Going Ghost

 

Image by HANSUAN FABREGAS from Pixabay

I write a lot of different kinds of stories, but one common type of story that I write is the ghost story.

 

When I was writing for the Shadowlands website, I wrote about all things paranormal. This included ghosts and hauntings. When I wrote a haunted houses book with the late Canadian author, Martha Jette, some of my real paranormal encounters were added to the manuscript.

 

I am also working on a nonfiction book about true paranormal encounters.

 

Why do I write about ghosts so much? Maybe because I have seen a lot of ghosts. Or it’s because I have lived in a couple of haunted houses. In fact, with the house I live in now, there has been quite a bit of paranormal activity. But the activity doesn’t happen every single day. Or even five minutes.

 

Let me repeat this: Paranormal activity in a house that has this kind of activity does not happen Every. Single. Day. Or every five minutes.

 

This is important to remember because I am currently writing a novel of a family that lives in a house where a malevolent spirit resides. I have written some scenes of paranormal activity taking place in the home, but I don’t put it into each consecutive chapter. Some of the activity is a little terrifying as well as extreme, so I understand that periods of calm need to happen in between them. (That is, of course, until I get to the climax!)

 

I think having witnessed paranormal activity myself has helped make me a better writer of fictional paranormal encounters. With the many things I have witnessed happen, plus the research I have done in other cases of paranormal activity, it ensures that I don’t overdo the “ghost stuff” in my stories or write it in an unrealistic way.

 

Then again, some paranormal activity can itself seem unrealistic, especially if it’s coming from a malevolent spirit that’s trying to scare away new residents in the home!