- Joined
- Jan 20, 2010
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- London
- Website
- www.boyvsworld.blogspot.com
My urban fantasy story concerns a group of supernatural watchmen/women (hidden in our world) who ensure that the laws of the supernatural/secret world aren't broken. They have eyes and ears who look out for strange occurences, and when something suspicious comes up the watchmen send out their members to properly investigate/resolve the matter.
The closest example I can think of is Hellboy and the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. They find out something strange and send him to wherever it is. He follows clues/beats up monsters and bad guys until he gets a good handle on what's going on. He then confronts whoever/whatever is causing the problem and defeats them. By this point he's resolved the initial issue (and more besides) and so he leaves.
I can't tell if it's supernatural hardboiled detective fiction or if it's simple action/adventure with mystery elements! If I had a choice I'd pick action/adventure, but I don't want to begin writing my story in a way that promises one thing and then veer off in a completely different (*cough* explosive *cough*) direction :/
OH, and if your MC is tasked with resolving a mystery (as the inciting incident), should that mystery be the focus/backbone of the plot or is it okay to use it as a springboard to get your MC sucked into a completely different issue, say, about halfway into the book? In other words, the mystery/initial problem leads the MC into something dangerous and then lies answered but forgotten?
The closest example I can think of is Hellboy and the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. They find out something strange and send him to wherever it is. He follows clues/beats up monsters and bad guys until he gets a good handle on what's going on. He then confronts whoever/whatever is causing the problem and defeats them. By this point he's resolved the initial issue (and more besides) and so he leaves.
I can't tell if it's supernatural hardboiled detective fiction or if it's simple action/adventure with mystery elements! If I had a choice I'd pick action/adventure, but I don't want to begin writing my story in a way that promises one thing and then veer off in a completely different (*cough* explosive *cough*) direction :/
OH, and if your MC is tasked with resolving a mystery (as the inciting incident), should that mystery be the focus/backbone of the plot or is it okay to use it as a springboard to get your MC sucked into a completely different issue, say, about halfway into the book? In other words, the mystery/initial problem leads the MC into something dangerous and then lies answered but forgotten?
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It seems a little odd that UF isn't broken down any further, though (I know its a subgenre itself but the actual plots seem to range from noir fiction to pure thrillers). But I'm glad that I don't need to get too specific about it either way 
