Week 10 Lab

"Why Writers Should Know About Monsters Before They Write a Word" was a really interesting article. It was interesting to see the relation to Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's source material, showing that most of his ideas of monsters were derived from Scandinavian myth. This is a really universal example - everyone knows about Lord of the Rings - so it worked really well to prove the author's point, that when creating something grotesque like a monster, there should be source material with which the reader has a passing familiarity, so that the reader will not be so thrown off by the monstrousness of the writer's creation.

Also, the specific distinctions between devils and demons was really interesting. I had no idea that the two could be confused, and that there are specific attributed which separate one type of hell-spawn from another. Their specific attributes - especially the specificity that the devils carry that demons don't - intrigued me.

This was a perfect article to read before Halloween! Spooky writing tips! The author of the article concludes with a reference to the point about Tolkien, that monsters should be drawn from a previously existing mythology, so that readers can have a higher likelihood of having a passing knowledge of the mythology or its monster.

Link: https://writerswrite.co.za/why-writers-should-know-about-monsters-before-they-write-a-word/

Like these monsters? Source.