Have you ever written a story that revolves around, essentially, a mysterious monster? What was your take on it? This has been tobogganing down my brain for a few days, transmitted from thoughts about murder mystery, specifically how the murder and investigation can just be reasons to explore a particular setting or cast. I mean, if you all you're missing is a plot, a murder is quite the versatile inciting event to slot in. My next thought was that a monster story can easily follow the same format. In fact I'm not sure I see a huge difference between the two types of stories. Well, okay, Congo fits the murder mystery structure while King Kong really doesn't, but there will be exceptions. Am I off the mark? Or just in general, feel free to talk about your monster stories or ones you think are interesting.
It would depend on what the monster is doing. If it commits one murder or several then it could involve a murder mystery. King Kong, once he got to New York, was more of a rampaging monster-on-the-loose thing. The first half was more of a "let's catch the exotic animal and bring it back to captivity" thing. Frankenstein's creature, at least to the general populace, was monstrously deformed and frightening, so became something they could project their fears and hatreds onto and try to kill.* But of course they were also sympathetic monsters that we feel pity for—unfairly treated through no fault of their own and hunted down savagely. * During plague-time. He was blamed for starting it if I remember right.
Written no, but there is one I read that stands head and shoulders above anything I have read by Stephen King. Infected by Scott Sigler. The monster was a mystery through the majority of the book. The real horror was the MCs reaction, and actions. I won't include a spoiler, but just reading it had me cringing.
I'm currently writing a horror novel that centers around a mysterious monster - I've got a whole 906 words total so far! The character herself doesn't remember anything about her past and is trying to figure out exactly what she is. Meanwhile, I would recommend Phantoms by Dean Koontz. The creature at the heart of that novel is a mystery that slowly gets unraveled through scientific exploration and discovery. And it's a pretty chilling monster, too, if you ask me!
