I've never been drawn to human-esque monsters, like zombies, vampires, angels, demons, and things like that, because the impulse is to make them too human. Even with half-animal/human monsters (like werewolves, for example), the focus is usually on the warring sides: human vs beast.
I think I've always been more interested in just the beast.
Which is probably why I keep circling back to characters like the crow-goddess in this particular story. The gods and monsters in Project #5 are nothing like humans. A couple nights ago, I woke up at 2am to send myself this short email reminder: "Gods & monsters exactly the same, just humans give offerings to one, and the other take offerings on their own."
Whether it's a god or a monster is purely from the human's perspective, the gods/monsters stay true to their nature, which (for animals) is totally a survival of the fittest world. They're never concerned about what's right, what's wrong, or what's fair.
For a long time, even as I finished writing BF, sent it to my CP's, took it back, edited/polished it/etc, I have been itching to write this crow goddess, who is a single god, but whose body is made up of an entire flock (or murder) of crows. Even though she's 'a lady', I don't want her to have an ounce of humanity, I want her to be true to her calculative-nature where, if she sees an advantage, she'll attack without mercy.
Here's a rough scene I skipped ahead to write, the gaps are there because I haven't filled in the text in those spots. Yes, my writing completely sucks at this stage and I'm sure it's full of errors :P
that's fascinating, I've never thought of it like that. I'm also interested in gods and goddesses of other cultures and this story sounds like something i would love.
ReplyDeleteHeh, I spent most of my University years studying cultures in Asia, especially SE Asia, and even before that, the notion of religions and belief structures has always fascinated me.
DeleteOther than fiction, the brunt of books on my shelf have to do with myths/cultures/etc.
...I even bought 'The Egyptian Book of the Dead' with birthday money when I was 11 or 12 ;)
wow, I love this!!
ReplyDeleteThank you, although I know it needs a lot of work.
Delete...action scenes are ones I don't feel confident in...so writing more of them (especially in this story) is going to be a big challenge!
I know what you mean, I too have a hard time with action.
DeleteI think your dialogue in this scene is fantastic. Totally drew me in. I'm left with the feeling that everything they say is of importance, no words are being wasted.
Komil's last line "those bastards, attacking you out of nowhere" is my favorite something about it, the way he says it.... has so much character. is he a mjor character? I hope so ;)
My dialogue is notoriously sparse, no matter what I write ;)
DeleteYes, Komil is a major character... and along with lots of action scenes (which I'm not confident writing), this story also has... a romantic sub-plot, which I also very rarely dabble in... at least in the traditional sense.
After all, the one in 'Brake Fluid' can't be considered *traditional* at all...
Seems every time I start a new story, they're pumped full of everything I consider to be *weaknesses* :)
I swear, I really am a masochist at heart :P
You excerpt is intriguing. Very intriguing. Some mythos don't get a whole lot of attention so I'd have to say the crow goddess may stand out because of it.
ReplyDeleteThanks :) I had fun *inventing* her ;)
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