Young Writers Society

Hello, I've been working on this story project for six years (Technically six years because I actually sat down and got to write the ideas I had for my story, but in actuality if I count the total amount of time I've put work on my story it would total to a month and a half lol. This is due to the fact I have real issues like: Family, College, Job, Etc.) but it's all just a bunch of ideas I have written down. I tried to form a plot but I keep running into a major problem. Before I mention it, it would be better to give you an idea of what my story is centered around.

My story generally revolves around four individuals who meet due to a paranormal event. Which catches the attention of an organization whose objective is protecting people from the occult, supernatural, and paranormal. The four then get an offer to join the organization, with each having different reasons for joining. But before they can get become a full member they are put through training. The end of this story (for now) is these four becoming members of the organization.

Not sure if I that was enough but it will have to do lol. If you would like to know a bit about the four individuals, I don't mind telling but it's not really important in relation to the problems I'm having with this story.

So now that you have some idea of the story (I think), the problem I’m having is well, deciding if the story should have a Masquerade or not. It seems pretty generic for an organization that protects people from the paranormal, supernatural, etc. to keep their existence a secret, but I honestly like reading stories like that. Surprisingly I'm having a hard time trying to come up with ways to cover up certain paranormal/supernatural incidents. Well I guess it all comes down to what happens in a particular incident and to what degree I take to cover it up. It's just I'm a type of writer that likes the situation to keep escalating, and the more I make situations escalate the harder it is to find a way for the four main characters or the organization to cover it up.

Now I can make the story not have a masquerade and have the world know the existence of the supernatural/paranormal. I find it more interesting but I don't know how to build a modern world where that, um, “rule” can be applied. Or what to think about when building a modern world like that.

This is a major problem for me because I can't construct a plot nor build a world if I don't know whether or not the existence of the paranormal/supernatural are common knowledge. Can seem to decide what to stick with lol. Masquerade or no masquerade? Keep it a secret or have everyone know already?

Keeping it a secret is the usual trope, so on the one hand that's going to be easier to do since everyone's more familiar with the idea. Everyone knowing about the paranormal is less common, which kind of makes it more fun and refreshing--but also makes it harder to figure out! I personally vote for having it not be secret, but then you'll have to take time to do extra worldbuilding, such as deciding how the paranormal affects the average person and daily life.

In the more recent Doctor Who series, aliens are an accepted thing to the common person because there have been so many big incidents involving them. Instead of continually finding ways to wipe people's memories or whatever, I guess the writers decided to just have people know about all these events that have happened, because covering up stuff that big (like gigantic ships crashing out of the sky) would be ridiculous. You could take a look at how they've handled it for inspiration.

An interesting dynamic might be how this organization is perceived, if it's a well-known thing. Agents who work for it might be really prestigious, and everyone would LOVE to be one (like aurors), or maybe on the flip side, they're seen as either a) aggressive and dangerous and no one likes them, like having soldier presence around or b) total hacks that are annoying (Ghostfacers comes to mind!). Depending on how the public views them, that can create a lot of potential for your MCs, especially if they each have different opinions about the organization.