How often do you include pets if any? And what roles do they normally convey? I am not quite there yet with the concept. Thanks for sharing.
Pets are in all kinds of stories. In horror stories and thrillers they are sometimes put there to evoke an emotional response from the reader when the bad guy knocks off the pet. I can't watch the movie "Dead Calm" today because of the scene where [spoilers] the Nicole Kidman character shoots her own dog with a bow and arrow thinking it was the bad guy behind the door.[/spoilers]
My current WIP contains a ton of animals. I don't know that I could consider them pets, but they're not wild animals either. But yes, tons of animals and it's fun to write.
They can be an effective tool to explain parts of your story. The MC (or others) can talk to a pet, ask them for advice, etc. I used a deceased family pet as a key plot element in a book I wrote about the dead coming back to our world. Readers have told me it was a far more effective tool than using a human to generate an emotional reaction.
Depends on the story, the pet needs a reason to be there. In my book I have a scene: "It helps if you don't name them." I'll leave the details to one's imagination.
Each of my protagonists has a pet. Rosemarie has Achilles, a one-eyed tomcat. Then there's Mabel and her mongoose, Mango who get along famously. Finally, we have Adeline who can't seem to shake the bothersome magpie named Josephine that seems to be shadowing her every move. Adeline held the book open against her bosom, pausing to look down at the magpie peeking her head out from under the blanket, and decided that she had the most unlikely audience ever; looking on were two daring girls, an unfathomable magpie, a fearsome mongoose, and a one-eyed tomcat that was down to the last of his nine lives. She thought of Captain Baptiste and the crew of the Viola and everything that’d happened since leaving home. Is this what it’s like to be on an adventure?
I will probably always include pets or animals in all my books. I also enjoy a book more if it includes pets that are a part of the narrative in a meaningful way. The series of short stories I did when taking a writing course always featured animals. The MC in those stories had a pet dog and ends up with a girlfriend who has a pet rabbit, which causes some issues between them because it's a free-roaming house rabbit and she insists it stays that way, dog has to be put in another room. I never finished that series so who knows what happens in the end. haha! The book I'm currently writing also features animals, including a pet dog who ends up being an important character towards the middle of the story.
I occasionally use pets to push deep-time concepts. I use the role of the family dog as an analogy for how we might be viewed by greater beings. It's difficult to break the anthropocentric view that we are special and sometimes I need a god-like character to put us in our place and say "Look, you are to me what your dog is to you. I'll protect and care for you, but if you eat from my apple tree, I'll swat you on the nose." In scary stories, pets tend to be a way to invoke a sense of comfort, possibly to lonely character in desperate situations. Then I take it away to cripple them.
All animals in The New Tyranny become 'pets', as they are essential to survival. Dogs are critical. They are the only surviving doctors, diagnosing everything from fungus to brain cancer. Other animals are hunting or warning systems. They all seem to find a way to bond for comfort, if only to be near. It does not go unappreciated.
I don't often include pets in my stories. I have them in a few unfinished shorts, and there's one each in my two ongoing Fantasy novels. The Face of God has Tuxedo: a Warlock's familiar in the form of a talking cat. His role is, well, familiar; he's essentially a mana battery and auxiliary spellcaster for his master. He's a character in his own right, and part of the crew. Rather a minor character, but not without his moments in the spotlight. Memories of Eden (working title) has Aureon: another cat, kitten to be exact, once belonging to my main character Lithiel. Aureon is long gone by the time of the story proper. His primary role in the story is to give Lithiel something to love oh so very dearly, and subsequently to provide the poor girl with one last thing to lose as her home city is turned inside-out around her. Aureon meets his fate during her escape, at the hands of some pillaging renegade soldiers. The jury is still out on whether the kitten is casually killed before her eyes (I love cats, and this is not a scene I want to have to write) or he somehow escapes. I would like for the little guy to make it, of course I would, but option A is more in tune with Lithiel's planned character development...
I've never really considered adding a pet to any of my WIPs except in the potential case of "who's going to watch your cat while you're away for the weekend?" PS - I have a cat and she's often in my lap as I write.
I've got several named animals in my novel, but it's set in 1886 Montana Territory, and on a ranch, so animals would be important to the characters' lives. Not so much as pets as we see 'pets' today, but as working members of the family. Cat has a job to do. Dog has a job to do. Horses have a job to do, etc.
I'm trimming my WIP as we speak so these animals might not make it into the final draft but I did include a cameo of my pug that had died - Mr. Wong. He belonged to a side character's uncle and the MC nearly sits on him in a fairly humorous scene in which there is an argument on Jabba the Hut's coloring - green or brown. There are also some Persian kitties that make an appearance they're all dyed with Kool-Aid so the film crew won't trip over them. The rainbow kitties. And there is a Shih Tzu Puppy that plays a significant part in the plot as one person gives the dog to another and someone else manages to take credit for the dog. He's called Thomas Wolfe after the journalist/writer but called T-Woof for short.
Spoiler: Spoilers for my WIP, you know, if anyone cares Stan is a witch's familiar and has powers including limited psychic communication. He chose his own name.
I don't think I've ever included a pet into my stories. But I would treat them very much like any other character. Give them a personality and a purpose. Maybe a War horse or a carrier pigeon. Even a dog that is a loyal companion and a comfort to my protagonist and again give them a purpose. Maybe the dog catches diner each night. Maybe in a fight the dog would get involved and defend it's owner (my dog would kick anyone's arse if they touched me). I love animals. Horses, dogs and rats are my favourite domestic pet.
