The idea of a were-man – a wolf that turns into a human at the full moon – came to me some time on Monday, but I couldn’t work out exactly how to make it work. Rebeca suggested the answer one day while we were out walking the dogs, that I tell it from the point of view of the were-man. I couldn’t really work out what exactly this would entail, so eventually in desperation I started writing on Saturday night, going carefully to try and get it right.
I basically followed the narrative through in my head, at each stage trying to work out what was happening. OK, so first he escapes from the zoo before the other wolves see him as an intruder and kill him. Fine, but then where does he go? The keeper who raised him as an abandoned cub and now has retired. She’s got clothes out for him and is baking cookies because he’s almost a son to her (I’m assuming she’s a widow, separated or divorced, of course).
So what happens next? Just having a cup of tea, cookies, and then a nap on her sofa isn’t really going to make much of a story, so I decided to make him escape into town.
All the time, I was thinking “he’s going to die at the end”. Again. Three for three. But then as the fight occurred, I wondered how a wolf-man, with no real experience of fighting as a human, would handle it? Of course, biting. And if you’re bitten by a were-man, you become a were-wolf: lycanthropy works both ways.
In all, I’m quite happy with the way this one turned out. This one has worked surprisingly well.
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