How "In Demand" are Books with Dragons as Main Characters?

[Overread]

Dragons have no set definition - even in the mythological world the term changes its meaning depending on the culture or the point in history. There are conventions, but each convention can be broken based upon how you build the world in which the dragons live. You could certainly have flocks of dragons if they are smaller breeds; or bred for war under humans. The film Reign of Fire had dragon flocks as well, smaller females and a larger male.
If you look at the film and television media there are a vast range of characters who are not human and who are in the lead (some don't even have any humans) - Toy Story; Lion King; Fern Gully; The Wombles; Clangers etc...

Fantasy is what we want it to be, the only limitations are those of logic, world building (you can only take so much time in a book world building) and how far from convention you want to take it.


As for a non-human lead its perfectly possible to do and several examples have already been given for where the main character(s) are not humans. You do have to have some level of empathy, but otherwise solid story writing is the key.

Dragons as the central characters would be a great read and honestly I'm surprised that with there popularity there are not more dragon focused books out there; especially for the older reader.



Ps - in a world where dragons are the lead characters that doesn't mean they have to be on top of the food chain; nor indeed the most powerful. Dragons often live as the top of the top in most fantasy; however there's nothing to say that they must be so.

 

[Overread]

Ps a thought on demand - demand in writing is odd. It mostly isn't there until someone writes the book that makes the demand for itself. No one demanded Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings - in fact Lord of the Rings was likely very much far removed from demand at all when it was written. The key is that solid quality writing will gain momentum of its own provided that its delivered well and that its marketed well. Sometimes it can take years (Harry Potter was out for several years before it took flight and dominated).

There is some limited demand for a certain kind of book after another series goes big, publishers want "the next big thing" that is the same as the last big thing (because it was big and worked). However I think that some of the best books are not those written for a market, but those written because the story is burning in the authors mind and they HAVE to write it. Many a time an author who stretches out a series (who shifts from writing because its there to writing because its a paycheque) can find the series drifting into mediocrity; wandering lost and re-using their old cliches because they don't have the inspiration to write and because they don't want to be bold enough to change too much least they end up with something different.

 

[Rose_Starre]

Taking all the support into consideration, I think I'll keep the humans out of the story as originally planned. Maybe I'll put in a few minor characters that aren't dragons but not humans either. Although I'm not too sure what they will be...

 

[Overread]

Focus on building the world up (even if you don't put it all into the book). Once you've built the world around your characters then as you write the story the characters that will or won't or should appear should become fairly evident in the writing. Good world building before writing can also help avoid those nasty situations where you write your character into a corner and suddenly you've got to change some key parts of a faction to get things to go where you want (which can involve having to re-write earlier scenes).

 

[Rose_Starre]

Good world building before writing can also help avoid those nasty situations where you write your character into a corner and suddenly you've got to change some key parts of a faction to get things to go where you want (which can involve having to re-write earlier scenes).

I've had that happen before, with a different story of mine. My character was supposed to wind up with a group of pirates, but I found myself writing about some friendly locals instead. That was not where I wanted him to end up.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I'm going to go draw up a few maps now.

 

[Manteuffel]

... Maybe I'll put in a few minor characters that aren't dragons but not humans either. Although I'm not too sure what they will be...

As "nonhumans" you could consider variants of the standard dwarf or elf, or something similar to the smaller races that stand-in for humans, such as hobbits or kenders and the like. A small, sentient, bipedal monkeythingy might prove a good, comic-relief sidekick to a powerful dragon.

 

[Overread]

Always be very very VERY careful with comic-relief characters. It's very easy for them to appear as the comic relief to the point where it becomes their only role (you can see this in a fair few films very easily - Jar Jar Binks would be a prime example of a comic character included just for comic appeal and who also failed on delivery for most).

I think that comic relief in a story needs to be universal. Don't make it a character role, just have comical or light hearted events happen with all and any character as the story allows. That way you don't end up with a character who is a weak link in an otherwise serious story.

 

[oddhero]

If you aren't having humans, will you give the dragons human thought processes and motivations? To not do so would be hugely ambitious and could lead to a remarkable work, but would be hard to sell to readers. If you're cutting out humans, you will presumably be slotting dragons into themes we human readers can identify with: revenge, loss, love etc?

 

[DaCosta]

You ask whether human's would be necessary. It depends on your world. If it fits with your rules, then yes. But frankly, you can do whatever the hell you want. (Unless you start typing in dragon-tongue; then you've lost me).

 

[Rose_Starre]

If you aren't having humans, will you give the dragons human thought processes and motivations? To not do so would be hugely ambitious and could lead to a remarkable work, but would be hard to sell to readers. If you're cutting out humans, you will presumably be slotting dragons into themes we human readers can identify with: revenge, loss, love etc?

Yes, there will be motivations that can be sympathized with by my readers. Besides, it would be rather difficult to write about motivations that are completely unnatural to humans, wouldn't it?
Unfortunately, I can't exactly tell you what this is all going to be about. That would give it away and make reading it less fun.