Species choice
Started as a comment, but I really should break this out into a post since, yanno, I belong to the community.
For myself personally, I've always been attracted to shapeshifters because of their mutable quality--mutable shape, morality, instincts, personalities...you name it. The id side of things has always held deep fascination for me--what if we really were ruled by impulse and our lower brain, with flexible humanity worn as a mask?
For NIGHT LIFE specifically, I knew I wanted a were hero/heroine. Okay, I said, that's great, but she'll be like a million other were heroines out there. "Well, inner author self," I replied snottily, "what if I make her a cop, and utilize her heightened senses in her detecting, so she's sort of like a super-cop, but has to hide her were abilities because weres aren't well-liked?" Sure, said inner author, relenting. I guess that would work.
So yes, I very much start with a concept and creature that I love and stroke and then proceed to twist and degrade it until it's something that my evil little brain will have fun writing. Were creatures came naturally because I always love exploring the line between humanity and depravity, and how often that line gets crossed, and can we rise above these traits or do we always, in the end, succumb? Does being were make you less human than a human who kills with no remorse, or does it give you an excuse that regular humans don't have? Hopefully I actually answer a few of these questions in the book...
My WIP features mages, specifically necromancers, because the nature of life and death and the line between the spirit and living worlds is another area that I find really fascinating and want to explore. That one features mages and extra-dimensional beings as my "creatures", so psychology plays a bigger role than in my were book.
Speaking personally, I can't write a creature I don't love and in some way empathize with. I love vampires, but I don't think I could ever write them effectively because I couldn't put them in the context of the underlying themes I like to address in my WIP. I'm surely not a vampire hatah, they just don't come naturally to me as creatures I can explore in my writing. But the choice is always hard, because there are so many wonderful, fantastical sunlight-and-shadow creatures out there, ready to make an appearance in my work.
For myself personally, I've always been attracted to shapeshifters because of their mutable quality--mutable shape, morality, instincts, personalities...you name it. The id side of things has always held deep fascination for me--what if we really were ruled by impulse and our lower brain, with flexible humanity worn as a mask?
For NIGHT LIFE specifically, I knew I wanted a were hero/heroine. Okay, I said, that's great, but she'll be like a million other were heroines out there. "Well, inner author self," I replied snottily, "what if I make her a cop, and utilize her heightened senses in her detecting, so she's sort of like a super-cop, but has to hide her were abilities because weres aren't well-liked?" Sure, said inner author, relenting. I guess that would work.
So yes, I very much start with a concept and creature that I love and stroke and then proceed to twist and degrade it until it's something that my evil little brain will have fun writing. Were creatures came naturally because I always love exploring the line between humanity and depravity, and how often that line gets crossed, and can we rise above these traits or do we always, in the end, succumb? Does being were make you less human than a human who kills with no remorse, or does it give you an excuse that regular humans don't have? Hopefully I actually answer a few of these questions in the book...
My WIP features mages, specifically necromancers, because the nature of life and death and the line between the spirit and living worlds is another area that I find really fascinating and want to explore. That one features mages and extra-dimensional beings as my "creatures", so psychology plays a bigger role than in my were book.
Speaking personally, I can't write a creature I don't love and in some way empathize with. I love vampires, but I don't think I could ever write them effectively because I couldn't put them in the context of the underlying themes I like to address in my WIP. I'm surely not a vampire hatah, they just don't come naturally to me as creatures I can explore in my writing. But the choice is always hard, because there are so many wonderful, fantastical sunlight-and-shadow creatures out there, ready to make an appearance in my work.