The main reason I got into fiction is that I love the shapeshifting of werewolves (love werewolves!) in many fantasy novels and manga... I also was a big fan of the Animorphs series and had loved how the main characters morphed to animals and back. I came up with my own variants within science fiction and fantasy, but there's always a slight problem with portraying the intial transformation as I haven't really thought of the drawbacks/consequences that happen with physical transformations, as well as the new senses that come with each transformation... In short I have to portray in various drafts: Humanoid (bipedal) gradually turning into a fire dragon (four legs) over a duration of four hours maximum Alien plant shifting quickly to a humanoid (bipedal) figure in minutes Also while I'm at it, can someone explain what a "true form" means in fantasy fiction? Fantasy authors always say that, but I don't understand what that has to do with the transformations in general.
Are you aware that the skeletons of bipeds and quadrupeds have the same bones, arranged in the same way, for the most part? The major difference is that some bones are longer and some shorter, and the shapes a little different. For instance, many people who haven't studied anatomy think quadrupeds have 'backwards knees', but this isn't true at all. It's just that they walk on what we would call tiptoe, and what people are calling a backwards knee is really the ankle joint. The knee is way up beside the body. It's explained fairly well in this article: A study in anthropomorphism: Disney's "Robin Hood" And you can see it if you study this image closely: Spoiler: Big pic! So you don't need to completely change things, certain bones just need to lengthen or shorten and change shape a bit. Aside from that, I'm not sure what your question is?
My question is mainly on the consequences and hidden drawbacks (negatives) of shapeshifting in fantasy fiction, as well as my current dilemma on how to portray the transformation scenes in great detail as it's not a visual medium.
Since shapeshifting is an entirely fictional thing, you just need to invent something that suits the needs of your story. Make it quick and simple or painful and exhausting, it's entirely up to you. The only drawback I'm aware of which is applied nearly universally is that clothes don't change with the shifting, meaning your character will likely be naked when returning to human form. Everything else varies substantially from author to author. As for describing it, just get inside the character's head as you would with anything else they're going through and go from there. Consider their feelings about shifting (are they proud to be a shapeshifter? Ashamed? Indifferent?), consider the physical sensations they're be going through, what their newly sharpened senses are telling them that they weren't aware of a moment ago, maybe also think about whether changing shape comes with any mental changes. Once you know all that, write the scene as you would any other. There's nothing exceptional about shapeshifting which makes it inherently more difficult to write.
That depends on you. It's your story, so you can have the drawbacks be as acute or negligible as you like. I'd imagine pain, fatigue, and mental anguish would be a good starting point. That would apply to any written description of anything. Doesn't matter if it's an apple, the sky, or a fantastical physical transformation. With no camera or artwork to bail you out, you have to use words. I'd recommend reading how other authors describe things and see what works for you and what doesn't. How have other writers in your genre handled it?
You know, that could have included a thank you somewhere in there for the effort I put in already, and maybe a click of the Like button. Politeness applies on the internet just like everywhere else.
(@Xoic Sorry, I had to sleep as I am on the opposite time-zone to everyone else here, and I was sleepy. I didn't see your own post until many hours later, in my time-zone. Thanks for the post btw!) Anyway, I was more or less wondering about how just merely shapeshifting would effect the individual in question, basically because morphing/shifting in itself would rearrange organs, their body structure and also everything else about them. Also their memories could be affected too, (see: werewolves in fantasy fiction). I also watch a lot of anime and I love watching the magical-girl transformation sequences sometimes
One thing that's often done for werewolf type transformations is a lot of pain. This makes sense, because if you've ever tried to change your body (toward being stronger, not the other way) you know it hurts and includes a lot of discomfort. Compress that into a few minutes, or a few hours in your case, and all that pain of muscle growth will be increased massively. It might even feel like bones are breaking and organs rupturing as they change shape. Human mentality would shift toward the Dragon (however they think). Sometimes dragons (in Western mythology and fairy tale at least) are depicted as noble, but greedy for gold, as if they're very materialistic. I don't know how they're characterized in Chinese myths or fables. But you might tailor the character's thoughts to sound more dragonlike as the change goes on, he or she forgets their original goals and feelings and becomes a dragon little by little. Sometimes a transformation represents a different kind of body change. To a more primitive state, or more monstrous, it could by symbolic of hitting puberty or of the beast inside breaking free, as in Dr. Jeckyl and Mister Hyde. I would try to figure out what dragons seem to mean in Chinese stories and work from that.
Need more context to know what you mean by "true form". A non shifter could see someone change shape and say they are seeing their "true form" aka that they are not human. Their mask of humanity is gone. Or "true form" could be talking about what the shifter was born as. Although occasionally it could be about what the shifter feels most comfortable as. I've never seen a hard rule about how the term is used.
I agree with the others; read more of other shape shifting books. Ive read Animorphs and watched the series growing up. Its written for kids, so it doesnt focus on the rearranging of organs and bones. Same with anime. A lot of mainstreme anime is written and geared towards kids (even though adults enjoy it too). In most cases, they transform with magic, so their physiology isnt "changed"(cant think of a werewolf/animal shapeshifting anime off the top ofmy head, but what cones to mind is Soul Eater where they transform i to weapons, and One Piece where eating magic fruit changes your body). I like the way its done and explined in the Mercy Thompson series. Mercy is a coyote shape shifter based on a skinwalker (its explained further, but thats the jist of it). She transforms magically. Its super quick, and within the blink of an eye. No body parts changing to adapt...its like "poof! Im a coyote now" and she still maintains human thoughts. Because her mom thought she was a werewolf (you child turns into a tiny wolf looking animal, so she must be a werewolf, right?), she sent her to be raised by werewolves. as an adult, her neighbor is a werewolf sent by the clan that raised her to keep an eye on her. So Mercy is very familiar with werewolf transformations. Their transformation is slower and painful, and sends them i to a rage. When they are wolves, they let instinct take over, and can be prone to bloodlust. When they are FORCED to change (at one point, one of the werewolves was manipulated and forced to transform), it was MORE painful and he was really exhausted afterward. The wolves have a sort of "panic room" for them to recouporate after their transformations, and in the first book, they actually lock a new werewolf down there because he didnt know how to control his wolf because, as i've said, once they transform, the wold instincts take over. In terms of "true form", Mercy's father's "true form" is a coyote as he is the trickers Coyote spirit (it gets into the lore a few books in and explains further how Mercy transforms and other animal transformations... Like Thunderbird). This means that, while he can turn into a man AND coyote, like Mercy... He was not BORN a man. So his true form is not a man. Mercy was born human, so her true form is human, not coyote. In terms of visuals... When thinking about werewolf transformations, 2 movies immediately come to mind: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when Prof. Lupin transformed (i saw that movie in the 3rd grade and that part freaked me out lol!), And Van Helsing with Kate Beckinsale (spelling) and Hugh Jackman. The werewolves were literally ripping their skin off!
Also, the first morphing is from humanoid lady becomes a medium-sized lava (quadruped/four-legged) dragon... It's "easy enough" to visualise in most anime and movies because they are more of a visual medium, but writing all of the minute changes that occur within the humanoid structure is rather difficult and lacks fluid momentum, when the initial dragon morphing is supposed to be flowing and rather graceful within my mind...
But you don't need to write all minute changes that occur. In fact, you shouldn't try: They don't interest the reader, and as you say they will bog down your story. Instead, try to think of writing more of a sketch. You want to capture the key details from your character's POV, both physical and mental/emotional, just enough to give your reader enough of an impression that their mind will automatically fill in the blanks. When you read, try to note the way your favourite writers describe things. It can be anything, like a new room the character has entered, or an argument with someone. You will find that a good writer does not describe every single detail, but rather just enough that you feel like they have. Therein lies the key, and the challenge.
The only details of morphing that matter are the ones that directly relate to the central plot of your story. You are not writing a textbook on werewolf morphology (although something like that would probably sell like gangbusters); you are writing a fictional story with werewolves (or fire dragons, or rubber-chicken-lawyer-ninjas, or whatever) as the main character. All the reader really *needs* to know is that the werewolves change from people to wolves. How it happens doesn't really matter unless the mechanics of shifting actually come into play later on. An example of how they might relate to the plot is that a certain hormone in the werewolf's blood has to reach a certain concentration to affect the change. In the final fight scene, the antagonist injects the protagonist werewolf with a serum that inhibits the hormone and keeps her from shifting, thus weakening her for the final fight. If it doesn't relate to the plot, it doesn't matter and, as alw86 has said, it will bore the reader.
Yeah, I have to admit I've read a lot of shifter stuff and the transformation is glossed over after the first change. I've read it described as painful with bones breaking. I've read it described as instantaneous. And as far as mentality, some authors like making the animal form have it's entirely own identity and personally. Some make it so it's completely human. Some have it so it's somewhere in between. I think, when it comes to written stories, it's best to give a few good descriptive pieces but leave enough unsaid for the reader's to let their imagination fill in blanks.
I suppose it depends on if it's more of a turning into a monster thing, or if it represents something like a Shamanistic transformation into animal form to work their magic.
Yeah, it's totally about the monster aspect. Is the shifter supposed to be frightening? Do people consider what they are wrong or disturbing? I wouldn't say magic excludes this aspect though. It's more about if it should be seen as natural or unnatural. Good magic vs bad magic. Science breakthrough vs science horror. Whether being a shifter is a burden or a gift. Although sometimes it's just about the tone of the story. A horror show would lean towards a rough transformation. Here's a more horror-style one from Hemlock's Grove (warning! it's graphic):
Oh, absolutely! I was talking more about whether it's painful or not. A shamanistic change isn't, because they don't transform their physical body, their spirit takes animal form and emerges to wander the earth. It can fly at great speed or just step directly to areas hundreds of miles away in an instant, and yet is physical when it needs to be and can then become immaterial and/or invisible when necessary.
The change from human to werewolf would definitely be more painful or physically draining than vice versa. Though part of the fun of transforming is either ripping those clothes off to make way for all that fur and muscle or take them off before the transformation kicks in.
Do you mind explaining what you meant by "some authors like making the animal form have its own identity and personality" seperate from the human form? I've only read a few werewolf books (and one werewolf manga called Alpha Luna) where the author tend to treat both the wolf-self and the human self as "one being"... Although I did remember a single quote from the AdventureQuest game where the Werewolf King (Constantine) says of himself "the beast has a mind of it own, and how it hungers so," but that is the only incident I recall where both the beast and the shifter are considered "seperate", in a metaphorical sense...
It is common for the assumed shape to impose something of its own character on the shifter. For example, in the Old Kingdom books by Garth Nix, When Lireael transforms into a mouse, it makes her unusually skittish for several days after transforming back.
It's as if two separate identities/things share each other's existence. For instance, a man has a wolf spirit inside of them that is it's own thing. It exists all the time but is in control when in wolf form. They are essentially being possesed by a magical creature--it's a "parasite" that can't exist on it's own for some reason. I wrote one recently where an ancient monster lived inside the family members of a certain family, only switching bodies when the host died. So "Grandpa had the beast inside him and when grandpa died it chose me as the next". It lived as a whisper in the host's brain all the time and afforded them some small abilities (stronger). It only came out once a year, it's mind and form taking over the host body. In a recent paranormal romance Rejected by Jaymin Eve, the main girl describes her wolf as it's own identity that came to her when she came of age. In the urban fantasy Skinwalker by Faith Hunter, the main character is using some type of necromancy where she's letting a dead animal who had it's own life and identity, take over her body. She tries to maintain mental control but it's a battle of wills. I've also seen it done where it's "like" a separate identity but is actually just their animal/creature mindset-- it isn't actually a separate soul. In this case, the writer makes it so the human mentality isn't fully possible in their animal/creature state since they now have an animal's brain, senses, and drives. This is the metaphorical one you are describing. Bitten by Kelley Armstrong is an example I know of. Then, I've read where their mentality isn't different at all. They maintain their human mind. I think the Mercy Thompson series (by Patricia Brigs) that J.T. Woody mentioned is like that.
yes and no. One of the werewolves lost his human mind for a while and the wolf took over. they were worried that if he stayed as a wolf and didnt recover his human mind to change back, that they would have to kill him because he lost his human self and could become dangerous. In that series, the human and the wolf are 2 different parts. like 2 sides of a coin
Ah, sorry. I meant Mercy specifically. Although maybe I'm wrong about that one too. It's been a while since I read those.
Think about times when people get overtaken by something powerful that changes who they are for a while, like hunger, anger, lust, a political ideology or a religion—maybe a cult. It's like they lose who they were and become driven by something powerful that changes them, at least temporarily. And sometimes they recover later and think "My god! I really did that?!" We've all experienced this in various ways many times. Think about how it felt, or when somebody you know was overtaken like this by something. Maybe you had a dog or cat that would be in heat at times, or a male dog that you let out and it joined a wandering herd of dogs that roamed the streets for a week or so before coming home covered with mud and burrs (yes, this happened to my dog once, because there were female dogs in heat). Then you should have a 'way in' for writing about the interior changes
