The Lighter Side of Absolute Zero: Monster as Protagonist? <link rel="prev" href="http://blog.0kelvin.net/lite/2007/05/not_writing_for_business.html" title="Not Writing for Business" /> <link rel="next" href="http://blog.0kelvin.net/lite/2007/10/podcast_recommendations.html" title="Podcast Recommendations" />   <script type="text/javascript" src="http://blog.0kelvin.net/lite/mt-site.js"></script> </head> <body class="layout-one-column" onload="individualArchivesOnLoad(commenter_name)"> <div id="container"> <div id="container-inner" class="pkg"> <div id="banner"> <div id="banner-inner" class="pkg"> <h1 id="banner-header"><a href="http://blog.0kelvin.net/lite/" accesskey="1">The Lighter Side of Absolute Zero</a></h1> <h2 id="banner-description"></h2> </div> </div> <div id="pagebody"> <div id="pagebody-inner" class="pkg"> <div id="alpha"> <div id="alpha-inner" class="pkg"> <p class="content-nav"> <a href="http://blog.0kelvin.net/lite/2007/05/not_writing_for_business.html">« Not Writing for Business</a> | <a href="http://blog.0kelvin.net/lite/">Main</a> | <a href="http://blog.0kelvin.net/lite/2007/10/podcast_recommendations.html">Podcast Recommendations »</a> </p> <a id="a001200"></a> <div class="entry" id="entry-1200"> <h3 class="entry-header">Monster as Protagonist?</h3> <div class="entry-meta"><span class="entry-category">{Observation}</span> <span class="entry-topics">Topics: <a href="http://blog.0kelvin.net/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=5&tag=Horror&limit=20&IncludeBlogs=5" rel="tag">Horror</a> <a href="http://blog.0kelvin.net/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=5&tag=Writing&limit=20&IncludeBlogs=5" rel="tag">Writing</a> </span></div> <div class="entry-content"> <div class="entry-body"> <p><a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/" title="NaNoWriMo">NaNoWriMo</a> is just around the corner, and Halloween is at the end of this month. While contemplating doing a warm-up for next month’s marathon a thought struck me. What if the “monster” in a horror story was actually the protagonist and not the humans? I came to this idea by contemplating how Lovecraft structured his stories, in an attempt to mimic that in time for Halloween, and it seemed to me the “monsters”, while rarely seen, are in fact characters, and it could perhaps be argued they are in fact the protagonists.</p> <p>Armed with this I hope to write 10,000-20,000 words this month in preparation for next month, and in order to have a story to share come this Halloween. I’m excited! Now … if only I could find an idea around here somewhere… .</p> </div> <div id="more" class="entry-more"> </div> </div> <p class="entry-footer"> <span class="post-footers">Posted by Seth Croston Barber on October 1, 2007 7:33 PM</span> <span class="separator">|</span> <a class="permalink" href="http://blog.0kelvin.net/lite/2007/10/monster_as_protagonist.html">Permalink</a> </p> </div> <div class="trackbacks"> <h3 id="trackback" class="trackbacks-header">TrackBack</h3> <div id="trackbacks-info"> <p>TrackBack URL for this entry:<br />http://blog.0kelvin.net/mt-tb.cgi/488</p> </div> <div class="trackbacks-content"> </div> </div> <div id="comments" class="comments"> <div class="comments-content"> <h3 class="comments-header">Comments</h3> <a id="c009461"></a> <div class="comment" id="comment-9461"> <div class="comment-content"> <p>I like the idea of having a monster as the main character, and I hope you'll share the story when you're done with it.</p> <p>As I mentioned in IRC, I don't believe that the monster is the protagonist in the stories I've read (It's usually been the narrator in my opinion), but I think it's a great idea.</p> </div> <p class="comment-footer"> Posted by: <a title="http://jdhuntington.com" href="http://jdhuntington.com" rel="nofollow">JD</a> | <a href="#comment-9461">October 2, 2007 8:46 AM</a> </p> </div> <a id="c016504"></a> <div class="comment" id="comment-16504"> <div class="comment-content"> <p>Hey, did you complete this NaNo entry back in 2007? I'd love to hear more about this. I'm a huge Lovecraft fan. :)</p> <p>Sorry to be catching this so late, I've just now stumbled upon this post after reading one of your latest entries.</p> <p>Thanks, Seth.</p> </div> <p class="comment-footer"> Posted by: <a title="http://www.coylothrop.com" href="http://www.coylothrop.com" rel="nofollow">Coy A. Lothrop</a> | <a href="#comment-16504">September 16, 2009 9:09 AM</a> </p> </div> <a id="c016505"></a> <div class="comment" id="comment-16505"> <div class="comment-content"> <p>In point of fact I did not. We were pregnant at the time and that made carving out the requisite time nearly impossible. I still have the outline, notes, and drafted chapters on my laptop, as well as an entry in my TODO list of "finish the story". I hit a wall at some point and managed to not know how to go from one place in the story to the next. I figure I'll just skip a chapter and come back to it.</p> <p>In a bit of irony I don't think a monster will at all turn out to be anything approaching a protagonist though. The story is an attempt to play off of some Lovecraftian themes, ideas, and might possibly turn out to be a pastiche in the worst way, but I have to start somewhere. I'll say no more until I have the first draft actually done.</p> </div> <p class="comment-footer"> Posted by: <a title="http://0kelvin.net/~seth/" href="http://0kelvin.net/~seth/">Seth Croston Barber</a> <a class="commenter-profile" href="http://0kelvin.net/~seth/"><img alt="Author Profile Page" src="http://blog.0kelvin.net/mt-static/images/comment/mt_logo.png" width="16" height="16" /></a> | <a href="#comment-16505">September 16, 2009 9:22 AM</a> </p> </div> </div> <form method="post" action="http://blog.0kelvin.net/mt-comments.cgi" name="comments_form" onsubmit="if (this.bakecookie.checked) rememberMe(this)"> <input type="hidden" name="static" value="1" /> <input type="hidden" name="entry_id" value="1200" /> <div class="comments-open" id="comments-open"> <h2 class="comments-open-header">Post a comment</h2> <div class="comments-open-content"> <script type="text/javascript">  </script> <p class="comments-open-moderated"> (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. 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