Werewolf writing tips

Werewolf writing tips

1) Fold your characters into the world, not the world out of your characters.

What I mean by this is that you first create the background of the story’s world, THEN you add your characters and their goals to make a story. Of course you make your main character and the basic ideas, but you need something to place the rest of your cast onto. You can’t draw without paper first. For example: What is the world like at the time of your story? Medieval, modern, ancient, etc. What kind of place is it? Civil, brutal, regular life or eat or be eaten, etc. Give me government system and town information, Who is in charge and how do they rule/lead? What kind of environment is it? Cold winter, scorching sands, forest, etc. Forming your world first gives you a solid foundation to place your story on and build it up from there. Maybe you will devote a paragraph or two to the setting of your story.

In other words, write what you know or believe would be correct. DON’T GUESS! We’ll think you are five.

WARNING! What is obvious to you may not be to your readers. YOU MUST TELL THEM! Don’t think that all your readers are smart enough to figure it out themselves.

2) Dissect the various components of each character and character group you see for more then a moment.

Give me, name, background, personality, looks, past self, present self, how he/she is effected over the course of your story to become their future self. This is probably the hardest part for many writers to Show Not Tell. SNT is the most important thing for good story writing. If your describing something, don’t be afraid to go in depth. Lets say you have a character who has a scar, don’t say “he has a scar down his arm” say “he has a gnarly scar down his forearm from his fight with a grizzly bear a few years back” GIVE DETAILS TO “SHOW” us the bits of your character. You don’t need a separate story for each component or skin flaw, just describe it and go on. A good character description could be from a sentence to three paragraphs (or more but your starting to push it there). The story should be formed from the characters interaction with others and/or their world, just like it really is.

For were creatures, you have to be creative. To you are they bloody beasts, or are they gentle people living the old way? Can they transform at will, or only with the aid of the moon? Religion? Rituals? This information is key to each character and their world. What quirks does there wolfish nature give them? How do people react to them? Does the general populous know of them or not? Does the government even know? Do they have to hide in public or not? How many forms do they have? Is transformation painful? Sometimes the key to writing is answering as many questions as you can without sounding like a text book.

In creating a werewolf character try to remember that he/she is half wolf AND half human. Depending on your story you may play a part up more, but you should still consider the balance that some wolfish traces show through as a human and some human quirks show up as a wolf, even in the evil version of werewolves. Instinct is immediate, so a common flaw there is it is done without thinking. Thinking happens after instinct causes something to happen not before. It is not a little voice in your head, it is something that takes time and practice to repress or use as wanted. Such ideas probably shouldn't be said out right but hinted at to make the character seem more real.

In a human mixture, Strict Alpha, Beta, etc. systems may not be the best or most believable family structure. It’s your choice but I would highly suggest mixing in the human lifestyle with the wolf. Again to balance the wolf and man if your story permits.

3) Writing tips

Active voice is key to interest.
Do something. Words like get, and got need to be saved for character conversation ONLY. Using such dull colorless words masks the true action of a story. Even a boring morning routine can be an interesting read if active voice is used. Consider the difference here “He got off of the bus, went to school, and got to class” or “He leaped off of the late buss and sprinted to the school, barley arriving to class on time.” Again, ADD DETAILS TO SNT and to add interest! GET AND GOT SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM YOUR WRITING ALMOST COMPLETELY! Use the senses, ALL OF THEM! I’m not saying to taste each color but let us see what your characters see. To avoid overly describing every single step your character takes, you may wish to give broad hints to avoid information dumping. “He ran across the field” works fine. You don’t have to describe every rock or grass blade.

With extreme action, ease us out of it a little. Remember, adrenaline takes time to wear out completely, you may even want to recap the events in a way that is not merely summarizing or rewording.

4) Consider the audience.

Obviously you would write differently to your five year old niece than to your eighty year old grandmother. Are you writing for a clean audience or one that enjoys blood and guts? Such is the way you should write and make your werewolves. If your writing to Germans then Du müssen Deutsches sprechen! Consider your target audience before you put your hand to the pencil or keyboard.

Make the story move along with each sentence. DO NOT GO ON EPIC TANGENTS! I have stopped reading may stories when the story seems to stop and I swear elevator music plays in the background. If the history of your nation is important to the story, include it, if not then do nothing more then mention it.

AVOID CLICHES OR MAKE THE IDEA YOUR OWN
Avoid overused situations, or add a twist to it. Simply put, make your story one worth remembering, if you have it based on a cleshe make it not fit the “cookie cutter” disruption. Your werewolf story needs to have a twist on it that makes it your own. A few over used ideas are evil werewolf on full moon, werewolf military project, and even werewolf being captured and dissected. If you want to use one of these themes make it your own. Cleshes can be great, but be careful to use them sparsely and simply, or twist them into your own fantasy. NOTE! On twists, they don't all have to be large. As ~XenoFrobe here on Deviantart told me, "it doesn't have to be something dramatic and unexpected as 'Luke, I am your father.'" Some ideas aren't given much to any attention and you should look for those.

5) Story elements.

Rule of 1 or 3 (sometimes optional, but should be followed anyway.)
Characters are most easily and best offset by two others. These I would put as friends or contributing characters, or none at all. Consider Hatchet by Gary Paulsen where one hero faces one force, Nature. Consider also Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling. Three heros against one evil villan. You may argue here, and say “Well in the movie Sherlock Holmes There is Wadsen and Holmes,” but you forget the lady who offsets them into a threesome. Know what you are doing before breaking a rule of one or three, it creates a sense of discord, which is why broken rules usually apply to villains with an underling. Servants do not count or apply, and characters can have many friends outside of the Main Characters ring. With characters, larger amount means longer story almost always.


Know the anatomy of a basic story.
Intro - rising action - climax - falling action - resolution
Spend the most time in rising action. This is the bulk of the story, the next biggest section should be the introduction. Climax and resolution are usually shorter portions but have many key plot elements. With subplots you must know that they rise and resolve themselves throughout the story but they all come together at the climax. Consider Shakespeare’s King Lear, there is King Lear’s tragedy and Edgar’s fall and return for plot and sub plot. They both come together and are solved(ish) in the climax. The climax ends when all problems are finally solved.

Merphy’s Law
Find one of the worst things for your main character(s) to deal with and then make it happen to them. InstaPLOT! To add interesting twists to your story make plans go wrong at inconvenient times, have characters to something unexpected. Most of the greatest storys are based off of freak accidents or plans gone wrong. Maybe someone sees your character as a werewolf. What happens?

6) HOPE THIS HELPS!

Tips for improvement on this thanks to ~XenoFrobe

Free to use stock photo found here: [link]