In my next novel I plan to have about a half dozen characters, who will be dogs, cats, deer and wild turkeys. Their joint goal is to help the human who has been part of their lives. The human is the protagonist, but the animals will be key. It will not be a children's book. Have you ever written anything like this? If so, how did you handle it? I should be done with my current novel by the end of the year and will be starting the next one at that time.
Are they talking animals, human-intelligence level animals, or just ordinary everyday animals? I've written about half-animal mashups, similar to centaurs—one was a woman's upper body on the lower body of a huge spider. She birthed many similar spider-creatures with humanoid upper bodies, but they were a lot less human than her (she hid her spider legs under long skirts and passed as totally human). There was a flying werewolf, and a moose-man who stood upright on 2 legs, was covered with blue fur, and had huge antlers. A stag-creature who could rear up on hind legs and his front hooves would unfold into short stubby-fingered hands with thick hoof-plates on the backs of the knuckles, so when he makes fists they become hooves. Aside from the stag creature they all talked just like people and had human level intelligence. The stag-dude was near human level but didn't speak. Very mythology-inspired, obviously.
No, sorry, but am intrigued to see how it turns out. Do you plan to follow their thoughts, or how will it work in terms of viewpoint?
They are animals that talk. I will include their thoughts. As for point of view, there will be multiple points of view. Not sure how I will handle it yet. I've had animals I was incredibly close to. One cat lived 16 years. Her sister lived 19 years. She just passed away in March. They are part of my soul. I consider them to be humans in animal bodies. I've had dogs I was very close to...my soul dogs. My husband has been doing a wild turkey study for 9 years. They are incredibly intelligent, and we believe them to be sentient based on many documented behaviors. He has a journal that is at least 1100 pages, single-spaced, per year for the nine years. They are after all descended from dinosaurs. There are deer here who we've also become close to. When they got sick and died, we buried them, like we did our cats and dogs. So in my story these animals will be human-like in some of their behaviors. My human protagonist will have some kind of crisis and these animals will help. I'm waiting to develop this because I don't want it to get in the way of the book I am finishing now. That sometimes happens to me when I am nearly done with a book.
There are plenty of people around who have been close to animals at some stage in their lives (myself included), so I totally get why you want to write this for an adult market. You'd probably have to handle it quite carefully, though, so it didn't come across as too childlike...or perhaps the exact opposite and, as per George Orwell's Animal Farm, subtitle it "A Fairy Story" or similar to get that fantasy side out in the open from the outset. Good luck when you get going with it, anyway - I'm still intrigued!
Have you read Watership Down? I just did, for our ongoing forum Book Club selection. It's an amazing book for many reasons. But one of the things that appealed to me is that the rabbits don't do things that rabbits can't actually do. You're not going to find them chopping wood or riding bicycles, etc. And Adams attempted to get into the way rabbits think and actually behave. He managed to give the story human interest without making rabbits too anthropomorphic. I think it's a really good book. Yes they talk. And they can communicate with other creatures, but other creatures have languages of their own, so it's not just a matter of talking 'normally' to things like cats, seagulls, mice, badgers, etc. The inter-species communication is awkward, which seems fairly logical to me.
... Or you could go the science fiction route Andre Norton did and have telepathic animals and certain people are sensitive enough to pick up on it, while most can't.
I never had, but Dave Barry did. In his book Big Trouble, one of the characters was a dog. All the rest of the characters were people ... good people, bad people, confused people, irrational people ... but the dog all regarded them the same way. When he met them, the dog was thinking only two things: "Does this human have food?" and "How can I get this human to give me some of it?"
I've read Watership Down and saw the movie. I will not have my animals chopping wood or cooking dinner. Checking out Andre Norton sounds like a plan. This will not be science fiction. My animals will do what animals do. The only difference is that they can communicate verbally with the protagonist and each other. I haven't decided if other people will be able to understand them or not. Mostly there won't be many other people. It has usually been my animals who were the most comforting to me during difficult times. Some of them were really good at it. So I will take that a few steps further. During my most difficult times in my lives very few people, even those who claimed to care, weren't there for me. They pulled away. So in this case my character will be facing something incredibly difficult for her and the animals will come through in ways that surprise the stuffing out of her. Thank all of you for your thoughts and suggestions.
Andre Norton books I can think of that feature the telepathic animals thing: Catseye, The Zero Stone, The Beast Master. I know there are more, I'll list them if I remember. Of those I would recommend Catseye or The Zero Stone. Oh, in Zero Stone the cat is a mutant, so not technically a 'real' animal, though still largely a cat. In Catseye there are several animals that are all real Terran (Earthly) animals imported to the planet the story takes place on, and then form a small band with the human main character and go on an adventure.
I briefly looked up two of the books you recommend by Andre Norton. I learned that Andre is really Alice. I assume she gave herself a man's name so she would be more easily accepted. I use my initials for that reason. I did a look inside and read the first paragraph of each. I like to see someone's style. Often times it seems that those who do exceptionally well, are written simply. I'll do a little more exploration later in the day after I work on my cover art. Thanks.
Yeah, she was writing in the 50's—might have started in the 40's, I'm not sure. But because she wrote science fiction and usually with male protagonists, her stories were targeted more to a male audience, and she originally took the name Andrew North. After she built up some clout she was able to change that to Andre Norton, her own last name and at least Andre could go either way. I think she's an exceptionally good writer (well, a lot of people do).
Interesting. Some people think that a woman cannot write from a man's point of view. Wrong. A number of guys I dated told me the way they and guys in general approached and thought about the world. In fact they told me that often relationships between men are a lot of bravado, and that if they wanted understanding and to talk things out in depth, they went to women. What do you think? Are they correct?
There's no particular reason why you should having a problem writing this kind of book. If you just make sure to remember all through your manuscript what the animals physically can do a opposed to what they can't, you should be good. Oh, and perspectives should be different between prey animals and predator animals, as they're different enough not to think particularly alike. I'm excited about the wild turkeys part. That one sounds like fun, because turkeys are not very smart and would probably make hilarious characters.
I think what you are saying relative to the animals is that consistency is key. You're right, domestic turkeys aren't very smart. It's been breed out of them. With wild turkeys, it's different. We have wild turkeys that live on my property and that of the neighbors'. My husband has been doing a wild turkey study since 2011. Time and again it's been demonstrated to both of us how extremely smart they are. The dominant hen is in charge. She has to fight to achieve that position. One day the dominant hen, Lady, detected danger in the field out from my house. She made some specific sounds and all the others - 28 turkeys, both hens and toms young and old, lined up single-file behind her. She watched and waited. The others made no sounds at all. There was machinery in the field raking the hay. When the hayraker was gone Princess made a different sound. The 28 followed her single-file along the edge of the fence line. She made a right turn, and they followed her movements exactly over to the trees where they roosted at night. She looked around and then started foraging for bugs in the grass stubble. Princess, Lady's lieutenant, followed Lady's lead and kept watch. Once the others were foraging, Lady and Princess kept watch until it was time to fly up into the roost trees. Toms rarely fly, except up to roost. They are not areodynamically sound. Hens are smaller, so it's easier for them. I was so impressed. Turkeys are descended for dinosaurs, so they've had a long time to learn to survive. Humans do awful things to animals when they domesticate them. They dumb them down. It would happen to us too, if someone kept us in cages and bred us for food.
Hi. I personally like the way Family Guy and the Super Mario Bros. live-action movie approach animals. It's kind of an anthropo-centric theory of evolution where the eventual form of all evolving species tends toward humanoid form. Brian the dog in Family Guy retains many dog-like behaviors but in other ways he has a very evolved intellect (and aspires to be a writer). Kind of mid-way between animal realism and anthropomorphizing him. All the reptiles in the Super Mario Bros. movie are humanoid and intelligent too. I don't know if that's helpful.
I watched Family Guy for a while. As I remember Brian was my favorite character. Thanks, that is helpful. I have not watched the Super Mario Bros movie. I'll have to see if I can find it. I should be able to, I have Roku and have all kinds of options.
Oddly enough, I did this exact thing - there's a human conflict central to the story, but most of the telling is done by local critters. Outside of the way they frame thoughts and their ability to communicate across species (albeit not with people) they're animals, and generally function accordingly. Initially I'd considered it a children's book, but - as with so many of mine - it took a darker slide on the way to its happy ending. It's been well-received by adults, some of whom tell me they'd let teenagers read it. Being set in 1921 it touches on PTSD, the occasional necessity of violence, the sometimes questionable aims of authority figures, and the uncertainty and upset of society birthed by the First World War. Mostly it's about home; what it means, how it functions, the difficult things sometimes required in its defense. I've had it more or less complete for a couple of years and I'm not entirely sure what to do with it.
So the point of view in your story is the critters'? I think it can be a good way to deal with things. Was it cathartic for you? In all my books I've been working something through. My characters are the vehicles. Are you thinking of self-publishing? Right now the traditional publishers have their heads in places that will make them a lot of money. If a person can sneak it, that's good. If not, then self-publishing is the other option.
I enjoyed writing it, mostly because it was so far out the realm of the usual. The process also went pretty quick; I think six weeks to get everything on paper. Editing and revising are ongoing. I hadn't planned to write it all, but as it happened it took root and I couldn't get anything else done until I dealt with it. No regrets on that score. No plans on self-publishing. Honestly, this one may never see the light of day. I'm okay with that.
I understand about not being able to do anything else when the writing won't let me go. If I'm not writing, I'm thinking about my story. Publishing is not necessary. Sometimes the bug to write is for the self...at least is it for me. Now, I would like to make a lot of money at it? Of course, but not at the sacrifice of who I am and what my message is. A traditional publisher can hijack one's story and creativity and destroy the uniqueness. I usually don't know where my story is going when I get started. I have a one to three sentence idea of what it's about, and then I start writing. Sometimes it's bizarre and turns into something I really like.
I quietly suspect most of what I write is unpublishable anyway, so I've gotten better at not worrying what editors might think. One of these days I may accidentally complete something else and send it, but until then I'm fine with having a hobby alongside the day job.
Yes, but you have to be careful about the point of view, is it going to be from the human as first person? Or third person? Animals are good in stories, except that they can’t communicate with the human (or can they?), or can they communicate with each other? Anyway, I’m new here, so I don’t know much.
The nice thing about fiction is for the story, anything can happen. That's why it's called fiction. Reality can kind of suck...a lot. So I play with ideas. My animals will verbalize. Think of all the movies you've seen where animals actually talked.
I've only written a short story from the perspective of an animal. I don't think I could sustain it for a whole novel.
