I’ve been on werewolf hunt — reading a bunch of werewolf tales and hunting for my own brand of moonlit beast. I’ve read about a werewolf private detective, a teenaged werewolf seeking revenge against his abusive father and more.
I’ve yet to find the werewolf who suits me.
Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by memories of Lon Chaney Jr. and his tortured soul in the movies I watched on TV over and over again as a child? Or maybe it’s the macho werewolves of True Blood?
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I’ve got an inkling of a story idea involving an intellectual werewolf — a professor or a librarian or maybe a scientist…. It’s just an inkling of an idea. Not yet formed, maybe I need some moonlight to ripen it?
I’m beginning to think that story ideas sometimes need to grow a bit before the real work of writing can begin. I’ve stopped mid-way through more than one story only to find that when I return to it — it’s been transformed into an entirely different tale.
This seems to be true for longer works of fiction, too. Later this summer I plan to tackle an entirely new version of something I wrote years ago. The idea of the novel, a mystery, was good but the book wasn’t. I think I wasn’t ready to write it. I’ve become a better writer and it’s time to give it another try. Of course the idea might have simply needed more time to ripen.
As for my werewolf hunt, there might be another problem. I’m a cat person.
Does this mean we’re about to get the first were-cat story ever?
LOL…
Here I was thinking that my writer friends would pick up on the way stories change while writing and how some ideas take years to take form, but no… everyone wants a WereCat! This is great. Maybe I will try one — again.
Something sensible like that is beyond some people ( naming no names but see below). I of course appreciate how stories evolve as you write them but am far to whimsical to ever say so. So there !
http://barsetshirediaries.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/super-sweet-blogging-award/
Hugs for you. xxx
Whimsical is the word of the day!
A werecat story perhaps? Why not? I kind of like the idea of a werecat. I see them as being less bestial, or perhaps just more ‘together’ than human-dogs. I love dogs as well as cats but you must admit … you could never accuse a dog of having… /style/!
LOL… I had a were-catish creature in my terrible vampire romance that no one will ever see…
So I think I’ve got that one out of my system. I am chuckling at my computer. Really!
Make that thrice for a werecat comment! I thought the same thing after I read your final line as David and Andrea. Just think of how you could take the expectations of werewolf stories and turn them on their head by applying the transformation process to a cat.
This is just too funny. I guess I’ll give that cat character another try. There was this creepy scene where she was licking herself clean after a battle… Too bad the rest of the book was a failure. Maybe I should pluck her out and see where she goes. Although, if she is anything like a house cat, she’ll nap a lot.
An intellectual werewolf would be awesome! All that tension between intellect and beast!
That’s exactly what I was thinking — maybe even a philosophy professor… someone doing mental gymnastics to keep up with his wolf side’s physicality.
I believe it was in a Terry Pratchet book that a girl was a reverse were wolf. For most of the month she was a wolf, but on nights of the full moon she became human. Something out of the ordinary for sure.
I’m chuckling… we live in a literary landscape where a “regular” werewolf is normal. I wonder about a backwards vampire — only lives in the sunshine and eats anything but blood. I know I’m getting silly here. Pre-coffee, very silly sometimes…