[Mar 2017] - Through the Beast's Eye - Discussion Thread

[xiagan]

Through the beast's eye


"I see you" by Antonio Panderas

Writing often means putting yourself in somebody else's shoes and to write from their perspective. The barmaid, the warrior, the shady detective, the witch or the orphan boy. You do this all the time, becoming somebody else for the time you write that person. If you're good at it, all the characters will read, sound and act differently, making decisions that may even surprise you, the writer.
This becomes harder, the more alien to your own life, environment, temperament and motivation your character is.

So this month we want you to write from an Alien or Monster Point of View with a distinctly inhuman psychology or perspective.

Genre is completely open, everything SFF goes. You can use everything/everyone that fits the above description, I'd even argue that a completely mad serial killer, if well portrayed, would be valid.
This is not limited to a monster-human encounter and doesn't have to contain a hunt/battle/engagement of some kind - even if it's a likely theme.


Rules:

1. This must be prose or poetry.
2. Must be written from a nonhuman perspective (see above).
3. Prose must be 500-1500 words long.
4. Poetry must be 100-500 words long.
5. One story per person or writing team (not per account).
6. You will be disqualified if you exceed the limits, full stop. That's why they're called limits.
7. Your entry can't be published somewhere else before.
8. This is a writing contest, not a "I have written something like this ten years ago" contest. So if you happen to have a story that fits one of the themes, I'd like it to have a mayor overhaul/edit. Work for it.
9. Please add your story's word count and, if you have, your twitter handle.
10. Please put your story in [ spoiler ] tags to make the thread easier to handle. You can find them above the smileys next to the 'youtube' symbol.
SPECIAL RULE: In this month's contest, all submissions will be ANONYMOUS. This means that you don't post your story in the submission thread but send it in a personal message (formatted in the way you want) to  @Anonymous. (If you don't know how, feel free to ask.)
I will post the stories with that account in the submission topic, checking every day (as time allows) for new stories.
When the voting for the stories has ended (April, 30th), I will reveal who wrote which story if you didn't specify in your submission or later that you don't want to be revealed.

Entry will close March 31st/April 1st, 2017 and voting will begin somewhere around the same time too.

The winner will have their piece displayed on the main Fantasy Faction website sometime in the next months.

Please send your entry in a personal message to @Anonymous.

Note: This thread is only for questions or discussing this month's writing contest. Good luck!

[Nora]

OMG OMG OMG, I had an idea for a monster character, [...]
I though of it right at 2am as I failed to go to sleep, and now this topic! I'm in heaven, it's so cool!

EdiX: Cut something out for anonymous' sake.

[Lanko]

I believe Atku might be interested this month...

[Newway12]

So let me get this straight. The story has to be in the first person perspective? Or can it be third person but telling the monster's story?

[xiagan]

So let me get this straight. The story has to be in the first person perspective? Or can it be third person but telling the monster's story?

Third works too but I think first is the easier choice.

[Lanko]

ninjaed...

[Nora]

Typically would avoid first person at all cost because it would make the alien way of thinking much harder to represent. As soon as you express yourself from the inside with typical human expressions and views, you make your monster a bit more understandable.
Not saying that it would be bad!! It just depends on the type of monster you want to picture, if it's human in ways of thinking, (or human entirely, like a serial killer).

But I think I'll stick to a close third person myself. 

[Lanko]

Typically would avoid first person at all cost because it would make the alien way of thinking much harder to represent. As soon as you express yourself from the inside with typical human expressions and views, you make your monster a bit more understandable.
Not saying that it would be bad!! It just depends on the type of monster you want to picture, if it's human in ways of thinking, (or human entirely, like a serial killer).

But I think I'll stick to a close third person myself.

I was just thinking the same thing about the POV style!

I remember a friend once gave me a visual novel that was totally fucked up. There was an alien who altered something in the brain and then your senses were modified, like, you saw people as bizarre monsters and the real monster as some teen girl.

Totally crazy and awesome but I don't remember the name...

[tebakutis]

Oh man, this month is going to be challenging for me. But that's absolutely why I love our little club, as it pushes me outside of the stuff I normally write. Looking forward to this one!

[JMack]

@Lanko....

Atku?
Too frightening to contemplate.
Do you really want to release that on the world?

[Lanko]

@Lanko....

Atku?
Too frightening to contemplate.
Do you really want to release that on the world?

I'm the kind of person who just wants to watch the world burn!

[Nora]

I'm not gonna go through again on how little I care for anonymous months, but isn't there a way for us to be able to publish anonymously on the thread our self? A way to make all publications appear as anonymous?
Because what I dread the most, again, is the formating and the typos.
I edit my work until the last day, changing my mind on which sentence ends a paragraph, where to leave space, editing punctuation and all the little mistakes I only notice days after my work is happily published.
It's not even similar to other submissions, because they give you a manuscript format to respect, (double space, typo x..) and you get to edit yourself in that final form.
I write everything in Ulysses, and copy pasting here looks completely different and leads to a lot of revamping.
I don't know, I just really don't want to bother Anonymous 5 times in a month for my edits that will seem stupid and negligible but mean a lot to me.
If there was a way for us to be able to edit ourselves, it'd make the whole thing so much less constraining.

I might well be the only one bothered by that, but I ask in case it's actually something easily doable, who knows.

[xiagan]

I don't see a way for anonymous posts being easily edited by others. If you edit a post, it's noted in the post (look at your first post in this topic). However, I don't have a problem with getting a new version in a pm which I only have to copy and paste in the submission post. That barely takes a minute and if not everybody is doing it 5-10 times, I can live with you doing it that often.

[Roelor]

Never thought of something of the like, but I feel ideas bubbling up.
Might participate this time

[Nora]

Mmmh... Might need some mod intervention there in the submission thread @xiagan and @ScarletBea since if Anonymous "quotes" the original poster then the suspense is kinda lost.