Jackson Dean Chase - Writing Monsters and Maniacs: A Masterclass in Genre Fiction for Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction

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BUZZFEED and THE HUFFINGTON POST

[Jackson Dean Chase is] a fresh and powerful new voice.

Terry Trueman, Printz Honor author of Stuck in Neutral

[Chase] grabs readers from page one.

Nate Philbrick, author of The Little One

[Jackson Dean Chase] succeeds in taking fiction to a whole new level.

TheBaynet.com

[Jacksons fiction is] diligently crafted

The Huffington Post

Irresistible [Jackson knows how to write] a heart-pounding story full of suspense, romance, and action!

Buzzfeed

Use this book as a springboard to ensure your monsters are as skillfully written as your human characters. Give them distinct personalities, quirks, and interests apart from just being evil. For example, when theyre not busy murdering people, what do your monsters do to relax? Norman Bates enjoys taxidermy. Buffalo Bill is really into skin lotion and dancing naked to 80s music. Everybody needs a hobby.

I include a list of sample monsters (mostly from movies and TV) so you can see how other writers have handled them. Why didnt I list more books? Because theyre not as easy to consume or google reference pictures from. Theres less of a chance youll be familiar with them, and theyre harder to fast forward through. Nobody has a problem sitting down to watch a movie or TV show, but the minute you ask them to read a book, resistance goes up. Thats why movies and TV are the gold standard for writing references.

I also include a list of plot ideas for most monsters. Feel free to use them as is, combine them, or change them. To make it easy, I kept the ideas as generic as possible so you can ask yourself, What if

If you are creating a monster from scratch or building off an existing monster type, go to the Appendix and fill in the Monster Builder questionnaire, then consult the Magic Spells, Psychic Talents, and Supernatural Powers sections as needed.

If you just want to give your standard monster a twist, consult the Magic Spells, Psychic Talents, and Supernatural Powers sections in the Appendix, pick what you want, subtract what you dont, and youre good to go!

Rather than start from scratch, consider mixing and matching different monster types. For example, in the 1977 fantasy adventure film, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, instead of just having a standard minotaur, they created a magical robot version called the Minoton (minotaur + automaton, get it?). A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) took the concept of a maniac and fused it with a vengeful ghost, making box office magic in the process. This book gives you the tools to do that.

To create a half-breed monster, such as a mix between human and monster, or two different monsters, simply give it some of the powers of each, and maybe an unexpected new one. Similarly, give it only some of the weaknesses of the parents, and maybe a new one. You can also make some of the powers and weaknesses better or worse than is commonly found in its parents.

A popular example of a half-breed is the dhampir, the result of either a vampire impregnating a living female, or infecting a pregnant female with vampirism. The resulting child is not undead and can walk in the sunlight, but has some vampire-like qualities. Blade (1998) and its sequels provide a good example of this.

For Alien and Fantasy Races, as well as Subhumans and any intelligent monster that has its own distinct organized society and culture, I recommend going to the Appendix and answering the Monster Builder questionnaire. This will help you fill in the blanks for all those pesky details like what the monsters use for money, what their taboos are, what their language sounds like, etc.