July Newsletter

July Newsletter

Writing about different Genres and Situations.

Uncharted Waters

          Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror/Scary, Ghost, Mythology and Supernatural, these are the Genres that most people think of when they think of things like monsters and aliens. Sometimes one will cross-over with another, like with certain dragon movies that take place in a modern, or even futuristic, setting, in which dragons, a mythological creature found mostly in the realm of fantasy, have either been hibernating and have woken up, or have been cloned from some remains, and are now terrorizing people in some fashion. Mostly however, they tend to stick to certain areas, aliens stick to Sci-Fi, dragons to fantasy, and vampires and werewolves tend to stick to horror/scary. Also, most of these creatures are a danger that has to be destroyed or killed. The trick is to move those creatures to uncharted waters, and have them navigate those pathways, and be successful at it. These Uncharted waters are two things, putting them into new genres and into new roles.

          Let’s take for instance my character Jack Clawtooth from my Monster Cowboys series. The basic story is that Jack is a Civil War veteran whose family left him after he killed a prominent man in his home state, and he was forced to flee. After several years of searching he finally finds out where his wife and kids are at. The bad news is, his wife was forced to marry a man who took over the town that she and the kids had moved to. This man also has a large number of men, most of them ex-soldiers, who terrorize the area. Thus Jack has to find a way to not only get his family back, but to free the town as well. Oh, did I forget to mention that Jack is a werewolf and most of the other people are creatures found in the realms of mythology and fantasy? No, I didn’t tell you that. It’s a mixture of Western, Action/Adventure, and of course, Horror/Scary.

          Another thing to do is put your creatures through everyday occurrences and situations such as being an adolescent in middle or High school. Twiga ’s Jocks Vs Nerds Saga is a good example of this. Her stories involve anthro-like creatures she calls chimeras going to school with humans, in a world that happens to be that of a Fan-Fictional DC universe, in Gotham City at that, though Batman is rarely involved. Her main characters are Maizipan, an adolescent cat-girl, and Ichabod Crane, an adolescent human boy, and their friends, and the relationship that they have. Her stories tend to fall into the genres of Young Adult, Animal, and Friendship, with a few others for the various individual stories. All of them are quite good, as are her other stories which feature one or more similar characters, with Ichabod appearing in many of them, albeit in a smaller role than in the Jocks Vs Nerds Saga.

          As you can see, mixing things up a bit can lead to highly interesting stories. For one thing, how often are werewolves portrayed as heroes or cowboys, let alone both? So far I’ve only seen my series that combines both of these aspects. Twiga’s stories involves her creatures having to deal with school, which is highly complex, as you have the bullies, the geeks, the jocks, the preppies, and more, as most of you would know. It’s these uncharted waters that could make your stories remembered by future readers to come.

          So the next time you want to create a story with a monster, or an alien, or an anthro, in it, put them in entirely new situations. For instance, instead of creating a story in which a werewolf is terrorizing the villagers in some medieval setting; grab him by the scruff of his neck, (“Hey! What are you doing?!?”), toss him into a bathtub, complete with warm water and soap, (“OW! There’s shampoo in my eyes!”), scrub him down real good, (“Hey! You’re messing up my fur!”), dress him in business attire, (“Why am I in this monkey suit?”), and have him work in an office building, (“Hello, this is the BloodFur Accounting Firm. How may we help you?”). There you have it, instead of being your generic horror monster he’s now an employee at some accounting firm, and that opens up a host of possibilities, and can make normal business situations comical, or slightly even more scary than normal. After all, if he’s the boss, and he has a lovely secretary, can you say potential for some really weird office romance, and no one’s going to anger him, as his method of firing people might involve teeth and claws instead of a mere pink slip of paper .

Well, good luck with your writing fellow Non-Humans.

Featured Items

Monster Cowboys The Book  (18+) The Unabridged Story of how Jack Clawtooth gets back his family. Published. #1682069 by BIG BAD WOLF is Howling

Jocks VS Nerds Saga  (13+) It's The High School of Dr. Moreau! Humans and furs live in this High School drama/comedy #1475992 by Twiga