Looking for writing advice

[Gilhelmi]

I am having trouble writing a character and I am hoping for some leads.

He doesn't understand the people around him because of a language barrier, but can still pick up on their emotions. I guess the easiest way to explain it is that this is an intelligent dog, so he does not have the ability to process language except for usual commands. (Knows "sit" means to sit, but does not know the meaning of the word)

I guess a good analog would be the old "Lassie" TV show. (yes, 36 is just barely old enough to have seen the old reruns)

Can anyone point me to a good book or other pieces of writing that can point me on how to write from an animals perspective?

 

[Accelerator]

Maybe, instead, go via body language as an explanation?

 

[Ace Dreamer]

I am having trouble writing a character and I am hoping for some leads.

He doesn't understand the people around him because of a language barrier, but can still pick up on their emotions. I guess the easiest way to explain it is that this is an intelligent dog, so he does not have the ability to process language except for usual commands. (Knows "sit" means to sit, but does not know the meaning of the word)

I guess a good analog would be the old "Lassie" TV show. (yes, 36 is just barely old enough to have seen the old reruns)

Can anyone point me to a good book or other pieces of writing that can point me on how to write from an animals perspective?

Click to shrink...

OK, this is on some levels a really heavy-duty subject. It's also an interest of mine.

Part of the issue is about writing non-human characters. As (for Lassie) anything other than a 'human in a fur coat'. One approach is to try and work-out, in your own head, how such a character might think and interact.

So, you might start by looking at feral children, those who haven't had the socialisation of being raised in a human society. This ties-in with ideas of 'critical points' for the development of certain human characteristics, like Theory of Mind. Though, more recent work suggests that 'critical points' are not as absolute as was originally thought; a major up-hill battle, to 'become a 'social human', though. In general the idea of 'empathy', and what makes it up. Also, look at developmental psychology.

You can also look at the writing process, itself. Poor writing tends to show poor use of Theory of Mind. So, the writer is not 'modelling' the mind of the character(s) effectively. Level 1, considering others to have minds, which may be using info different to that which you, the writer, has isn't that tricky. Level 2, where you 'model' those minds as modelling other minds, via the character having Theory of Mind is where it gets more difficult. Level 3, writer's brains tend to start to hurt about then, and only the best do a good job of this and produce a credible story. Lots of writers avoid this problem by not 'getting in the character's head', too much, and fall-back on describing the world.

If you're interested in fiction which tries to write about non-human minds then science fiction (or, less likely, horror) is where to look. Gordon R. Dickson seemed to do a credible job, more than once. Look for authors who wrote about robots as more than 'humans in metal suits' (Asimov had a go). Modern stuff, if you're prepared to read web-comics, you might like Freefall, where the main characters are an Uplifted Wolf, an alien, and there's a lot of robots - nearly 3.5k strips, last time I looked...

 

[Marcus Cooper]

Guys, what's the best state of mind for fanfic/creative writing? I'd like to increase my output, but I'm always tired and even when I'm not, I find myself doing other things I want to do, but are bad for my word count. What do you do to get ready for writing?