Monsters, and other things that inhabit your worlds

[eve]

how do you come up with choosing a monster? why a werewolf over a giant? and do they go together? what's the history behind greek monsters?...does it have to make sense?

 

[quenchy]

how do you come up with choosing a monster? why a werewolf over a giant? and do they go together? what's the history behind greek monsters?...does it have to make sense?

Simple. If I'm making a dark world filled with monstrous powers that prey upon the humans, my first choice would be the werewolf. But if I want to make my world a bit less ordinary, I'll make a Shadow giant that preys upon the people of the area in question. Or I'll make a werewolf that has bitten a giant and now I have a werewolf-giant. Or maybe the giants have werewolfs as pets the same way we have dogs. Or the giantess and the werewolf are unique creatures and when they met, their loneliness made them fall in love Or probably the giants are extremely evil and the werewolves are the protectors of the world - or to the contrary, the werewolves are the evil invaders and the giants protect people from them.

History helps but gives no direct answers. And if you write it well, it will make sense.

Whaterver pleases you, ladies and gentlemen.

 

[The Grey Sage]

When choosing the inhabitants of your world you must first make them cohesive. Your entire world must has a history, a way to natural way of working such as: this preys upon that here but over here this thing preys on that thing. And it isn't just with monsters it is with other animals, sentient beings and more. They all have to work together in a way that is believable, without that realistic factor then your story will fall into disorganization and mediocrity. As an example: I was recently struggling with three characters, who all were on the same side, who had almost no one to counter act them. Without making some characters stronger on the other side I would be left with imbalance and then the story wouldn't make sense. If there wasn't some kind of balance then the reader would ask, "Why would side #1 lose even though #2 was obviously ten times stronger. You see what I mean, there needs to be an order of your world. So if you think a certain character or monster or whatever doesn't fit, or will cause imbalance or just be more trouble than it's worth TOSS IT OUT and get going with more options. Best of luck