Tom
Istar
For one of my short projects I'm trying to write from the perspective of a dragon turned into a human. It's been...interesting.
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Perspectives You'd Like To See More Of?
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Lea
Dreamer
In a project I'm working on, I follow a young girl who grew up in a tribe. They hunt and grow their own food, use bones for tools, and skins for tents... Then she finds out they've been part of a scientific experiment for years. It's been quite challenging describing glass, metal, and electronics from the perspective of someone who's never seen them before.
Tom
Istar
That sounds really cool! I have a sci-fi project about a scientific experiment to see if AI can achieve humanlike sentience. The perspective character is the subject of the experiment, a medic android that's been modified to learn and adapt like a human. They eventually become human-passing and join a mission to retake earth from alien colonizers. It's probably the most difficult POV I've ever attempted, and I love writing it. 
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- #24
I have a natural inclination to mages, as long as they use their abilities with style and intellect. It's also crucial for me that mages think like people capable of bending the world to their will, not like every other character in the book.
My favourite character I've read in a long time is an historian, teacher, philosopher, and a sorcerer in a world where magic is automatic heresy and damnation. He's clever but arrogant, learned but blind in his own ways, and he's always thinking and doubting himself. His age ranges well over his 50s, and he begins a little portly and he's not exactly fit for adventure. I think the fact that he's not within the idealized hero model makes him so interesting, and I'd like to read more people like that. He's also pretty self-serving at times.
I'd also like to see more characters with Blue and Orange Morality, which I've been working with for a long time and I find it both fascinating to mould and difficult to write. I've seen it used lazily for some villains but I'd like to see this completely novel worldview in depth with characters we can root for and be excited to follow.
My favourite character I've read in a long time is an historian, teacher, philosopher, and a sorcerer in a world where magic is automatic heresy and damnation. He's clever but arrogant, learned but blind in his own ways, and he's always thinking and doubting himself. His age ranges well over his 50s, and he begins a little portly and he's not exactly fit for adventure. I think the fact that he's not within the idealized hero model makes him so interesting, and I'd like to read more people like that. He's also pretty self-serving at times.
I'd also like to see more characters with Blue and Orange Morality, which I've been working with for a long time and I find it both fascinating to mould and difficult to write. I've seen it used lazily for some villains but I'd like to see this completely novel worldview in depth with characters we can root for and be excited to follow.
Scribe Lord
Minstrel
Without giving this question much thought here's my two cents.
Lately I've been struggling to write about someone who is immortal. Now obviously there is no true way of knowing whether I've gotten it right or not, but that's the beauty of Fantasy. We get to experiment with characters who have been exposed to things that we can hardly imagine. I want to read more about how all these things really affect the psychology of someone. An immortal human who can summon adorable puppies out of thin air, and lives in a land where dragons go on daily rampages across the countryside is going to have a completely mindset as opposed to you or me. I think... Right?
Lately I've been struggling to write about someone who is immortal. Now obviously there is no true way of knowing whether I've gotten it right or not, but that's the beauty of Fantasy. We get to experiment with characters who have been exposed to things that we can hardly imagine. I want to read more about how all these things really affect the psychology of someone. An immortal human who can summon adorable puppies out of thin air, and lives in a land where dragons go on daily rampages across the countryside is going to have a completely mindset as opposed to you or me. I think... Right?
FifthView
Vala
I have a project with a similar problem. Originally: My MC is from a race that lives entirely underground, never had contact with humanity, but the story will involve his leaving his people and being trapped in the world of humans. So, how do I describe trees, the sun & sky, weather and so forth? What about the normal concepts of time like days, years, months–and related things like sleeping (nighttime, morning)? And what do I do about the fact that he doesn't know the human language and they don't know his? I had to revise my original plan a little bit, so that his race doesn't live entirely underground but mostly underground, with some access to a secluded valley up above. I think I have a workaround for the language problem. All-in-all though, especially when I consider the craziness of having an entire race of people living underground (darkness, food sources large enough for a large population), I've thought more than once that I'm "making it worse" for myself as writer when I should be focusing on making things even worse for my MC.
C
Chessie
Guest
This isn't so much a perspective rather than a preference for books that aren't tomes. I know that thick books are the fantasy genre, but it would be nice if there was more variety of shorter works like novellas and novelettes. I really enjoy short fiction and fantasy is my favorite, but it really stinks that all of the fantasy books on my TBR list are like 10 books in one. So that's one thing I'd like to see more of but it's totally wishful thinking.
glutton
Inkling
My 'novels' tend to top out at around 70,000 words these days.
Re: the OP, powerful female warrior who fights mainly in melee and doesn't have something like magic or not being human to explain her physical abilities, she's just a beast XD
Lea
Dreamer
That is certainly interesting. One of my characters is a human who was transformed into a dragon for a few hundred years and is now human again. The centuries as a dragon skewed her perspective on what good odds in combat look like
We Rise Above
Dreamer
I admire anybody who can write from the perspective of somebody or something non-human. After all, it can be hard enough writing from the perspective of somebody younger/older than you, or of a different sex. Kudos to those stepping inside a dragon's head.
D
Deleted member 4265
Guest
Personally I'd like to see more old people who aren't either wise old men/wizards or aging warriors. I'd love some regular old people going off on adventures. I also love priests and deeply religious people in stories that are not necessarily about religion and on a somewhat related note, people who believe their current reality isn't real or that everything exists to tempt them away from their goals.
I've also always been fascinated by the perspective of Death and grim reapers. I'd love more books about him that aren't romantic love stories (friend love would be a welcome change though) or urban fantasy, you know with death being basically the guy next store, trying to fit in and all that.
I've also always been fascinated by the perspective of Death and grim reapers. I'd love more books about him that aren't romantic love stories (friend love would be a welcome change though) or urban fantasy, you know with death being basically the guy next store, trying to fit in and all that.
Nomadica
Troubadour
I'd like to see more anti heros and people who are walking that line between good and evil. Perhaps a villan who has a conscience but is uncomfortable with these unsensible feelings that get in the way of his own needs. Or a good guy that strugles with the dark side.
Miskatonic
Auror
I'm kind of walking a tightrope when it comes to my MC and what he does. I definitely want the reader to feel conflicted at times at whether or not this guy really is the "good guy".
>What are some character types/backgrounds/perspectives you'd like to see more of in fantasy?
The kind I write. Seriously, one of the motivations behind by writing is to write the sort of story I rarely find but wish I did. I believe this is a fairly common writerly motivation.
>Or what are your favourite character perspectives to read?
Not really an "or" here; it's rather a different question. I'm not sure I have a favorite other than the one that falls under the heading of "Well Written".
But one that intrigues me is telling the story of a great, powerful character-or at least one caught up by great, powerful forces--from the perspective of a friend or assistant. It puts us in the halls of the mighty, but shows them from the perspective of a mouse in the corner.
This thread already reiterates a theme I've seen many times. When someone asks what's your favorite, or what do you want to see more or less of, the range of answers is wide.
That's a comfort to me. It means no matter what sort of story you are writing, there's an audience for you. So, in the immortal words of Niemand: don't sweat it, just go get it.
The kind I write. Seriously, one of the motivations behind by writing is to write the sort of story I rarely find but wish I did. I believe this is a fairly common writerly motivation.
>Or what are your favourite character perspectives to read?
Not really an "or" here; it's rather a different question. I'm not sure I have a favorite other than the one that falls under the heading of "Well Written".
But one that intrigues me is telling the story of a great, powerful character-or at least one caught up by great, powerful forces--from the perspective of a friend or assistant. It puts us in the halls of the mighty, but shows them from the perspective of a mouse in the corner.
This thread already reiterates a theme I've seen many times. When someone asks what's your favorite, or what do you want to see more or less of, the range of answers is wide.
That's a comfort to me. It means no matter what sort of story you are writing, there's an audience for you. So, in the immortal words of Niemand: don't sweat it, just go get it.
Xitra_Blud
Sage
I don't have a favorite. I just like good stories with interesting, well written characters.
