Monsters - A Survey

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bcomet
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Monsters - A Survey

Post by bcomet » July 14th, 2017, 6:27 pm

Hi. I have a survey question:
In fiction, do you prefer a monster to be fully, visually described or do you prefer to imagine him/her?
Thanks for any input.

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Nathan Bransford
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Re: Monsters - A Survey

Post by Nathan Bransford » July 14th, 2017, 10:02 pm

I tend to want to know things in general rather than for them to be left vague. I would vote for fully, visually described.

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J. T. SHEA
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Re: Monsters - A Survey

Post by J. T. SHEA » July 15th, 2017, 12:52 am

I agree with Nathan. Minimalist monsters work better in movies and on TV than on the page.

bcomet
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Re: Monsters - A Survey

Post by bcomet » July 15th, 2017, 4:21 pm

Thanks for chiming in! All your thoughts are helpful.

When I think of monsters, sometimes those around the shadows are super scary as I get to fill in with my own imagination about what a monster is. On the other hand, sometimes that is just too vague and I really want the writer (or filmmaker) to let me see the monster, but when I get to, I want it to wow and shock and surprise me. I could not not see Dracula (the classic), but also the build-up of Alien (movie) was (almost) as scary as the monster they portrayed.

Does anyone have favorite or unforgettable monsters in fiction or film?

bcomet
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Re: Monsters - A Survey

Post by bcomet » July 18th, 2017, 1:55 pm

So I wanted to report that I've been thinking a lot about this.

I was thinking about Darth Vader. Even the name sounds evil. And how he was portrayed through the original movies as this dark thing–entity–that you knew nothing about–encased in metal and breathing with his deep, deep voice and it was so menacing. It was so scary that this hidden, inhuman monster was Luke's dad.
And when he was revealed as a man underneath...odd odd. It seemed in some ways to dismantle his character when he took his hood off (although the story arc then came full circle and his backstory could be told).

But then I realized the monster I am writing was interesting to me, but all in thought or action but not at all visual yet and that was very challenging to wonder if he should be or even begin seeing him myself, but then this morning, yeah I could. He started coming out of the shadows and still is: a very cool process happening. So thanks for helping me begin this. I suspect it is only the beginning, an evolving process and will continue to develop.

I would still love to hear from others about their preferences for fully seeing monster or keeping them in the shadows.

And favorite/memorable monsters in fiction/film too.

Thanks.

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