Young Writers Society

Hello everyone!


Okay, my character is a nine tailed fox, and I did do some research. This nine tailed fox is either Korean, Japanese or Chinese, and I kind of chose the Korean idea, and altered it a little bit.

My character is a nine tailed fox with golden fur, silver eyes, and powers to shape-shift, along with some magical powers that has some limits but is very powerful. He seduces girls, and has to eat a thousand livers of those girls to become a god. If a fox eats a hundred livers, it gets one tail, if it eats two hundred livers, it gets two tails.. so on. He is now at 989 livers. I wrote three chapters, and two of them contain him killing two people and are very, very gory, and graphic.

I am trying to portray him as insane, no mercy at all, treats all humans like insects and disgusting, weak creatures. He grins widely (reaching to his ears, and he has fangs so it looks really creepy in my head) each time he kills people, and he sometimes laughs when he's at it. He also eats blood, eats livers by chomping on a girls stomach, and kills a grown man by clenching his head so it bursts. No guilt at all.

If you read about him, would you think of him as insane, and find it hard to like him? (That's what I'm trying to achieve, by the way.)

Thank you!

In this case, I'd say "unlikable" would be a mild expression.

Jeeze mate

Does he have a redeeming feature? Like a soft spot for puppies or something?

He has a 'soft spot' about the subject of his mother, but that is the same as 'if that subject comes up, I'll rip your throat out, so don't bring her up' kind of soft spot.

So no, in my opinion, no soft spots like what you gave as an example.

He's flat.

You've only developed his life around the fact he's got to kill a thousand souls. Why does he want to kill all these girls? Why does he want to be a god? What does he plan on doing once he becomes a god?

I read him and have pretty much no sense of who he is, what the plot is, how he ties into the plot. If you're going to go for "following a serial killer", you have to make him very interesting. Not necessarily nice, but interesting.

Figure out the rest of his life. Build up the character past the fact he's got to eat souls. Figure out his motives for it, other aspects of his character. This might involve going back into mythology and seeing what else exists around a nine tailed fox, as a starting point, or just making it up.

The protective instinct around his mother is a start. But it still ties into killing. You do have a protective streak, which is interesting, but give me more.

Why does he want to kill all these girls?

Because he wants to become a god. He doesn’t necessarily WANT to kill them, but because he lived so long doing it, he ‘lost it’ and is now neutral with it. He is now only looking at his goal. It’s complicated, and I’m hoping that the reason would be clear when the plot is revealed.


Why does he want to be a god?

Because he looked up to his mother very much, whose only goal was becoming a god, and when his mother died, he still wanted to become like her and ‘earn’ her approval as a true, powerful son, so he started to follow her path and become a god.


What does he plan on doing once he becomes a god?

He doesn’t know, actually. He doesn’t know if he will just go up to heaven, stay the same, or etc.

(This question caught me off guard, because *whisper* he doesn’t become a god, and I just said “and that’s that!”, not thinking about what the character would actually think himself. So thank you )



The other aspects of the character will be revealed later in the book, when somebody actually has a chance to talk to him, rather than just “what the- *dies*”.. yeah. Or, I could put in a scene where some powerful being makes him go into the past and eventually die, and while the character is in his past, it brings out a bit of his human aspects, so he tells somebody everything. I could just let it revealed by that ‘powerful being making him go back into his past’ thing.


To be honest, I’m not that type of a writer who gives a character a personality and everything, like what your questions require ; I’m a type of a person who just gives what I currently have for a character (Name, goal, family status (I have it on my computer), appearance, personality (just simple things like cold, emotionless, or happy, carefree, etc), and start writing. When I write, I have ideas, conflicts and events, so I put my characters in it and start to develop them. It has worked out so far.. and it just seems to match my style. If that seems stupid ; I better change it. (haha)

Also, because he has to change his shape and concepts (carefree, bad boy, depressed, strong, etc) I'm planning on making it so that he later finds it hard to 'find himself', and what he really is, who is is.

So, "What am I?" would be the main question of the book.

Well, characters kind of drive the plot. Your method functions to give a character personality, but it's just a bit of a long process because you have to keep writing and rewriting to get the motives and lives down.

Plot= character choices. You can discover what choices the character will make a few ways, including:

1- Writing the thing. I actually do recommend this, because there is no way a questionnaire will account for every single choice your character could potentially make, but if you do absolutely zero work outside of writing it will take you a very long time to get a good character.

2- Drilling your characters on their motives behind everything. I also recommend this, because their motives are what drive them to do the actions they take. Even if you don't reveal it until later, you knowing it is really important to develop the character in depth.

3- Backstory a reason behind their personality. Some people are naturally a certain way, others develop to be that way. Personality is very flexible in that it adapts to the environment and how a person was raised.

4- Have a list of things they know outside of the main plot. For example, the main character for a story of mine is an anti-assassin bodyguard. I could simply develop her around being an anti-assassin bodyguard, but instead I develop her as that, a friend, a daughter, a sister, a noble (for she is nobility), and as her own person. I figure out who she is in a bunch of different contexts just to know more about them.

Characters are your story. Quite a few people I know aren't really looking for a plot; they're looking for characters. They want to escape into another person's life for the book. They can't do that if there's nothing in the character's life.

You should really know that your comments are very, very helpful to me.

Rosie knows everything, doesn't she =]

Okay, so. You've got some really good stereotypically-evil traits, but I can't imagine one person being all those things.

For example, if you have a bunch of flies swarming around you and you splat one, do you laugh? They're annoying things, and it's a chore that you have to kill them. Would you then eat one of them?

If humans are disgusting, weak creatures, it doesn't make sense that he would enjoy having to eat them, or take any pleasure in their deaths.

Think of it kind of like a spider web. Spider comes down on one string, an that one string is going to support the rest. Then come the next two or three that hold it in place, and slowly it starts to weave the rest.

With your character choose those two or three traits that will be the core traits of your character. These traits won't change through the whole novel, it's what defines them. Then you add the traits that may change, and then weave everything else from there.

Otherwise it's like knotting twelve threads together and trying to make a tapestry from them.

This might help, I think: Good and Bad

Other than that, I like the idea of this almost-god character. I mean, he's sooo close to achieving a status that could wreak havoc on the world. This plot has some amazing potential for creating tension and fear.

This sounds like Yoko Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho. (Are you stealin the Yoko?)

I don't think I did, because I don't know what Yu Yu Hakusho is Sorry.

It's an anime (/manga) with a demon thief with some soul powers. He doesn't seem to be a nine tailed fox, however.

Hi! I'm quite familiar with the legend of the Gumiho (nine tailed fox). Usually, especially in the Korean version, the Gumiho is female and seduces then preys on men. Your character is male, is this one of the changes you were talking about?