Anatomy of: A Supernatural Story

Long before Stephanie Meyers brought us Twilight, many people were fascinated by “creatures of the night.”  The legends surrounding these beings have been around for centuries, and have evolved over time.  Unexplained events, rumors, and just good old storytelling have contributed to the legends, and Hollywood has run with them.

When I set out to write my story “The Road Ahead is Dark,” I wasn’t necessarily planning to add such a creature.  I began with a recurring dream based on a place I often travelled when I lived in Jefferson City, Tennessee, 30 minutes from Sevierville and the entrance to The Great Smoky Mountains.  There was a road leading through nearby Dandridge that wound upward into the foothills, away from civilization, surrounded by trees on both sides.  At the time it was a two-lane highway, though that may have changed: I haven’t been back in a while.

The road was really lovely; a perfect example of the scenery of the area, until one morning in late October when I had reason to travel it while in a deep fog.  The road, isolated as it was, had no lights along it, and with visibility limited to the next curve, seemed to continue indefinitely.   This road made an impression on me, which I realized sometime later when I began to dream about it.  In my dream, the road never ended, never varied, and it was this sense of traveling in a never-ending circle that I wanted to include in my story.

I began the story with the main character travelling an isolated road, unsure if she is awake or dreaming, and continued with the events that led her to be in this situation.  Herein lay the supernatural element, and what could be more appropriate than a loved one who may or may not be a newly made supernatural creature.  The transformation in itself is left vague, because the central theme was to be on the main character/potential victim, and whether she was awake, dreaming, or had simply lost her mind.  I hate giving everything away, so I’ll simply leave that part for readers to make their own decisions, as I post “The Road Ahead is Dark” publically in the near future.