Advice for book writing.

[Benny The Miraj]

If you need to make your protagonist nonhuman to reinforce their character, that should be setting off some alarms. Its a common mistake for writers to change a character's appearance or species to make them more interesting. A character with an interesting personality but bland appearance can capture the imagination of readers. A visually-interesting but poorly-written character cannot. I've seen a lot of new writers make this mistake and it's a trap I've fallen into myself.

So personally, I would make your protagonist human unless there are some circumstances in the story that require them to be nonhuman. If you make them nonhuman without any good reasons (plot-driven or metaphor-driven) you run the risk of alienating your readers without any benefit.

Like I said, I absolutely do not want a human protagonist, and will not make one. I want him to be non-human because there are so many stories out there that star humans, that I want to book to stand out. I don't feel comfortable going further then that, to be honest.

In my opinion, though, I think Benny is still a likable character in his own right. I'm trying to make him a kind-hearted creature who's meek yet selfless, but at the same time can also make the wrong choice at times. Like I want him to be nice, but not a Gary-Stu.

the only thing I can be reminded of when seeing this is Conker and Conker is the polar opposite of seriousness

like i understand you can make serious stories out of cartoon-esque characters. But even in those popular stories the character is in, there is a reason or heavy simbolism under the character design.

well i'm presented with a unicorn rabbit. what does that mean. Does the fact of the character being a horned rabbit have some meaning or not? It is not wise at all to be serious when your character's appearance has nothing to do with what he does or well... stuff


that's my two cents anyway

I almost want to say "well, the almiraj is a seemingly innocuous creature, but deep down lies a vicious, terrible and dangerous creature" and that  it represents some fact that Benny is a very harmless looking creature who turns out to have a lot of power in the story, but unfortunately I'd sort of be lying, as Benny's consistently weak in the story. There's only two real scenes where Benny is in any sort of position of power, and that's like "Once in the middle of the story/the other near the end." Truth be told, there's no particular reason that Benny is an almiraj besides the fact that bunnies are somewhat of an innocuous animal which sort of fits an innocuous character.

Honestly, I'm the kind of person that doesn't tend to think too hard about the species of a character. For most characters, I don't see why there needs to be a particular reason to their species, just as long as the character him/her-self is likable. I've been trying harder to flesh out the lore of his world and each of the species that reside in it than worrying about symbolism or anything of the like. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying I don't see why it's a big deal that he's based off no particular species. Is it something people really care that much about?

If it's really that big of a deal that there's no symbolism behind Benny's species, then maybe I could work with the whole "Seemingly innocent and harmless creature who obtains a position of power" type motif for Benny, but that kind of goes against who he is. I dunno, it's just that every other story has the protagonist constantly in the limelight, and I wanted to try and differentiate things by making him a creature who relies on the support of his friends.

Like, what mythical creature do you think fits Benny more?

Symbolism doesn't neccesarily need to be the first thing in your mind, it's just that it can help you establish themes and ideas behind a story more interestingly that way. SOmetimes even allow people to interpret certain passages in their own unique way. It adds a deeper layer to storytelling, it's pretty neat.

Obviously you should absolutely design Benny in your vision, it's your story after all. But I have to say I'm starting to get the idea you haven't worked out your story competely yet, so I'd like to suggest going back to the writing board for a while and think about what story you want to write and why. What ideas and messages do you want your story to tell your readers and how are you going to achieve that. Is it neccesary for the story to be dark? Do you actually want that?

Like, what's the reason for Benny being part unicorn? Is he just a horned rabbit or is the unicorn part actually important in the story? Is it actually neccesary to give Benny a backstory ('less is more principle') or explain his situation?

(Also if you want Benny to feel like an inconsequential, dirty street person then maybe consider making him a rodent- like a rat or so)

I do feel like a big problem is... I don't know what I want the target age group to be. I want a book that's mostly targeted at teens, but something anyone can read and enjoy. But that might be causing confusion in my story, because the main reason I want it to be dark at times is mostly for the older readers, and I also want to avoid making the story too light-hearted as well. At the same time, I wonder. Like late in the story there's a chapter involving a young boy and his pet bear. Like the species of Mythica, he's based off some sort of legend. In particular, he's based of Kintaro. Yes, I know Kintaro never had a bear, but it's a stereotype I see a lot associated with Kintaro based characters that, honestly, I actually kind of like.

But my problem is the chapter seems very... light-hearted. After coming out of a chapter where two random characters get shot and choked to death, this one feels oddly out of place. I feel like I do have some writing skills, and I've been able to come up with some decent jokes for the book (during the light-hearted parts), I just need to reorganize my thoughts a bit.

As I've said before, Benny's species branched off from the Almiraj, and the horns are a trait carried over from the Almiraj into Benny's subspecies. All of the species in Benny's world are based off some type of monster or legend.

Hmmm, a "far" huh? Well, the world does have a giant rat race, but... they're larger than most races. Still, they're known for being tall, not for being strong, so it might work.