Romance featuring supernatural elements like vampires, shifters, fae, or witches, where the paranormal shapes the love story.
Paranormal romance places a central love story within a supernatural world. Vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, fae, witches, angels, demons: the paranormal element isn't just setting but directly affects the romance. Fated mates, supernatural bonds, immortality complicating mortal love. The genre exploded in the early 2000s and remains one of romance's strongest subgenres, now increasingly overlapping with romantasy.
Paranormal romance demonstrates how speculative elements can heighten romantic tension. Supernatural bonds, immortal stakes, and inhuman abilities create obstacles and chemistry that realistic settings can't. If you want to write romance with larger-than-life emotional intensity, paranormal romance shows you how the supernatural amplifies the personal.
Write a scene where a supernatural character and a human character are drawn to each other, but the supernatural element creates a specific, concrete obstacle (not just 'it's forbidden'). What physical, magical, or existential problem makes this relationship harder than a normal one? Make the obstacle inseparable from the attraction.