#ShifterRambles

[sucker-for-shifters]

I have quite a few, so I’m just gonna focus on 1 pair.

1) Wynn is normal-sized, being human (albeit an undead one). Cen, on the other hand, is tiny, being a fairy/fae. For height references, Wynn is 5’ 6”, and Cen is 5.5”.

2) They met upon Wynn’s resurrection a century after his death. Cen had been watching over his body for a few decades because he saw that Wynn’s body wasn’t decaying like it normally would, so he decided to watch and see if Wynn eventually “woke up”. He initially planned to just catch Wynn up to speed about the situation, since he didn’t want him to be scared out of his mind when waking up and he thought it was the only thing someone like him could do (given he’s mostly unable to fly or use magic; He calls himself a paperweight.). However, Wynn invites him to come along with him, not wanting him to be stuck in the forest for the rest of his days. Overall, Cen acts as Wynn’s guide in the modern world, and Wynn offers his help in turn.

3) I can’t remember exactly, but I think I initially wrote their story around 2021-2022, or at least the concept for their story. I don’t like to specify my age, so this will have to do.

Tell me about your gt characters. I would like a distraction from, well, you know.

1) Are your gt characters giant and normal-sized? Or normal-sized and tiny? Or both?

2) How did they meet?

3) How old were you when you first wrote their story?

[sucker-for-shifters]

what would ur ocs look like as animals? :3 either furry or feral

Thank you so much for the ask!

I’ll only be doing concepts for now (since life’s been keeping me extremely busy, and I’m not great at drawing furries), but I’ll still label the ones I will be doing art for soon. (College is kicking my ass, and these concepts have taken long enough.) The others will just remain concepts unless I have any specific drive to make their furry versions.

[OCs with Art]

Wynn - He most definitely has dog energy, though specifically what kind was a little bit difficult to get down. I wanted to choose a breed that's perceived as loyal and gentle despite its size, but also can be perceived as threatening from appearance alone. (Mainly adding that last detail because of what Wynn did before he forfeited his first life.)

Hence, I thought that I'd go with a Doberman for him. Looks scary if you don’t know him, but is actually very loving to people he trusts most. Admittedly, due to his undead nature (being a revenant and all), I jokingly thought of him as one of those skeleton animas from Minecraft, though that wouldn't be entirely accurate to his original design. (He still has human-like features from the shoulders up, despite the hole rotted in his cheek.)

~~~

Cen - Frankly, he was a little tougher to nail down. I felt like he had cat-like energy, but at the same time, it didn't seem to fit for him. Since he's a fae/fairy, I wanted to keep the trend of him not being able to use his wings unless absolutely necessary. (So he's less of a cat and more like a bird, but even then, it's hard to pin what kind he'd be.)

After a lot of research, I finally decided on making him a raven, due to being Wynn's source of information in the modern world, not to mention his sharp wit and him being rather blunt at times.

~~~

Spruce - I've gotta thank past research (and an RP) for this idea, because I thought of making him a rabbit. Due to their unique behaviors (especially concerning their habit of humming, squeaking, and growling instead of speaking), I thought that having them as a rabbit would fit best. I wasn’t sure what kind of rabbit I’d make him, but I grew attached to him being a Dutch rabbit.

~~~

Anita - I wanted to slide her in here because she was the first created out of these OCs. She was tricky to do, since I wanted to lean into her survivalist nature and stealth, but I didn’t just want to make her a cat.

It took a while, but I eventually decided on her being a collared lizard. Not only are they mainly carnivores (hunter aspects), but they can also run pretty fast. (Top speeds of 16mph/26kph!) Plus, I thought it’d be cute to have a cold-blooded furry that loves soft fabrics and like items.

~~~

I'll continue onto the ones without art below the cut. Didn't want to leave anyone out!

[OCs without Art]

Fionn - Wolf. No doubt. (I mean, with his kinship/closeness to his companion, I thought of it as one Snow Hound protecting another.) However, in comparison to his companion, I think that Fionn would look a little less threatening, having a bit of a fluffier silver coat with patches of white to simulate his original form's vitiligo. No doubt that his tail would wag like crazy when he gets excited, especially when meeting people like Wynn and Cen.

Aspen - Due to being Fionn's brother, I'm making Aspen some form of wolf as well, though he would appear more tamed in comparison. Not to say that Fionn is wild, but due to being the crown prince, Aspen has to make himself look presentable, which means toning down aspects of himself. His coat would look a bit sleeker, but still have the same silver color with patches of white scattered throughout.

Selene - For Selene, I actually wanted to make her some form of cat, since I though that having her as a cat fit best compared to the other characters I originally thought of as cats. (Also for the fact that despite having dog-like energy in her openness towards others, she tends to do things on her own.)

Hydrangea - Honestly, it was about as tricky to nail down what Hydrangea would be like as it was to nail Cen's down, if not trickier. Due to original Hydrangea being a homunculus, as well as being part-flower due to contamination and almost completely mute, I wanted to come up with something that would simultaneously make it fit in with the other furries in this post and make it stand out. In the end, I decided to make Hydrangea a mouse in order to fit in with the laboratory theme, since “lab mouse/rat”. However, instead of normal fur, each strand is a small flower petal, like its usual form’s hair. It also fits in with its mute nature.

Arden - Although he and Anita are rather similar, I wanted to make them different kinds of furries due to their different personalities and skills. With him being the tinkerer that he is and with his fluffy, cloud-like hair, I kind of thought of him as some kind of squirrel or chipmunk. I would’ve thought of a beaver, but that may be a bit much for him.

[sucker-for-shifters]

Hello there, perusers of this blog! (Eh, too formal, but oh well.)

I just wanted to give a bit of an update regarding my participation in the G/T Writer Appreciation Challenge/GTWAC. I know I’ve been quiet lately, which is unfortunate, but I still fully intend on doing the rest of my planned GTWAC posts at a later time.

Frankly, I’ve been super busy IRL, and I haven’t had any time to keep up with GTWAC because of it. I still fully intend on doing a couple of the days that I haven’t done already, especially the Share-or-Short days and the Prompt days. However, they’ll most likely be coming around Mid-March when I have some time off. Hopefully, the stories are worth the wait!

Anywho, hope all of you are having a wonderful day, and I look forward to making more posts when I’m able to!

[sucker-for-shifters]

Oh, sure. It’s all fun and games until they “borrow” your credit card and put you in debt just for that one character they want.

If and when that eventuality comes, please tell me whether or not it was worth it. [all jokingly]

it’s 2023. you don’t need to trap tinies in a jar or shoebox or whatever anymore. just stick ‘em in front of a gacha game and they’ll be stuck there for hours

[sucker-for-shifters]

I wanted to do this with just my borrowers at first, but I decided to include my borrower-adjacent characters, Gray and Cen.

Anita [Borrower]

Peanut butter (Great source of protein for her. Also just tastes great.)

Berries (Just in general. She often snatches them to eat later, since they’re pretty messy.)

Arden [Borrower]

Blueberries (They’re his favorite berry, and he knows that Anita saves some for him.)

Cheese (He doesn’t scavenge it often, but he savors every bite when he does.)

Spruce [Borrower]

Gummies (Not only do they find them delicious, they also just idly squish them when they’re thinking.)

Strawberries (The couple whose house they hide in have a strawberry bush alongside a few other crops in their garden, so while he helps keep pests away from their crops, he tends to snatch one or two berries for himself as a snack.)

Gray [Brownie spirit]

Scones (Particularly Arthur's homemade ones; Loves them with fruit preserves, and will eat one whole despite it being as big as him)

Dairy (Really doesn’t matter what kind, but he tends to have a taste for milk and cheese.)

Cen [Fairy]

Strawberries (He used to live right next to a strawberry bush, so he’s developed a taste for them.)

Apples (Usually splits one with Wynn, even if Wynn doesn’t need to eat.)

What foods do your borrowers canonically go apeshit for?

I'll start

- berries

- jams

- chocolate chips

- sourpatch kids

[sucker-for-shifters]

I actually want to do a little bit of a dive on this, so forgive me in advance for rambling so long.

Also, this is just my own take on it. Feel free to agree or disagree with anything I say here.

~~~

Okay, RAMBLE MODE ENGAGED.

Short answer: It really depends on the owner.

Free-roaming would make sense for minigiants and the like, since it would allow their pets to roam around however they want without much risk. For the smaller animals, you might want to keep an eye on them just in case, but otherwise, they’d be fine if they were left to roam the house freely.

However, for larger giants, I’d personally think that supervised free-roaming time would be the better scenario. Not only do you have the giant themselves to worry about (as well as any potential guests they have over, since they might not know where they’re stepping), but the house itself may be too large for the pet to navigate through, and may be too dangerous to let them roam freely.

The supervised free-roaming may apply to minigiants as well, but I’d say that they wouldn’t necessarily have to do this. If the individual is concerned about their furry friend getting lost or accidentally getting into trouble, then they may choose to go through this route. It really just depends on how they feel. (For larger giants, I’d say that it’s more of a necessity for the animals to have their own space, since they and their living quarters would be so much larger than the animals themselves.)

If the scenario is a minigiant with a kitten, it could lean either way depending on how comfortable they are with their furry friend roaming about. If they want to be more cautious, then supervised free-roaming may be better for them.

~~~

Ramble over. Hope this helps.

so how would minigiants and giants keep regular-sized pet animals like dogs and cats would they let them free roam around their house like normal or would they have to give them a nice big (for their size) enclosure with supervised free-roam time to keep them safe and prevent them getting lost in a big house like how you do with hamsters and rats

[sucker-for-shifters]

Oof, where do I even begin?

"Man, how do you even handle being so big/small?"

This pretty much goes hand-in-hand with size swap stories, but I love it to bits nonetheless. Not only are the characters trying to adjust to being a different size, but it can also play into their personality and their experiences. Like a tiny that's normally unnoticed by others becoming extremely self-aware of their presence and being socially awkward. Or maybe a giant that simply hates that they can't do what they used to anymore. You can play with this however you like, and I like seeing everyone's different interpretations.

"I've always wanted to do that."

More in the realm of curiosity, I always love seeing characters trying something that they've never been able to do before, like creating a crater with a single punch or just picking up something they weren't able to before, or slipping into small spaces they couldn't get into before. While I like it whenever they do something that the other would normally do, I particularly like it whenever they do something and say "I've wanted to do that ever since I watched that TV show/movie.".

Mutual Trouble

Okay, now for a scenario. Two characters swap sizes, and they get into trouble. If they were their normal sizes, they'd be able to get out of this easily, but because they're swapped, they're unable to escape like normal. So one character has to guide the other, telling them how to maneuver through the situation like they would normally.

Curious! What are some scenarios, tropes etc... that you guys like when reading size swaps?

[sucker-for-shifters]

Man, it's taken me a while to get to this.

Just a disclaimer to anyone reading this, I'll mainly be talking about this in terms of general writing, as a lot of my advice applies to stories in general as well as G/T-centric stories. (Also, take these bits of advice with a grain of salt. I'm still somewhat of an amateur in my opinion, so it's best to get advice from multiple sources.)

Anywho, hope you're ready for a long post, because I've got a lot to say!

Building a Complex Plot

I'm going to be frank. Building a complex plot is not easy. It takes a lot of work and dedication to get it down, and even then, you'll most likely have to go through a few drafts and revisions to get it down pat. However, that's not to say that it's impossible. My best advice here is to look at other works in the genre you're writing in and take notes about what they do well and what can be improved on. And to be honest, just research in general will help you establish many details in your story, whether it's your setting, your characters, or your plot. Not to mention, the strangest places can give you inspiration, so go hog wild with looking around.

Character Development

If my time working on DLN has taught me anything about character development, it's that you need to make sure that each of your characters has adequate development and time for the reader to get to know them. (That especially applies to character-driven stories.) I find that having a short list of questions to expand on really helps to both cement them as a character and how they relate to the plot. Now, your specific list of questions can vary (and I encourage you to play around with it and find what fits for you), but I generally stick with a certain few questions: "Who is this character, and how would you describe them in a short sentence?" "How do they relate to the other characters in the story?" "What are some of their signature traits? What traits of theirs can be improved on?" "What would their character arc focus on? What would it be like? Who could help them achieve their goals?" Personally, I like to have a pair character to help develop each of their arcs. Not to mention, it's great to have parallels between characters.

A quick example for Character Development

I wanted to touch on this before I went any further, since I'm both not ready to move on from the topic and thought that a reference might help. As a bit of a shameless self-plug, let's take a look at an OC of mine, Detective Adeline Idler. "Who is this character, and how would you describe them in a short sentence?" Adeline is a proud and determined detective, as well as a caring mother figure to her apprentices. She seeks to prove to the world that a "lady detective" can be just as intelligent and just as skilled as her male counterparts, and she's not afraid to fight back in order to bring the truth to light. "How do they relate to the other characters in the story?" Adeline, as mentioned earlier, is a caring mother figure to her apprentices, Remington & Cordelia Sterling. However, she and her rival, Detective Percival Rohel, do not get along whatsoever, with Adeline thinking of him as a pompous policeman that always gets in the way of her work. "What are some of their signature traits? What traits of theirs can be improved on?" Most often, Adeline is seen as determined, hardworking, and courageous, not letting anything shake her or lead her astray. However, she's also very stubborn, contradictory, and hardheaded. "What would their character arc focus on? What would it be like? Who could help them achieve their goals?" Her arc would be about her putting aside her pride and reconciling with her rival, Rohel. She doesn't see - or rather, refuses to see - his positive side due to their mutual bitterness towards each other, but they both have to learn to put their pride aside and cooperate in order to solve the case at hand. Remington, Cordelia, Gray, and Arthur all help her do this.

I hope that the example that I've provided may help any of you with your own characters a bit more.

Setting up Drama/Angst

I didn't really have anything for coming up with clever lines (Frankly, they just appear. Even I don't know where they come from.), so I'll go to the next topic. Personally, when I set up drama/angst, I focus it around characters either losing faith in each other or coming to terms with a truth that they didn't want to face. Really, the key to setting up drama/angst is the structure: The Lead-Up, The Climax, and The Aftermath. As long as you keep the tension and keep the stakes, you'll do just fine. Also, when you get to the aftermath, don't just brush it off. Let it linger. Maybe just for a little bit. Maybe for whole chapters. It really depends on the severity of your drama/angst.

Setting up an Antagonist

Everyone's method is different, so I'll just go into my little version of the antagonist structure. My most iconic antagonist structure is the "3-Tier Villains", where you have the Right-Hand Man (the person doing most/all of the work; Either done willingly or by coercion by one of the other 2 villains), the Planner (the person running the show, but can't enact their plans due to some obstacle; Examples I have include being physically unable to enact the plans or otherwise having to lay low in order to avoid being exposed), and the Main Villain/Big Bad Evil Guy (the person ACTUALLY running the show; Manipulates the desires of both the Right-Hand Man and the Planner into doing their bidding, and is actually the most dangerous one out of the 3; Usually has the Planner as the face of the group, as the Main Villain is either currently too weak to enact their own plans, or they're using the Right-Hand Man and Planner as scapegoats. The Main Villain didn't do any of the actual work, so they can blame the other two as the real masterminds.). I personally like doing this because you can have more emotional ties between the antagonists and possibly explore why each of them is doing what they're doing. However, if you use the 3-Tier structure in too many stories, it's going to become predictable. Regardless of the 3-Tier structure, I personally love making my villains sympathetic to a degree. What they're doing is morally wrong, but you can understand why they've gotten to that point. But also, another fun twist is a manipulative villain trying to paint themselves as sympathetic. They try to get people to understand what they're doing, but in reality, their motives are truly selfish.

What Literary Devices do you like? How do you like using them?

This is the last section, I swear. Less advice and more thinking about what I usually like to do, I personally love symbolism. Not only do I incorporate a lot of symbolism into my characters' appearances (Adeline's body is mainly triangles, and is visibly more swift and cunning; Rohel's body is mainly rectangles and a few small circles, as well as a sharp/piercing glare), I also do a lot of name puns. And I mean a LOT of name puns. [Obvious one being "Adeline Idler", derived from "Irene Adler"] Not exactly a literary device, but I also especially love playing with double-meanings and things not being what they appear on the surface. This is especially referring to Detective Rohel, since his whole character (and relationship with Adeline) revolves around his words having different meanings depending on who's listening to him. If you like him, you'll tend to see his words in a positive light (and often see the true meaning behind his words). However, if you're like Adeline and don't like him, you'll take his words as being scathing and think that he's looking down on you. Even Rohel himself admits that his word choice causes many misunderstandings, but he can't get through to Adeline regardless because of how she views him. She'll simply double down and ignore him once again.

~~~~~

Anywho, for those that have read through this whole thing, holy cow! Thanks a bunch for listening to (er, reading) me ramble! I hope that this advice helps, and if you want to know a little bit more either about writing advice or the examples that I've brought up here, feel free to shoot over an ask or slide over to my PMs/DMs.

Hello G/t community!

I'd love to hear your best advice for writing G/t (or writing in general)!

I'm specifically curious about tips on complex plot building and character development, but man I'd be down for any advice!

How do you come up with clever lines?

How do you set up drama/angst?

How do you go about setting up an antagonist?

What literary devices do you like? How do you like using them?

Any and all advice is appreciated! I've been having so much fun writing and I'd love tips and feedback to improve my content 💖