Non-Humans R Us Newsletters

Unusual Roles

A while back, I made the newsletter Crossing the Streams. It was about mixing different genres together, such as combining elements of a Western story with those of a Horror story. Another trick is to put your characters in rather unusual roles than what they are normally placed in.

Let's take for instance some of the items I've made. In Monster Cowboys, I have a werewolf in the role of a cowboy, who is on a mission to rescue his family. This means that I had to do research and look up both cowboy information and werewolf information. Not only did I have to know what a werewolf does, I’d have to know what a cowboy does. To be honest, I think I nailed it. Now, there are some of the typical errors you'd find in many Western stories, such as putting in weapons that did not exist at the time the story is set in. Overall though, I think I did pretty well.

The same goes for putting your characters in other settings; you have to research both the creature and the type of setting, you plan to put the character in. Now, most anyone can place a dragon in a medieval setting and call it fantasy. They could have a "noble knight" go and attack the dragon, and perhaps they’d win the fight. But the question that would arise is; what kind of armor did the knight wear? Most anyone who has researched the medieval age will know that there's been a variety of armors from mail armor all the way up to plate armor. Another question is what kind of dragon would there be, as there is a large number of them. Another question is what if your knight wasn't human and was something else altogether? You'd have to research what creature your knight is, such as if they were a vampire or a werewolf or a kitsune, or some other creature.

No matter what role you put your creature in, you have to research the role, no matter whether they be a knight, a cowboy, a soldier in the United States military, or a CEO at a company. Let's take, for an example, having a werewolf be set as the detective who is investigating a very serious crime. Did he go to K-9 Training like a police dog would? Or was there another school he went to?

In many ways, Urban Fantasy puts creatures in unusual roles, like gargoyles being secretaries, werewolves as security guards, cat-like creatures as librarians, ogres as sewer maintenance men, harpies as air traffic controllers, dragons as firefighters, and so forth. This is heavily seen in stories involving anthros and anthro-like creatures as well.

In any case, when writing your story, have an understanding of your character, both in what they do, and what they are.