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Paranormal romance beat sheet template

A paranormal romance puts a hidden world's law between the lovers. One of them is not human, the secret comes out early, and the obstacle is not a misunderstanding but a rule of their world: a pack, a court, a curse, or a hunger that makes the relationship dangerous.

A nurse and an ageless patient meet beside a moonlit hospital window.

When to use it

  • One lover is a vampire, a shifter, a ghost, a fae, or something else with rules.
  • You need the obstacle to be the world, not a quarrel between the two of them.
  • Your reveal lands too late. Here it arrives before the middle.

The 4 acts

  • Act One: Two Worlds. One of them in the everyday world, and a glimpse of the other one.
  • Act Two: The Secret Shared. What one of them is comes out, and so does the law against them.
  • Act Three: The Law Enforced. The other world moves to end it, and their own nature does harm.
  • Act Four: Choosing Across Worlds. A sacrifice offered, and a way found through the law rather than around it.

The 12 beats at 90,000 words

The marks assume 90,000 words, because paranormal romance usually runs 80,000 to 100,000 words. Each beat keeps its percentage at any length, so scale the marks to your own. The story structure calculator works them out for any length.

  1. An Ordinary Life 2% · word 2,000 One of them lives in the everyday world with no idea what shares it.
  2. The Other World Intrudes 8% · word 7,000 A glimpse of the supernatural, usually through the other love interest.
  3. They Meet 14% · word 12,500 The attraction arrives with a warning: something about this person is not right.
  4. The Secret Kept 20% · word 18,000 The supernatural one hides what they are, for a reason the reader understands.
  5. The Reveal 30% · word 27,000 What they are is out. The other decides whether to run.
  6. The Law 40% · word 36,000 The law of the other world that forbids this: a pack, a court, a curse, or a hunger.
  7. Together Anyway 50% · word 45,000 They choose each other in private, and break the law to do it.
  8. Found Out 60% · word 54,000 The other world finds out and moves to end it.
  9. Their Nature Shows 70% · word 63,000 What the supernatural one is does real harm, or nearly does.
  10. The Sacrifice 80% · word 72,000 One offers to give up their world, their power, or their life.
  11. A Way Through 90% · word 81,000 The law is broken, changed, or outwitted, and they do it together.
  12. Between Worlds 98% · word 88,000 Together, in a life that belongs to neither world as it was.

A worked example

Ines works nights on a hospital ward; Emrys is a patient who has been admitted under a different name every decade since 1924.

  1. An Ordinary Life. Night shifts, vending-machine dinners, and a ward nobody visits after ten.
  2. The Other World Intrudes. A patient's chart says eighty-one; he looks thirty.
  3. They Meet. He asks her not to take his blood, very politely, and she notices he has no pulse.
  4. The Secret Kept. He tells her it's a rare condition, and she almost believes him.
  5. The Reveal. She finds his admission cards from 1934, 1954, and 1974, all in his handwriting.
  6. The Law. His kind may not be known by the living; whoever learns must forget or be taken.
  7. Together Anyway. She keeps his secret, and he keeps coming back to her ward.
  8. Found Out. An old woman in a gray coat arrives to take her memory.
  9. Their Nature Shows. Starved, he bites an orderly and nearly kills him.
  10. The Sacrifice. He offers to give himself up so she can keep her memory.
  11. A Way Through. She finds the law's loophole: the dead may be known by those who tend the dying.
  12. Between Worlds. She works the hospice night shift, and he visits every evening.

Open this template in Tabularia

Tabularia opens a new Book on the Paranormal Romance shape: its acts and a chapter for each beat, named for it, with each note pinned beside the chapter it belongs to. The book's word goal is set to 90,000 words. You name the Book before anything is created.

Open in Tabularia

Or take it away

The Word file has every beat with its note and mark, a line under each for your own plan, and the example above. It opens in Word, Google Docs, Pages, and LibreOffice.

Download for Word