Skipping all other posts, so please forgive if there is repetition... Don't explain it. Leave it as is. I'm surprised no one's brought up Kafka's The Metamorphosis. Gregor Samsa's transformation into a bug is a metaphor. Also, I feel the makings of a Magic Realism story in your idea. In this genre, the element of unreality that intrudes into reality is never explained because again, it's a metaphor. It's meant to say something. Explaining it just detracts from the point of it. When you write such a story, you can think of yourself, the writer, as the wielder of magic and metaphors are the spells you cast upon the citizenry of The Page.
Samsa's transformation into an insect is believable? No. But we continue to engage that most famous of stories because we understand that something other than an actual metamorphosis is at play, even if not on a conscious level. Kafka is talking about what is happening to Samsa's life, his spirit, not his actual body.
There is where lies that fine line between fantasy and traditional literary fiction. I don't see Kafka's works as fantasy. This distinction is only important because it suggests different approaches to the writing. Something like The Trial feels very internal. We don't expect explanations. Rather we feel the experience. The fantasy in Lord Of the Rings is much more external. There are clear rules that everyone acknowledges and expects. The magic exists in a historical context. Obviously Lea could go either way, or find some balance.
I'm about 2/3 into Andy Weir's The Martian, so obviously I'm the kind of reader who loves getting creative explanations
I think I'm going to use a mix of blood magic and their victim's last words. I think it could be fun to see what I can come up with. How each demon might be different based on what their victim said. And I think I'm okay with the world having a lot of demons. I didn't really think about it before, but the more I think about it now, the more I like it. It is kind of a metaphor. The demons in my story don't always look like demons. They don't all have weird abnormalities or anything. So there could be hundreds, thousands, of evil beings walking around and no one would even know. The only thing bothering me now is I can't find the notes I took for this story years ago. I think they must be in a file on my old laptop, which is dead and missing its charging cable. Thanks for the help everybody!
Good ideas usually stick in your head is what Stephen King says, not sure how much of this holds true... But you should rewrite all things you can remember and that you know had a lasting impact or impression. They are usually the best! And remember if it moves you, or triggers an emotional response within yourself it will more than likely have the same affect on some of your readers...
If you ever need any ideas, my best tip would be: Trial and Error Come up with characters at random, then use them until you decide whether you like them or not. Have you ever read my favorite character generation system in other threads? If not, would you like me to PM you? Intriguing. I just thought of this since I was just writing about Stephen King for an English assignment, but perhaps Carrie could also be a good resource for a broken protagonist turning into a supervillain?
How would you describe the evil? Is it evil just for the sake of evil, or is it evil for some purpose? Hilter didn't exterminate 6 million people for the fun of it, he did it to eliminate what he saw as a problem. Son of Sam was told by god to murder people, the Unabomber terrorized the US to slow the progression of technology. As fucked up as all of these people were, in their own minds, their logic was sound and their deeds righteous. Then there are people like Ed Kemper who just seem to be delusional.
Fall From Heaven has a novel concept of this: the evil gods have a series of 'processing' hells to twist human souls into demons over a period of centuries.
