Fourner

Original meme and some other stuff under the cut

Games for middle aged men

Honestly, this kind of stuff does kind of just come naturally to me since I like playing around with body horror. But I’ll try to provide a few tips that might help.

I think it can help a lot to draw out a transformation sequence. I’m talking from start to finish. Split the transformation up into phases, maybe jot down a few of the symptoms in each stage if you’re feeling crazy. Doing this can help you decide on which stage of the transformation they’re in and how they’ll be reacting to it. It’s also just in general a good visual guide.

When I’m coming up with ideas for a transforming character (at least for a lot of my more angsty ones) I tend to approach their transformations like a sort of medical condition if that makes sense? If the transformations happen unwillingly, then a lot of the times, it can make a person feel like their body is betraying them. I love to lean into that and detail just how the transformations affect their body. Obviously it’s not exactly like writing an actual disability, but if you want the transforming character to be extra sad, make the transformations uncomfortable. You know, if you’re into that.

in terms of writing, I think one mistake you could make would be accidentally getting caught up in describing the visual changes and kind of going outside of the POV of the character. Think about how all of the changes are making the character feel, both physically and emotionally. Are they hurting? Are they even able to process it? Can they actively feel everything happening? Or are they so out of it that everything seems to go by in a blear? (Last question could be a little bit lack lustre tho IMO) but most importantly, TRY NOT TO DESCRIBE ALL THE CHANGES IN FULL DETAIL. I find that if you tell the reader exactly what is happening to the character’s body before they find out about it, then it pulls away that shock from the character finally discovering it. Wait until your character has a moment to finally look at themselves OR have them be described from another person’s perspective if you like to switch POVs.

Something that I find really fun is remembering that the bones are a thing. If the transformation is extremely drastic, then their bone structure will have to literally rearrange itself. If you’re writing, describe the bones popping out of place as the spine lengthens. The more solid structures like the hip bones and ribcage breaking apart and reforming around the growing body. Literally, I encourage you to get gross with the descriptions. It is really fun.