Writing Tips: How to Make a Monster · 4:20am Jul 12th, 2016
(Inspiration from reading parts of Writing Monsters by Philip Athans)
http://amzn.to/29SkxVm
I absolutely love creating monsters for stories. It's one of the things I've done since I first started writing when I was around four or five years old. There is something instinctually thrilling about having a very distinct beast that is a clear threat to a character. Usually, the response to said creature is to find a way to counteract it's abilities, escape from it, and sometimes even destroy it.
Creating a monster doesn't have to be a hard task. Just ask yourself this one question:
What are you personally afraid of?
Think about it. What do you fear the most? For every fear, there is a monster that can be created to represent that fear.
The following monsters listed below have interpretations of their hidden meaning (which are only a few of many interpretations for each of them):
-- Zombies represent fear of death and decay
-- Ghosts represent fear of past deeds coming back to haunt you
-- Vampires represent fear of corruption
-- Werewolves represent fear of giving in to instinctual desires
and so on.
When you are creating a monster, think about a few key things:
-- Who is the protagonist (or protagonists) of your story?
-- What is your protagonist trying to achieve?
-- What is your protagonist's greatest fear?
-- What is a weakness of your protagonist that they fear exhibiting?
-- What is the setting for your protagonist's story (Super important for monster)
Depending on the answers to these questions, you will begin to discover which monster is right for the tale.
Example 1:
If your protagonist fears death and is trying to find a way to afford treatment for the illness afflicting their dying child, then their greatest fear would be the loss of that child. They might not want to show weakness in front of the child or any weakness which would hinder them from their goal. The setting for this would most likely be a hospital or a home where they're having doctor pay home visits to the child. Either way, these are intimate settings with lots of emotion.
There are lots of potential monsters with the themes of Sickness, Hospital, and Children:
- Those hospital gurneys that carry patients make a lot of sound. What if they were alive and something moved them that was strapped under them, upside-down...
- Nurses and Doctors can be scary, with all those needles and tools, face masks and white suits. What if they didn't have faces, and the tools were part of their body...
- Other sick people might be scary for someone who sees death coming for their child. Perhaps the look of sick humanoid monsters and the inclusion of a death-like figure could get the point across...
Second Option: Try to Make a Monster Character Sheet
Even if you've never played a roleplaying game where roleplaying sheets make sense to you, it can be useful to think of monsters in terms of:
-- Origin of Creation or Manifestation
-- Backstory before Protagonist enters picture (if any)
-- Abilities (How it attacks, how it defends, how it moves or stalks)
-- Weaknesses (Sunlight, Silver, A Shotgun Blast to the Face)
-- Resistances (Gunfire, Fire, Can Breath Underwater)
-- Attacks Alone or Attacks in Pairs, Trio, A Pack or with a Pack Leader
Important Consideration: Should a Monster Speak?
When in doubt, the answer is always "No, the monster should not speak to your protagonists." Roar? Yes. Scream like an elder god monstrosity that pierces a thousand ears? Sure!
Speaking leads to understanding.
Understanding leads to knowledge.
Knowledge leads to lessening of the unknown.
Lessening of the unknown leads to lessening of fear.
And you don't want that.
Only make your monster speak is the speech itself heightens the fear by showing the monster's superiority, such as a demon tempting a protagonist with a cursed deal or a monster that represents someone the protagonist cares about as they try to trick them into lowering their guard. Other examples exist, but these are very basic.
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These are the most basic details for now. I'll be writing more how-to bits like this later. Ask me in the comments what aspects of monster creation you want more info on and I'll do what I can do answer :)
If you make something up, let me know! I wanna see it! :D
If there was a way to fav blog posts, I'd be faving this.
4085954
WOO! /) Thank you! :D I'm glad you liked it! I will definitely make more tips like this :)
(Psst. I'm making a monster right now. It'll be posted within the hour as a separate horror story with Marble Pie :P )
Hey um... There's an interesting game called Cry of Fear. In it, your main character is an insane teen that has monsters trying to kill him. One of the enemies is exactly that thing you said, except flying. The kid has mental infliction of some kind, and he created these monsters. And if you say the monsters aren't real, there's a bonus campaign as a different character with these enemies. Next spoiler tag is for the final boss. You're the final boss. Or rather, the character's mind is the final boss. After an epic battle, you see the ending: Two police officers enter your home to find you're dead body: You've killed yourself, and I don't know what happened to the book you looked at right before the boss. The thing is, these monsters will kill you. They affect their surroundings. The doctor, the one thou plays as in the secret campaign sees them. It seems that they are real, and something brought them into being, but after you die, they all vanish.
Now then, what's my fears? Spiders, insects, anything dangerous because I fear pain, loss of self-control (not giving in to instincts like werewolves: Actually having less or no free will), change, and everything I see being fake. An illusion or hallucination.
If the world sees me a monster, then I'll be one. No family of mine will die on my watch ever again.
-Cycle "Garand" Springfield
--Mentally deceased
4086289
Whoa, that's intense! :D
4086056
Wow, that sounds like a really good game. I don't often have time to play them, but that doesn't mean I can't see a Let's Play :D
4086658 The let's play I saw the beginning and end of that was made of it was made by someone called Theweoneo, a very small let's player.
So... if you wanna make a monster, make it have dark qualities.
4086911
THE DARKEST, DANKEST QUALITIES :P
4086916 Is it bad that I've been so lazy with my writing?
4086926
No, you have a life and most likely a job and/or school so you are busy :)
I have...a...a house? O.o And no job or school right now.
4086937 Well, I'm done with college for the summer, and I'm still looking for a job. And I've been focusing on my video games and family stuff.
Interesting.
4087001
Thanks! :D
4086658
All my stories tend to have certain qualities the longer I have to think about them.
1) Someone is/will be immortal, whether literally, or technically
2) Someone will start losing their sanity
3) Tanks will appear, or other similar weapons/attacks of great destruction.
4) Copious amounts of crossover references.
Seriously, look at this list. Its getting ridiculous.
Lord of Dorkness’s stuff (Lich, Transhumanism, Winter Apple, Subtle Cadence expy)
Vampire Cheerilee/Deus Ex HR, Wally/Deus Ex)
Gladas (Glados)
Weapons (Gun Puns)
Bradley: FM:A (Ed/Wrath), B2 Spirit, Sanji,
GitS
Everlost (imply spirits, Skin wraith?)
Tetsuo: The Iron Man/SCP-882 (Daring/Ms. Grey)
Doctor Who (Agatha/The Seer)(Starswirl)
Sonic Cello (Doctor ref)
Good Omens (Agatha)
Split Second (fimfic)(that child thing)
Incomplete Fusion -> Successor
Morphling -> Successor
The Draconequus Experiment -> Successor
Stanley Steel -> Successor (Cycle’s body?)
Necrodancer (agatha’s fighting style)
Vague Ben 10 reference/Soul Eater
Carrot Top and Derpy, Ice Queen thing.
Remember to ref. Erma
Tron: theme of Elma’s hive.
Do “Acceleracer”
Figure out how to incorporate War-bodies of Transcendent Humanity
Maybe Grimm?
Books being a form of Necromancy (Discworld, Granny Weatherwax)
Cycle fights like Deadpool?
4088102
That is a fudge-ton of crossovers :D
But it's okay to have themes to return to. I have some I like to visit over and over again:
(1) Fish out of water character in a different environment than they're used to
(2) Transformations both physical and mental
(3) humans and ponies working together
(4) Crossing over into another world
(5) psychological monsters
4088123
They're less themes, and more things I like wankin' off to. In high school, for an alien planet sci-fi story, I decided that an exploratory vessel carrying a minigun was a good idea. I wasn't having much enjoyment with my other things, and having a serious problem with derailment due to insufficient planning. Now I still derail, but in a more orderly fashion, and with enough time to correct it.
Also, Dorky. Big influence.
He has a massive "Let's work together and be awesome together" theme in "Pony's Curse", slightly more subtle one in "Sufficiently" Also last chapter of "Outside the Reaching Sky"
Oh, and there's this list of Humanity Fuck Yeah posts compiled from various 4chan posts.