The Night Club Scene

You can't judge a book by its cover, but you can judge an urban fantasy series by its Night Club Scene (henceforth known as NCS because I'm lazy.)

It's practically an obligation of urban fantasy writers to have a raving, pulse-pounding, light-strobing, night club filled with sweaty, hollow-eyed, scantily-clad, club-goers. After three or four different books including a NCS you start to roll your eyes (I specifically avoided a night club in Dusted because the main characters are underage, and I felt a Steampunky honky-tonk bar set the better tone for a group of war-tired fighters just trying to have a day off.)

Hexed, by Kevin Hearne, is what brought night club scenes to my attention in the first place. The main character walks in and then promptly walks out, a literal U-turn. Granted, there's some throw-down just outside the club, but it's not set to bass music thumping rhythmically. So, for kicks and giggles, here are listings of night clubs in books I've read:

Kim Harrison's Hollows series:(Can't remember the name of the club (which sounds an awful lot like a line in a Lady Gaga song.)

MaryJanice Davidson's Betsy the Vampire Queen series: Scratch.

Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series: Fangtasia, probably the most well-known example, but certainly not the first.

Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series: Zero (there are a couple of others, but they vary in classines.)

Barbra Annino's Opal Fire: The Opal (and it gets set on fire at the very beginning, go figure,) as well as a rival night club.

Cassandra Claire's Mortal Instruments series.



Books that I can't remember but probably do have night club scenes are Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake and The Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs.

Night club scenes are also popular in YA (particularly near-future) science fiction), but tends to have less of an impact, probably has something to do with the fact that alcohol is served there, and main characters of YA fiction tend to be more morally upstanding because teenagers emulate everything and everyone they like.

Which is why fans of Dusted are known to sew crappy homemade vests.

Think of some of the examples of night club scenes you've come across and use that to see if it reflects the tone of the rest of the book. I've found that the NCS gives you a good idea of where the story is going to go, and what kind of person the main character is. The scene can be dark, mysterious, sexy, the cliches, but it can also be action-packed or even kind of goofy, or embarrassing to the main character.

A great way to figure out who a character is would be to mentally plop them in the middle of a night club and gauge their reaction. I've got some characters that would U-turn, some that would join in dancing, and others that would just sidle up to the bar and hope the night is over soon (and one that would pickpocket everyone she bumps into, but she's not allowed into clubs anymore.)