Physical Transformation

[Stuart Dren]

I think a character's physical transformation is almost always figuratively significant.

Could be anything. Becoming a statue, merging with a body horror hive mind, transforming into a fly, or simply gaining some muscle, or something extreme like shaving one's head. It could be a temporary state, like a were-anything (which is closer to a Jekyll-Hyde situation), or a hero's uber form. It can be quick. It can be slow, with the character's features changing over the course of the whole story.

No, I have not read the Kafka thing with the beetle or whatever, but this is a good time to flex if you have.

I find permanent transformations to be more striking/disturbing, especially when the character gives in and welcomes the new identity. All that said, I don't think I've written any stories where a character's body is changed so severely, aside from something in my WiP.

What are your thoughts on physical transformations? Do they happen in your stories?

 

[Homer Potvin]

No, I have not read the Kafka thing with the beetle or whatever, but this is a good time to flex if you have.

Metamorphosis. You won't miss much if by skipping it.

What are your thoughts on physical transformations? Do they happen in your stories?

I don't think so. I just wrote about a guy getting cut in half by a ten-story tall combine harvester shaped like a spider, but I don't think that's what you have in mind. I think I had an MC who was losing a bunch of weight for *reasons* while also losing his mind, but I ended up cutting the weight part because it made no sense.

I have no beef about reading it so long as it's relevant and interesting, but that goes for anything. I don't read a lot of horror and don't write any of it, so it never comes up in my toolbox.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

It was not until this topic that I realized... physical transformation is NOT something I like in storytelling. I hate body horror, I'm not a fan of shapeshifters, I can't watch Magical girls (Puella Magi Madoka Magica being the exception). If you have a team of superheroes and one of them can grow or shrink chances are they are my least favorite (at leas far as powers go). I do not like physical transformation.

Body's changing in stories is unsettling (in real life too, but what you gonna do)

I guess technically they have made their way into my stories, mostly werewolves, because they are genre staples, like if I do a standard fantasy story I'll have elves and stuff, if I do an urban fantasy I'll have werewolves. I do not focus on the actual transformation, I'm more of a "poof" he's a dog, cause again... body's changing... gross.

I have ONE non-werewolf story about physical transformation. Story about a high school for 'freaks, mutants and monsters' there was this short, fat ugly slug girl, she was considered gross and unpopular except for one nerdy kid who was her friend, then she whatever it's called when a insects get a cocoon. She burst out a beautiful tall slim attractive butterfly person with shimmering wings. Everyone likes her, at first she remains friends with the nerdy kid, eventually she has to decide if she will remain with her old friends or join the new cool kids.

Not super deep, and if anyone can name the specific piece of media I stole this idea from... I mean I used as inspiration, I'll give you a cookie.

Oh wait, I said it's my only non-werewolf story about transformation... I lied.... there is a werewolf in that story.

Physical Transformation really freak me out.

 

[Stuart Dren]

No sign of the Southern Reach fans yet.

I don't think so. I just wrote about a guy getting cut in half by a ten-story tall combine harvester shaped like a spider, but I don't think that's what you have in mind. I think I had an MC who was losing a bunch of weight for *reasons* while also losing his mind, but I ended up cutting the weight part because it made no sense.

I have no beef about reading it so long as it's relevant and interesting, but that goes for anything. I don't read a lot of horror and don't write any of it, so it never comes up in my toolbox.

The guy getting cut in half lost a lot of weight quickly. Actually that touched on something for me. I've read a series where one character loses a few fingers as early as book 2. Impairment is significant and no less thematically heavy. If it's sci fi or magic they might get cool prosthetics. Though something tells be the guy who got reaped in your WiP isn't going to pull a Darth Maul comeback in some extended universe fiction.

It was not until this topic that I realized... physical transformation is NOT something I like in storytelling. I hate body horror, I'm not a fan of shapeshifters, I can't watch Magical girls (Puella Magi Madoka Magica being the exception). If you have a team of superheroes and one of them can grow or shrink chances are they are my least favorite (at leas far as powers go). I do not like physical transformation.

Body's changing in stories is unsettling (in real life too, but what you gonna do)

I guess technically they have made their way into my stories, mostly werewolves, because they are genre staples, like if I do a standard fantasy story I'll have elves and stuff, if I do an urban fantasy I'll have werewolves. I do not focus on the actual transformation, I'm more of a "poof" he's a dog, cause again... body's changing... gross.

Do you find the cursed nature of werewolves compelling, or is that more peripheral to them being just a nice dash of exotic to the story?

Physical Transformation really freak me out.

They freak me out too, which can be pretty captivating in a morbid way. Or I guess just a stay-away kind of way.

 

[Naomasa298]

I had a girl who becomes beautiful.

 

[Louanne Learning]

always figuratively significant.

I suppose it can be used as a symbol of some kind of inner change in self - that it works best when it reflects an inner change.

Your question brings to mind Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray - (although it reverses the question) - where the young libertine stays young and handsome and all his sins make the portrait fade and age

but the same type of symbolism of self is at work

***

This suggests something else to me - the natural changes that come with aging

 

[Dogberry's Watch]

What are your thoughts on physical transformations? Do they happen in your stories?

In my main series, the villain of one world changes his genetics so he can morph into the "perfect soldier" and in reality it turns him into an unstable beast. He then spends almost a century trying to improve upon the formula, only for sabotage to be worked into the mix and now he can't undo the change. It becomes part of the genetic code for his people, and when social reform happens, those with a parent who's a carrier of the gene will automatically transform once the right age hits. It's not a permanent physical change in the sense they stay in their beast form, but they can't undo it, and for some it's torture.

There are a bunch of underlying things for this race, and I suppose I could pull out my literature degree and go deep into the symbolism of how it only affects men, and how it does this and how it does that, but I think at the core of it all, it was just a man trying to fight back at his bullies, and ended up ruining an entire world. But did he ruin it? Or is it salvageable?

The main character also goes through a genetic transformation, although she doesn't physically transform like the others. Hers is more of the "proper" super soldier. She ends up getting incredible strength, can heal pretty much automatically (except when she's been forced to heal as torture, and that slows her natural healing wayyyy down). There are downsides to this, of course, because if she doesn't take care of herself physically, her metabolism can end up nearly eating her.

I don't necessarily hate it when characters have physical transformations in stories. I'm told I write body horror really well, and if I see it done really well in stories, I'm all for it. It's kind of like spicy scenes. It has to have a purpose or else it feels like I'm trying to startle a cat with a cucumber. Fun, but unnecessary.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Do you find the cursed nature of werewolves compelling, or is that more peripheral to them being just a nice dash of exotic to the story?

Closer to the second thing. A basic "they're cool"

They're familiar enough I don't have to explain/justify them, but flexible enough I can do different things with them.

But in the simplest terms they are animalistic humans, a way to compare and contrast humans with their animal nature.

And also... they're cool.