Topic of the Week: Creatures
How do I decide what creatures to use in my books?
I don't really consider myself a "creature" writer. My main characters are mostly human, either wizards, ordinary humans, or humans so ordinary that magic has no effect on them.
The magical creatures I did use were chosen either on the basis of how visible their otherness was or how well they fit my magical spin on corporate America. I used the "cute" version of fairies with wings because I needed something that would make them stand out as clearly different, but then their behavior fits some of the mischief of the fairy lore, making them the perfect backstabbing co-workers who act like your friend to your face. I used a gargoyle as chief of security because I just plain like gargoyles, plus it seems like they'd be ideal for a stakeout or for standing guard. That was also partially inspired by my location research. There's a church in the general area where my characters live in New York that I could have sworn had gargoyles. It looks like it should have gargoyles. But it doesn't. And that sparked the idea of what if the gargoyle was only there sometimes? I used the ogre boss because I used to work for that guy.
The dragons that showed up in the third book were inspired by the little dragon drawings they used for chapter headers in the first book. Those chapter headers were cute, but there weren't actually any dragons in the book. So I wrote some into the third book, and that was inspired by the urban legends about the alligators in the New York sewer system. What if they weren't actually alligators?
Shanna Swendson
I don't really consider myself a "creature" writer. My main characters are mostly human, either wizards, ordinary humans, or humans so ordinary that magic has no effect on them.
The magical creatures I did use were chosen either on the basis of how visible their otherness was or how well they fit my magical spin on corporate America. I used the "cute" version of fairies with wings because I needed something that would make them stand out as clearly different, but then their behavior fits some of the mischief of the fairy lore, making them the perfect backstabbing co-workers who act like your friend to your face. I used a gargoyle as chief of security because I just plain like gargoyles, plus it seems like they'd be ideal for a stakeout or for standing guard. That was also partially inspired by my location research. There's a church in the general area where my characters live in New York that I could have sworn had gargoyles. It looks like it should have gargoyles. But it doesn't. And that sparked the idea of what if the gargoyle was only there sometimes? I used the ogre boss because I used to work for that guy.
The dragons that showed up in the third book were inspired by the little dragon drawings they used for chapter headers in the first book. Those chapter headers were cute, but there weren't actually any dragons in the book. So I wrote some into the third book, and that was inspired by the urban legends about the alligators in the New York sewer system. What if they weren't actually alligators?
Shanna Swendson