Starting afresh on a story

[The Judge]

I have been wondering was the motivation to write this fiction wrong in the first place?

What was your motivation? Are you writing because you love writing? Are you writing because you have a burning need to tell stories? Or are you writing because you think it sounds cool and is bound to make you famous and earn you lots of money? If it's the first two, carry on. If it's the last one, then yes, it might be best if you looked for something else to do with your time.

If the rodent is your main character then you generate sympathy -- or rather empathy -- in the same way as you would do it for any other character, by letting us see his essential humanity, ie his frailty and his doubts as well as his courage and other qualities. If the rodents are simply a plot device for your human characters, then you don't need sympathy for them at all.

 

[Tales]

Easy to generate sympathy for a furry little creature. Read Watership Down, then read about the disaster rabbits have been in Australia.

Your ecology movement depends very heavily on sympathy votes; slaughtering attractive little beasts will not go down well with these people, however essential the action is.

Can you eat them? (The rodents, that is, not the voters) As they are warm weather creatures, I assume they're useless for fur coats?

If the rodent is your main character then you generate sympathy -- or rather empathy -- in the same way as you would do it for any other character, by letting us see his essential humanity, ie his frailty and his doubts as well as his courage and other qualities. If the rodents are simply a plot device for your human characters, then you don't need sympathy for them at all.

Despite the doubt about myself writing this novel, one thing I was spot on was the associations people have with rodents. When we say rodent, people will think of members of the family from beavers, to squirrels and ultimately, mice and rats.

This also led to people mistaking mammals with beady eyes as rodents. Also they will think rodent= small. How can create sympathy for rodents that are like say pretty big? People will not welcome it even though it's might be the rodent's version like say a horse or deer and it's not that dangerous. I have some rodent that resembles somewhat like this

but at a deer's proportions.

However to note, my creatures' size range from normal size to the size of a Sumatran Rhino. But I have one flying species with the wingspan of 7 metres= Pteranodon.

Another stereotype I will be breaking is I discovered during my poll with some kids and young teen who like science fiction, when we say science fiction rodents. The first thing that comes to mind are those giant rat stereotypes. But as you can see that rodents come in many different shapes rather than a scurrying little squeaker.

If people associate rodents as such, they will naturally feel odd and frightened when you tell that that a creature that is the top predator turns out to be a rodent whose cousins are eating from our sewage. How then?

Fear---> sympathy, is that too wide a change in attitude of the readers in that range of time.

 

[chrispenycate]

Actually, I'd be more worried by small but numerous than huge. You can shoot an elephant - ten thousand shrews make a much more difficult target, and eat more, for the same body mass.

Rodents are generally herbivorous; they're going to starve you out, not eat you. Even Norwegian rats are poorly designed for meat. Their teeth, the ultimate indication of their rodent status, indicate this. And in my youth, there was an invasion of coypu in East Anglia, and I helped reduce their numbers - think of a semi-aquatic guinea pig the size of an actual pig. I believe someone had thought they might make good fur coats.

They tasted OK, though, and I think the climate and local predators took care of them in the long run (I could be wrong, though; it was shortly before I left the country. Anyone from East Anglia?) And rats and rabbits are the rodents we first think of when involved with invasion without predators, because of Australia and all the species of seabird we will never learn about due to ships' rats colonising islands and wiping out the locals.

And even your illustration looks pretty "Aahh". I've no doubt it's designed for survival, and would bite you as soon as look at you, but it still has quite a high visual cuddle factor. You can trust the power of human stupidity; if they started gassing warrens of these to control the population, you would get protest marches and political repercussions.

 

[Tales]

Alright I will do more research however I was told that a rodent like predator complete with the incisors and modified molars existed in Australia once.

 

[The Judge]

Actually, I'd be more worried by small but numerous than huge. You can shoot an elephant - ten thousand shrews make a much more difficult target, and eat more, for the same body mass.

Swarms of little animals also have a high make-one's-flesh-crawl component (or is that just me?) plus the numbers involved mean they can attack several people at once, which is never a bad thing invasion-wise.

Personally, I'd go with rats rather than shrews, though. I know how vicious shrews can be - I've liberated enough of them from the clutches of my cats** but rats have the connotations of filth and disease which is missing with, say, hamsters, beneficial in making them appear nasty from the get-go. (There was a reason Nazi propaganda used images of rats in anti-semitic films.) That means people on the side of the rats will have a harder time trying to elicit sympathy for them and/or it makes the threat from the invasion much more believable. ("Plague of the Killer Gerbils" doesn't have quite the same ring to it, somehow.)

I think the climate and local predators took care of them in the long run (I could be wrong, though; it was shortly before I left the country. Anyone from East Anglia?)

According to DEFRA, the coypu were eliminated from the wilds of EA in December 1989, so no more coypu-hunting when you return to the UK.



** for those interested, always hold a shrew by its very long tail so its teeth are as far from your fingers as possible -- even then the little buggers will try to do acrobatics in order to sink their incisors into your flesh. Their teeth may be poorly designed for eating meat, but they're still capable of giving a bloody sharp nip.

 

[chrispenycate]

Sorry, my bad. I shouldn't have used the word "shrew", as they're not rodents, but carnivores. Their teeth are very well designed for taking lumps of flesh off you.

And it's nice to know that we (or the local wildlife) won against the coypu; I never bothered to look it up.

 

[Mouse]

I hear talk of rodents...

Right, only read snatches of this thread cos it's long. Rabbits aren't rodents, they're lagomorphs. Rats are actually one of the friendliest, cleanest, most intelligent of the rodents. (If you want an evil rodent go for the hamster every time, nasty little buggers!) Stinkiest rodent - mouse. Least stinkiest - gerbil.

That photo up there in the thread ^ is of a mara. Which is a type of guinea pig. A capybara, which is similar looking, is much bigger.

Um... what was the question?

 

[The Judge]

Sorry, my bad. I shouldn't have used the word "shrew", as they're not rodents, but carnivores. Their teeth are very well designed for taking lumps of flesh off you.

What??? They not only bite me, they're ready to eat me, too?? Time to marshal the feline army.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Yes, Judge, but you MUST remember-shrews are as edible to us as we are to them.

Personally the one creature I wouldn't want to go up against would be a wild wolverine-those little buggers take on BEARS for crying out loud-and will win.

 

[Tales]

Sigh..., is my story doomed not to gain sympathy becos the creatures are rodents? Or maybe I should portray the fact that the creatures actually dun want to come to civilisation but they were brought in by accident or purpose.

However, the ecoterrorism will not be noticable until Story 2.

 

[Mouse]

I'm always on the side of the rodents.

 

[Tales]

Err thanks for the support.

Ok I believe perhaps I will have to show the creatures being victims of humans first before their apparent arrival in urban society?

Something like the way, ships brought mice to Gough Island.

In fact, it was the incidents on Gough Island that inspired the creation of this story.

 

[J Riff]

Yikes ! Censored science information on the net ? What are they afraid of you learning ?

 

[Tales]

dunno maybe it's my PC or internet provider.

 

[J Riff]

Be very careful....

 

[Tales]

That's also very cliche to be frank. My island dun even have giant beavers. But mara like forms are common for herbivores.

 

[Chel]

I hear talk of rodents...

Right, only read snatches of this thread cos it's long. Rabbits aren't rodents, they're lagomorphs. Rats are actually one of the friendliest, cleanest, most intelligent of the rodents. (If you want an evil rodent go for the hamster every time, nasty little buggers!) Stinkiest rodent - mouse. Least stinkiest - gerbil.

That photo up there in the thread ^ is of a mara. Which is a type of guinea pig. A capybara, which is similar looking, is much bigger.

Um... what was the question?

Having owned pet gerbils and rats, I have to agree with Mouse.
Maybe this would be a way to start raising sympathy towards the critters in the story?

I can't speak for other rodents, but both gerbils and rats "purr". It's inaudible, but when they are petted, it's as if they start a tiny motor inside. You can feel them purring even if you can't hear it.

Rats laugh, too - check this short youtube clip: YouTube - Rats Laugh When You Tickle Them

Rats can learn easy tricks. Especially one of my male rats loved "pulling the string" when he learned that there was a treat in the hand that was holding the string. The hand was often rewarded by kisses after the treat was eaten.

Rats are smart - the first two rat girls I owned stole a nail file, a pen and an old receipt. I am convinced they were planning a breakout...

...argh, this made me miss having rats again. Stupid allergies!!

 

[The Judge]

Rats are smart - the first two rat girls I owned stole a nail file, a pen and an old receipt. I am convinced they were planning a breakout...

Obviously. The file to cut through the bars to get to the window, then a scribbled note on the back of the receipt --eg "We are being held prisoner by a crazy woman" -- which would be attached to the file and thrown as far as possible into the street.

 

[J Riff]

Them are canuck beavers, very dangerous. Beavery carful.
The australian mouse plague was no larfing matter.