Over the past few weeks I've had my nose stuck in all kinds of books about werewolves and demons, and how other writer's presented them. I've watching so many movies, episodes, and video clips that my brain is over loaded. I've even pushed the limits on my abilities to listen to certain kinds of music to find how people view werewolves and demons. Why am I so determinted to learn so much? Simple really. Over the past few months I've been taking the three main characters to my one story and tearing them apart only to rebuild them. The process has been a long and daunting one, but I'm determined to see it through because I am almost 100% sure that all this hard work will pay off for me in the end to help create that convincing story with those surreal characters. But now that I have a more open mind about how others see werewolves and demons, I've decided to go back to the very root of where these stories about such creatures began. Needless to say I don't think my trecks to the local library are going to be getting any lighter anytime soon, nor is my computer going to find much rest. I'll probably have to get a few more notebooks too for all my notes (I'm such a messy writer sometimes). Then once I have everything I want, or at least close to it, I'll probably go through highlighting all the key futures that strike out to me for each character's race, then use those key features that people expect or created to finish of the characters and the definition of them being "werewolf" or "demon. I'm also well aware of the fact that this is a lot of work to donate to one story. Personally speaking, my family thinks I'm crazy for being focused on the entire subject of the story and reworking it. To them they story is just fine. It doesn't feel fine though, and that's what's bugging me. I don't have to have a writer's eye to notice that the characters are weak, the plot is weak, and the entire story is just too corny to be taken seriously. So I feel that I HAVE to do something to fix this creation of mine. It probably does border insanity. But meh, if dedication is insanity, then by all means call me insane. Anyways, the reason I'm mostly posting this blog is to drag my mind back from the depths of stories and everything to do with them. I'm afraid I dug myself so deep into my stories and all the work that goes with them, that for the longest while I wasn't even entirely aware that the real world existed. So call this my break from writing. Well... sort of lol. While I've pulled myself from the depths of research, I do still intend to stick to writing and the topics surrounding it. And I would SO love to know people's thoughts on character development, werewolves, demon, and the idea of becoming lost in writing. The discussion would definately help me along in my crazed determination to develop my characters to their fullest. Unfortunately though, I'm too lazy to post up a thread discussing these things all in one blow (plus I'm pretty sure there's been more then enough threads about it already. So yeah, that's that for now because quite frankly trying to focus on writing when you have two dogs and a cat pestering you isn't an easy task.
Recently, in the midst of the night when I lay awake, I had a thought come to me for a character. At the time it was just a fleeting thought that didn't hold much grounds or basis. I merely knew that I wanted to use this character and create them. So I set out to begin writing a description for them. When I first imagined the character, it registered in my mind as mostly being female, as most of my characters are. However, as I began to write the words twisted and withered, forming a web and a new picture of this one character. My female had turned male. I had no problem with it actually, because it seemed to suit the character more to me now then it had before. So I decided to keep the character male. But I soon found that I have some major problems with this character that I can't seem to find a way to work through. You see, in the beginning of the development, I only knew two things about my character. 1. The basic description. 2. They were cursed by the gods. So there in lay the problem, I had to find more for my character to better develop them. I tried writing to flesh them out, but nothing felt right about the character. So I spent the next while trying to work off what I did know. Which created a bit of uncertainty for me. Let's start from the beginning, with the description of the character. The character is small in stature, with a farmer boy tan. They have copper red hair, like Christina Hendricks', and two different colored eyes. His left eye is covered by a patch, while his right remains visable. His right eye is a brilliant stormy grey-blue. And that's pretty much all I have on his description. I plan to make it so that his left eye is the part of his body that marks he was cursed by the gods, but my reasoning is still unknown. Now, the thing about his decription, which my friend pointed out to me. Is that he resembles a lot of characters we know from anime. In the sense of his basic description, he reminded us of Lavi from D.Gray Man (see link posted at end of blog). In the fact that his left eye is cursed he reminded us of Allen from the same series (see second link posted at end of blog). This made me wonder if I hadn't created a character that was merely a copy of someone else's characters. So as I mauled over my new-found character, I was able to think up some background information on him, but not his actual biography. What I was able to decide upon was that he was going to be the son of a shrine maiden. Which I'm still trying to iron out all the details on. The second thing I was able to decide upon was that he was going to be a warrior who was bathed in the blood of others and now feels he has to make ammends and repay for his crimes. This second part also made me realize that he reminded me of other characters. Two of them actually. The first is Kenshin from the series Rorouni Kenshin (see third link posted below) and Xena, from the series Xena: Warrior Princess (see fourth link posted at end of blog). Which only furthered my concerns for this character. For now I decided not to focus on the idea that he may be a copy-cat in fear of getting discouraged and instead tried to focus on developing the missing information I had. Which meant finding a name for him, his background history, and why the gods cursed him. Luckily, one night when talking to my friend, I was able to discover a name for him purely by chance. My friend was having quite the night of typos and couldn't seem to get anything spelled correctly. One such typo was horos, which she meant as horrors. But upon seeing that typo, I instantly sounded it out in my head, pulling it apart and thought about it as a name. It then was flipped around to be Soroh and the pronounciation was changed to Soh-row". So now my new character has a name... kind of. I am not sure where that name will fit in or how, I just know that it will be refrenced to him. But now that still leaves my struggle to figure out a biography, and a reason for being cursed, oh, and his personality. And hopefully, try to find a means to make him entirely original and not a copy-cat. Which at the moment is my biggest concern for him, because the more I try to develop him, the more he starts to seem like other characters I know. Maybe once I have everything figured out I can begin to fit him into a story idea. Lavi: http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x15/x__mode/lavi.jpg Allen: http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj148/Toushi_girl/Allen.jpg Kenshin: http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g292/angel_john0119/KenShiN.jpg Xena: http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o144/g4everbard/Xena/xena.jpg
I'm working on a series that involves the ancient mythical creatures and how they are cursed as humans in modern day time. Each part of the story starts out with the "Legend" of how it came to be. Personally, I think the legend needs a little work, so I'm open to suggestions and such on how to fix it. Also, this legend is far to important to completely skip. It plays an important part on the climax/ending to the story. The legend is as follows: “There was once a great sorcerer who held a legendary power. This sorcerer was greatly admired by the people of the earth, the animals of nature often respected him and mother nature itself treated him with such care. Though the sorcerer had all these things, he wanted something more, he wanted the power of the mythical creatures, he wanted them and their immortality. Thus the sorcerer devised a plan to trap the master creatures of the earth. In his plan he invited all the great creatures to a plentiful feast at the top of a great mountain, where only those with magical blood could reach. Believing the sorcerers intentions to be true the legendary creatures accepted his invitation and come to the feast. Little did they know that it was working into the sorcerers plans. Soon however, the creatures learned of the sorcerers true intentions when they found that the food they were given had a special herb in them that would paralyze them. Unable to fight they were left helpless to the sorcerer who used the chance to achieve his true goal; to make the creatures belong to him and his descendents for all of time. ‘You foolish creatures” he had called to them. “Though you did not trust me, and some of you even hated me you came to my feast expecting me to give into you. But it is you who gave into me. Now you shall belong to me forever more! You shall be cursed to my blood and you shall not walk in your true forms! I will not allow you such glory! No! I shall shame you all and make you walk in the forms like mine! Ah, but do not think that is all! I will not allow you to love others, nor to enjoy the touch of others. For if you try to love someone other than me then you shall turn into your animal forms once more, and whoever you wished to love shall hate you!’ True to his word the sorcerer turned the great creatures into humans, and bound them to him by means of blood.” However, for one of the stories there is also more to the legend. It is as follows: “There was once a great sorcerer who held a legendary power. This sorcerer was greatly admired by the people of the earth, the animals of nature often respected him and mother nature itself treated him with such care. Though the sorcerer had all these things, he wanted something more, he wanted the power of the mythical creatures, he wanted them and their immortality. Thus the sorcerer devised a plan to trap the master creatures of the earth. In his plan he invited all the great creatures to a plentiful feast at the top of a great mountain, where only those with magical blood could reach. Believing the sorcerers intentions to be true the legendary creatures accepted his invitation and come to the feast. Little did they know that it was working into the sorcerers plans. Soon however, the creatures learned of the sorcerers true intentions when they found that the food they were given had a special herb in them that would paralyze them. Unable to fight they were left helpless to the sorcerer who used the chance to achieve his true goal; to make the creatures belong to him and his descendents for all of time. ‘You foolish creatures” he had called to them. “Though you did not trust me, and some of you even hated me you came to my feast expecting me to give into you. But it is you who gave into me. Now you shall belong to me forever more! You shall be cursed to my blood and you shall not walk in your true forms! I will not allow you such glory! No! I shall shame you all and make you walk in the forms like mine! Ah, but do not think that is all! I will not allow you to love others, nor to enjoy the touch of others. For if you try to love someone other than me then you shall turn into your animal forms once more, and whoever you wished to love shall hate you!’ True to his word the sorcerer turned the great creatures into humans, and bound them to him by means of blood.” This is the curse of the Sorcerer family, it is a legend handed down in story books. However, this is not the full version of the legend, for there is a part that is written out of history by the family itself. That part? It is as follows: “There was once a great sorcerer who held a legendary power. This sorcerer was greatly admired by the people of the earth, the animals of nature often respected him and mother nature itself treated him with such care. Though the sorcerer had all these things, he wanted something more, he wanted the power of the mythical creatures, he wanted them and their immortality. Thus the sorcerer devised a plan to trap the master creatures of the earth. In his plan he invited all the great creatures to a plentiful feast at the top of a great mountain, where only those with magical blood could reach. Believing the sorcerers intentions to be true the legendary creatures accepted his invitation and come to the feast. There was one creature however who was unsure of the sorcerer and his attentions. That creature was the Pegasus, a beautiful and majestic creature that spent most of her time in the wind, listening to the whispers it brought her. When the Pegasus heard of the sorcerer’s feast she tried convincing the other creatures that it didn’t settle right with her and that they would be wise to refuse. But the creatures would not listen, and accepted the sorcerer’s invitation. Angered by her fellow creatures the Pegasus refused to go to the feast, but still fearful she secretly followed them and watched the feast in the cover of the clouds. When she seen what the sorcerer had done to her friends she let out a cry and charged the sorcerer, but her efforts were for nothing. Catching her the sorcerer grew angry at himself for missing the Pegasus. Growling in his anger he walked over to the Pegasus and grasped her by the horn, making sure to keep her from using her remaining powers against him. ‘Of all the creatures to refuse me, it had to be the one that protects the skies and virgins alike. You have made a dire mistake Pegasus for now your fate will be worse than those of your fellows. I will keep you by my side and give you the same fate as them, but you will know nothing but pain. I shall strip you of your horn, turning your beautiful coat into the flesh of a true monster. Your beauty will be nothing, all will flee from you, your fellow creatures will hate you, and blame you for their faults. There is another fate I have for you, but that is my own personal joy Pegasus. Do not think I will take mercy on you, for you will suffer worse than they shall! This is my promise to you!’ True to his word, the sorcerer stripped the Pegasus of her beauty and also turned her human.”