# Help with finishing my book.



## Baalf (Nov 7, 2017)

Years ago, I wrote a book called Benny and the World of Mythica, which I advertised on a forum. A few bits of criticism, however, told me my book was far from ready. I then went on to rewrite my book, eventually renaming the characters, changing the species, and changing the title, once I realized Mythica was taken, to the latin word for monster: Gaidens of *Monstrum.* I also separated the big book I wrote into two books, and started fleshing it out. ...And yet... I still don't think it's ready.


Main Character: Benny Jackdaw
Benny has now been changed into a giant rat, as it fits his life of squalor more than a pink unicorn rabbit passed off as an almiraj. ...And by "Giant Rat" I don't mean an anthropomorphic rat, I mean a gigantic, ten-foot quadrupedal rat. In addition to changing his species, I'm also trying to add some more to his character. For example, he's kind around his friend Conan, but is quite bitter about his life, and often goes on rants about his life. In addition, he has a bias against fat creatures, as he blames them for famine. Being a quadruped, it's also difficult for him to grab stuff since he doesn't have oposable thumbs. For this, he relies on his friends help.

Best Friend: Conan the Construct
For this redesign, I looked to none-other than Frankenstein's monster, as I wanted a someone misunderstood creature to represent an ugly, yet gentle creature like Conan. I'm still trying to flesh this character out, though. Like Benny, he's a fairly poor creature with no real magical abilities except he's fairly strong. Though he hides behind a very slow-talking voice, he's actually quite smart. ...My problem is I'm not sure of what kind of character flaws to give him to flesh him out.

Villain: Kazek Monocorn
That's right, now Kazek is the almiraj, and he's closer to a proper one, though in this world, true almiraj's are rare compared to their more populous subspecies. Kazek's a sly creature, but likes to think of himself as a genius, and his ego works against him. My problem, though, is that this feels a bit generic. One big thing about him is the fact that he goes around acting like he's evil without a motive: that he's a true psychopath. His motive for mass murdering creatures, however, turns out to be deeper than he lets on, though it's not hinted at till the end of the book, and it's fully revealed in the second book that I'm working on after I'm done with the first one.

Main Female A: Patricia "Defylar" Monocorn
The wife of Kazek who married him out of pity, and her reason for marrying him may shed light on his true motives. She's a nosey creature and somewhat annoying, but has a lot of admiration for Benny. Her biggest drawback, however, is one of the reasons she likes Benny, a creature who appears to be "large-footed." This is me trying to take a risk with a character flaw by adding a fetish to this character. as it's something I feel like I've never seen in media, though it's restrained in the book, as this isn't shoved in your face and, usually, is only hintend at until it's eventually confirmed late in the story.

Main Female B: Gahjira Amirun
She's actually based off two things: She's a large cat with two tails, so she's part based off of a nekomata, but she is also associated with the Lithuanian goddess of fire, Gabija, who also is associated with cats. As such, the species in the book, known as Bijimata, are fire-magic specialists. Gahjira seems like your standard Obese Cop trope, except she's a no-nonsense cop who can kick butt and has powerful magic. ...Which might be why I'm not happy with her current state. While I want her to be a compitent creature, I'm not sure about a flaw for her yet.

Other Friend: Fleet the Dragon
Originally all dragons in my book were anthro. Now Dragons are split into two catigories: Half-Dragons who are anthro but less adept at magic and Full-Dragons who are strong in magic, but are quadrupeds like Benny. Fleet is a slightly bird-brained creature, showing acts of clumsiness and slight stupidity at time, and often acts as a comic relief character, but when he puts his mind to it, he can be compitent as well. I kind of dislike characters who just exist as comic relief, so I want Fleet to be more then that. Fleet, compared to most Full-Dragons, has fairly weak magical abilities limited basically to just your standard firebreathing ability. I can't say he's a Gary-Stu, yet I almost feel like Fleet's a bit... generic.

Supporting Cast A: Trenton the Winter Warg
Trying to avoid plain anthros, Winter Wargs in this book are an anthropomorphic mix of wolf and polar bear, often excelling in water/ice based magic. Trenton is a creature who's cold magic is about as strong as Gahjira's fire magic. Trenton is slightly cowardly, though, and while not an idiot is also slightly slow in the mind. His cowardice shows when his "long-time friend" Branton comes into the picture.

Supporting Cast B: Madison B. Jules
He's a variation of a Tanuki I made up that borrows features from Red Pandas, including a gigantic tail that helps balance out these forward heavy creatures, who'd have a hard time standing without it. He I feel like I've made some progress with. He's a somewhat grumpy creature, and while he's charitable, he is somewhat bitter about parting with so much of his money to help out other creatures. He is especially bitter towards Benny's cousin Herman Jackdaw who is ALSO rich, but refuses to spend money on anyone but himself. Herman I feel like I still need to flesh out.

Supporting Cast C: Branton the three-headed warg.
This creature's based off a legend I feel I don't need to explain, but is a polar opposite to Trenton. Branton's three heads all have their own personality, the middle one being very cold and cruel, another head being a bit loopy, with a final head being sly, manipulative and yet very cowardly and decietful. In fact, it's the third head that basically acts as the brains of the whole creature, though he can only control one arm, where the center head controls the legs and the last head controls the remaining arm. They are a creature that relies on each other to fully function, but they don't get along very well. ...Yet something about this character still feels... generic for some reason.

There's even more characters in the story, but there's too many to list. Like I said, I got the book mapped and writen out, and a rough draft is complete, right now I just need to make some adjustments to the story to give it more fluidity, creativity and quality.


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## Pypedreams (Dec 5, 2017)

Are you looking for beta reading? Editing?


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## BahgDaddy (Dec 5, 2017)

Was also wondering that. We can help you better if you specify what you need help with.


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## michael1990west (Dec 5, 2017)

If it is about proofreading or editing or some other help, it is better to ask for help from professionals, the editors are really very picky people. You can visit this official homepage and get you help.


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## Baalf (Dec 5, 2017)

For now, no. I was actually looking for help in fleshing out some of my characters. ...I don't know if that's considered cheating or not, though.

Also, some criticism wouldn't hurt.


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## Jarren (Dec 5, 2017)

A good way to flesh out your characters is (outside of the writing, this is just for you) to list a few of their defining personality traits and then see if you can explain how/why they are that way. What are some challenges they faced before the story? Do those challenges still face/haunt then during the story? How would that react to certain situations and why would that act that way? Write a free small scenes where the character can show what they're good at. What they're bad at. What they love. What they hate. What they'd die for. When they'd be willing to lie. What the price of their loyalty is. Do they have family? 

Basically, do some separate writing exercises and then see if you can integrate anything from them into how you represent the character in the text. Also, it would help if we knew what particular help you wanted with fleshing them out. Do you want them to be more likable? Believable? Competent at what they do? More convincing in their action and words?


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## BahgDaddy (Dec 5, 2017)

I don't imagine complete profiles for characters. I get to know each character, in my head, like I would a person. Their personality, how they act, and WHY they do things. Then I just start writing them and let the story take care of all the little details.


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