# Making it A Furry Story



## Hooky (Dec 30, 2013)

I am thinking of writing a story and uploading it to FA. Just asking around; how do I make it a furry story? Too few anthro statements and it's just your average story, too many statements and it just gets weird. Basically I'm asking: how often should I remind the reader that the characters are anthropomorphic animals? How can I use this effectively with the story and not just as a tacked on addition to the narrative?


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## Conker (Dec 30, 2013)

That's a good question.

A lot of furry stories are furry for the sake of it--all the characters are talking animals but only because why not? Others have humans in em that are super evil and bad because hoomans are like, so evil and bad.

Whatever the story winds up being, you gotta justify having talking animals as characters. 

But I'd say remind the reader that the characters are animals as much as you feel is needed. I've found it kind of nice in a way, because I don't have to repeat names as much when I can default to a species. It really depends on the world you wind up working in. If there are humans and animals, you might need to bring it up more, but if you establish that everyone's an animal, then I don't think it's as required to mention.


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## Shetana (Dec 30, 2013)

In my stories I will occasionally mention the species of my characters. I still use phrases like "wags tail" or "extends claws" (and my cat still purrs) to reference that they are anthro critters.  I hope that helps.


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## Hooky (Dec 30, 2013)

Conker said:


> That's a good question.
> 
> A lot of furry stories are furry for the sake of it--all the characters are talking animals but only because why not? Others have humans in em that are super evil and bad because hoomans are like, so evil and bad.
> 
> ...





Shetana said:


> In my stories I will occasionally mention the species of my characters. I still use phrases like "wags tail" or "extends claws" (and my cat still purrs) to reference that they are anthro critters.  I hope that helps.


Thanks! I'll keep these points in mind while writing.


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## Willow (Dec 30, 2013)

Just like any other story, you should only really reference what the character is when it's important or relevant to the story. There's nothing wrong with occasionally referring to a character by species or pointing out their animal traits (i.e. ears twitching, barking, etc.) but too often people will overload stories with extra details to stress that the character isn't human. 

Basically, if you read through your work and a line or a statement seems unnecessary or it starts to feel repetitive, fix it. This is actually just a general rule of thumb for any sort of writing but it's still good to know.


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## Tica (Dec 30, 2013)

if the species of the characters has no bearing on the story whatsoever, you might as well just make them human. you should only deviate from the norm in a story for a good storytelling reason, or in such a way that adds to the depth of your characterization.


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## Conker (Dec 30, 2013)

Tica said:


> if the species of the characters has no bearing on the story whatsoever, you might as well just make them human. you should only deviate from the norm in a story for a good storytelling reason, or in such a way that adds to the depth of your characterization.


Unless he decides to write a kid's story then it really doesn't matter. Brian Jacques got away with his animal people for pretty much that reason.

But otherwise I agree.


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## Zeitzbach (Dec 30, 2013)

Remember that if the Chameleon cannot use camouflage, then there's no point in making the character a chameleon in the first place. If the cat is just as agile as every other species then it's not really a cat.

You can easily tell the reader that this character is a cat if he starts jumping and climbing up wall at very fast speed and tell that this character is a dog if he can smell a hidden stash of cocaine 15 km away or something. Humans can't really do that.


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## coso (Feb 6, 2014)

A literary device may be that. You remember the reader that they are animals with sentences like: "he scratched his nose with his paws as he thought", "he showed his sharp claws", "he moved his ears showing his doubt". That's really cool and it forces you to improve descriptions. Good luck!

PD: Sorry for my poor english xD


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