My protagonist is a female werewolf. Originally, I was going to have her work alongside a magician and his apprentice, but then I wondered if she should be among other werewolves. Which do you think would work better: a lone werewolf with other supernatural creatures or a werewolf pack, with a focus on three to five main characters who are also werewolves?
I like this question because I'm starting with werewolves myself. "Better" is in how you define it for yourself. Either one could be better, however it's YOUR job as the author to make it "makes sense". What are the advantages for your story's development of having the werewolf in either of these groups. Will communication be an issue? Will competition for leadership roles be an issue? Asking these kinds of questions can really help in determining the path that's best for your female werewolf.
Depends on the story you want to tell. Do you want to focus on her and how she deals with her comrades? Or do you want her dealing with new people as she lives in her world?
The others have said it pretty well, but I'll just reiterate: it all depends on your story. Which set of characters would benefit your plot more? If it's about werewolves in general, then maybe the werewolf pack would work out better. If it's merely about this one werewolf, then maybe the supernatural gang would be a plus. It all depends on what you are trying to communicate to the reader.
If your werewolf wants character-driven conflict or character-related subplots involving other werewolves, add them. If other characters would be a chore to develop and distract from the main story, don't add them. We can't answer questions like this knowing so little about your story and about the pros and cons of each. Make a pro and con list to help you decide.
Well basically the idea I have so far is that my main character is a female werewolf. She was born a werewolf, which is extremely rare in my story, because her mother was bitten while she was pregnant. Her mother was not affected, but she was. Her parents were scared of her so they locked her in a cage in the basement every full moon night, which eventually led to her running away years later. She meets a state magician (magicians, who are pretty much like witches and wizards, for the most part work for the government and have recently started a program that includes supernatural creatures such as werewolves to incorporate them in society and give humans a more positive outlook on these creatures). She bullies him into allowing her into the program so she can have a place to stay and can get away from home. So the two form a partnership that becomes closer though not romantic since he is in his late twenties and she is in her late teens. He later takes on an apprentice so they have a trio. That's all I have so far for backstory and I'm still working on it. But I was wondering if the story would work better if I cut the magicians out and replace the "program" with a werewolf pack to take her in. Both ideas could conceivably work, and I just wanted some personal opinions on the matter.
When you're in the pre-writing stage of developing an idea, the best thing to do is set aside two or three hours -- pick a time when you'll have no other commitments or interruptions,and go into a quiet room, and set an alarm -- and sit down with a pen and multiple sheets of paper (this works better than word doc for plot-mapping, at least for me, because you can sketch, diagram etc all you want) and explore all this stuff. You're too early to ask for help at this point, I think. Spend a lot of time working out as many details on your own as you can. I'm not trying to be condescending. If you've already done these things, I apologize. But it seems to me that you're asking about a large-issue question that will affect the entire outcome and event sequence of your story, so you should work out the answer yourself.
In my opinion, I think that if you do the werewolf idea, no more than 3 main character. 5 would be too many. Well at least to me. The Magician and his apprentice would be cool but I don't know. I'm not sure how it would work out. What if you started out with the pack, then somehow the magician and apprentice find them. Just some ideas. Good luck!
