Beings

Hey everyone! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m glad you stopped by.

As you (should) know, this month we’re talking all about several legends, myths, and themes that readers just can’t get enough of, that readers already know well enough, that there’s already a plethora of on the market—and that we should never stop writing.

Be sure to check out the previous posts if you’re behind—I’ve really been loving this series. :)

#6: Dinosaurs, Dragons, and other such Monsters

It hasn’t happened very many times in this series, that I’ve talked on a topic I haven’t already written. In fact, I think this is only the second, thus far. I write a lot, I write very diversely, and I love it. But I’ve never written monsters. Ever.

Now, I’m classifying everything in this list as monsters, but as you well know, they’re not all actually monsters. Sometimes they’re good creatures, beings very unlike ones that are alive and well in the real world. But for lack of a better word (because I don’t like to use “creatures” if I don't have to) we’re going to go with monsters. Okay? Okay.

Whether it’s dinosaurs, dragons, griffins, manticores, centaurs, minotaurs, the list goes on, people know what they are, they know what to expect from them, and they can’t get enough of them. Readers love the fantasy genre because it’s filled with beings like these. They love horror genres because it uses monsters like these to push its plot forward. And because the work has already been done, you won’t have to do any convincing for a reader to believe that these monsters exist in your world.

Isn’t it great?!

I’m not sure what it is about these beings, that makes readers love them so much, but I know that it’s true. The only thing I can think of is that they’re strange, that these monsters are so unique and different from what’s alive in the world today that we just really want to know what it would’ve been like to live with them. And so we read about it, because what could be better than that?

The amazing part though, as it has been throughout our series, is that though these things are written and written and written some more, no one ever seems to tire of them. No one picks up a book with a dragon on the cover and thinks “not another dragon.” No. We’re looking for dragons. We’re looking for monsters. We’re looking for things that get our hearts pounding and our imaginations running rampant.

That’s what you should be writing, too. Things that we love, things that you love. The line intersects, you know.

[love]

{Rani Divine}