Paranormal Romance. Who the love interest is doesn't have anything to do with the classification.. ever. lol
I can understand that. My main trilogy is about something called "The Darkness Plague" but only really comes in effect at the end of my first story and peppered over the beginning. Why not make here keep to herself or be more goth (Like me ) and have the romance be more; some guy/girl trying to break down walls she is putting up. Makes more sense to me that way. But it is your book. Hope that helps.
I see no problem with focusing on the romance initially and leaving the paranormal developments till the end IF you've adequately foreshadowed/left clues suggestive of them. I think suddenly dropping paranormal activity at the end of what had otherwise been a true-to-life piece is likely to jar the reader, unless there'd been earlier hints that all was not as it had seemed. Exactly how to do that might vary with narrative: I imagine it would be easiest in third person omniscient vs first person. The basis would probably be either describing paranormal things that the viewpoint character doesn't see, or describing things she doesn't recognise as paranormal that the reader does. Or both. Writing with a "spooky" tone might complement this (but probably isn't enough in the absence of actual paranormal plot, setting or character factors). The hardest part will probably be balancing the subtlety so that the finale is not completely obvious, but not entirely out of left field. From what you've shared, the main concern I have is how quickly the character finds herself happy/able to cope following her mother's disappearance. Disappeared people tend to leave gaping holes for the rest of friends and family members' lives. Obviously people vary in how they cope, and it helps to have supportive friends, etc, but I'd find it quite unrealistic if you didn't at least portray how much of a struggle it is for her to "fake it", even months later. This wasn't the topic you asked about, so if you're on top of this and I've misinferred via brevity, my apologies.
Here are some options for what you can do. Go back and sprinkle in some clues to the supernatural elements throughout your book so that when the reader nears the end, the supernatural elements don't seem to come out of nowhere. Keep writing the book the way it currently is, but keep on writing it past your planned ending. Finish the first book and it's sequel, then cut out the filler and combine them into one book. Start a new draft and try to write it the way you originally planned. When you're done compare it to your current draft and see which one you like best Ctrl Alt Del the "paranormal" part of the story line. I know you want to write a paranormal romance but it doesn't really sound like it's working out at the moment. Maybe this particular story is just meant to be romance/mystery. Instead of a demon/god being the reasons behind the disappearances, an actual human criminal, murderer, etc who is somehow connected to your main character could be the perpetrator
Thanks for your answer I think I have found some ways to give hints for the reader at the beginning of the book, but not too much, for example I wrote a scene at a museum and the MC sees a portrait of a mythological king, and she can't help but feel like she already saw him and is troubled by it , and since the powers of my "demon" has to do with the mind, the MC will frequently make weird dreams etc... which will persuade her to investigate more until she finds the truth .And yes concerning the mother being missing, I didn't want it to seem fake, so I took a lot of scenes explaining how she has coped with it for the past 6 months ( not well, she didn't go to classes, didn't go out much at all and when she did she had panick attacks etc) and even when she fakes it, she still "loses it" sometimes, and she speaks about her mother very often, so I think it doesn't seem unrealistic, because having been through a similar thing, I coped with it the same way as my character did.
Thanks for the advice, I think I'll use the first one, giving little clues here and there The thing is that without the paranormal storyline, I couldn't write the other 2 books I have in mind, and I really want to write them, because I have a lot of ideas to explore the mythology I chose ( celtic) with flashbacks etc.. this novel I'm writing would be like a gateway to paranormal for the MC, but it's going to take a whole book to get there, and then the two others would be a lot more focused on paranormal, and way less on her romantic life
