My CFT post this week looks at The Highs and Lows of the Writing Life from the viewpoint of a writer (though there are some thoughts in there as to how readers can help too.  Okay, buying our books is the obvious way to help but there are others!).

For this post, I want to look at this from a character's viewpoint.  Your characters are not going to have an easy life where nothing ever troubles them, otherwise you have no story.  Who would want to read about characters like that?  So what a reader is after then is a situation your characters have to cope with.  It can be a threat to life of course, but there are other ways of turning your character's life upside down, and it is how your people respond to that which will keep readers turning the pages to find out more.

How do your characters cope with the highs and lows of their life? What situations do they find easier to cope with and others nigh on impossible?  (The latter incidentally could be something simple.  They have no problems crossing a haunted forest to get to where they need to be but struggle with communicating with others, which could put them and the others in danger if taken to a logical conclusion).

What are your characters' emotional strengths and weaknesses?  Do they learn from their mistakes immediately or do they need several "goes" to get something right?  If their core trait is courage, what opportunities do they get to show that and does that trait ever fail them?

Answer questions like that and you should get some interesting story scenarios to write up!

Image Credit:  As ever, the images are from the fantastic Pixabay. 

My CFT post this week looks at Experimenting with Words and Form and why this is good for writers.

Especially when starting out, experimenting with different kinds of writing is a great idea as it will help you find your niche.  Later, when you have discovered what that niche is, you can hone it and playing with form is a fantastic way of doing that honing.  Also, if you write flash fiction, as I do, there's nothing to stop you having a go at the standard length short story (which I also do from time to time).

The watchword here is to have fun with your writing.  Sometimes give yourself a break from what you usually do and be creative in other writing fields.  At worst, it'll act as a brief break and you'll find you really do want to stick to what you usually do.  At best, you'll find a whole new world of writing to enjoy.  This is what happened to me with flash fiction and I've ended up being published in it!  So be open!

This is by no means a definitive list and I suspect you could add many of your own but my favourite character types include:-

1.  The underdog. (Most of the fairytales have good examples of these.  Cinderella is not expected to do well by her stepmother and stepsisters!).

2.  The character who is not expected to be a hero but becomes one.  (Frodo Baggins is a great example).

3.  The rebel (especially one who can see through the faults of their own side and has tried to rectify them but to no avail.  My fairy godmother character, Eileen, is of this ilk.  Characters like that are great fun to write for).

4.  A well rounded animal character.  I have a soft spot for anthropomorphism. Where would The Wind in the Willows be without it?! I also adore Gaspode in Terry Pratchett's Discworld.

5.  Those who deal out justice to those worthy of receiving it!  This is usually where some character thinks they've got away with something and our hero/heroine turns up to prove them wrong. Or it can be someone like Terry Pratchett's Lord Vetinari who deals out what he feels is appropriate justice (and is usually right.  Look at how he deals with Moist Von Lipvig in Going Postal).

Gremlins have hit the CFT website tonight so I hope to share a double bill of posts with you next week but I thought I'd look at gremlins that can hit a writer.

The Indecision Gremlin
And a right pain this one is too.  You have two good story ideas to work on.  Which to pursue first?  I look at deadlines here and prioritise the one with the closest deadline.  If it's a choice between a short piece and the novel, I plan out my writing time so I carve out slots specifically for the novel and other time periods I use for shorter pieces.  Over the course of a week, I've got done (most of the time) most of the work I've wanted to do .  It means I know what I'm doing with each day's writing session and it kicks the indecision gremlin where it hurts as I don't give it house room!

The Social Media Gremlin
How much time is the right time to spend on social media?  There's no definitive answer to that one but I've found it has paid me to allow so long on it before I switch it off to write.

The Editing Gremlin
Otherwise known as the "I'll just edit this one more time" gremlin. Is a very close relative of the indecision gremlin and can be just as much of a pain.  There is no hard and fast rule here but if you find you are just tinkering with a story, stop!  Send it out to the relevant market/competition and see you how do with it.  Remember this gremlin has the power to stop you moving on with new work if you let it.

My CFT post this week pays tribute to the late Barbara Large, MBE, who founded the Winchester Writers' Festival (as it is now known) and the Hampshire Writers' Society. I cannot think of anyone else who has done so much to help so many writers over so many years.  She will be much missed.  I first met Barbara many years ago and her encouragement made a huge difference.  So many writers will say the same (including the children's author, Anne Wan, whom I've also interviewed for CFT).

Influences matter to a writer and can make all the difference to whether someone keeps going or gives up.  This applies to our characters too.  What influences are your characters under or swayed by?  Are they positive ones?  If there are negative influences about, what do your characters do to fight that?

Barbara's life was very much a life well lived and that is something we should all aspire to do.

As for our characters, what do you want your people to aspire to be?  What drives them?  What gets in their way?  Answer those questions and you have the very essence of a good, drama driven story.  And isn't that what we all want for our books and stories?

My theme this week is character type(s) and my CFT post also featured this but I thought a quick run down of tips would be useful.

1. Be realistic.  Your characters must have motivations that we will all understand, even if we don't agree with them all!
2. Show flaws as  well as virtues.  None of us are perfect after all so why should our characters be?  Besides they can get to learn from their mistakes.
3. Stretch your characters.  Don't be afraid to put them through hell to find out what they are really made of/are capable of.
4. Let your characters surprise you, sometimes (don't overdo it!).  A great example of what I mean here is Frodo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings.  Nobody expects in that wonderful world for a hobbit to be a hero, yet Frodo becomes one.  Frodo shows a determination and courage others far bigger than him are not capable of (and yet he'd have failed completedly without Sam Gamgee's support).  It would've been the easiest thing of all for Frodo to stay in Middle Earth and let someone else do the heroics.
   
5. Weaknesses SHOULD get in the character's way and be something they're seen to be fighting against.  And that, folks, is where the drama is!  A great story has plenty of that!
   

This is by no means an exhaustive list but this includes some sources I've found most useful when generating story and article/blog post ideas.

1.  Proverbs and sayings.  What can you come up with, say, to fit the proverb "love is blind"? A book of proverbs is great for dipping into for themes you'd like to try to write to and generally are not that expensive to buy.

2.  Classic fairytales.  Look for the themes behind them.  A common one is that of wrongs being righted (see Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel to name but a few).  How could you use that theme?  And that is just one to play with!  There are others.

3.  Films.  Again look at the theme but also look at the theme of the sub-plots (there will be at least one in any good movie). 

4.  Advertising slogans.  Don't copy word for word but adapt.  (This ties in nicely with my CFT post this week on Adaptations!).  For example, in the UK, there was a slogan from years ago which was "go to work on an egg", advertising the virtues of eating eggs.  Your theme could be something like "go to work on..." and name a foodstuff of your choice or a vehicle we don't see on Earth etc.  Let your imagination run riot!

Happy writing!

This is by no means an exhaustive list but signs your character isn't strong enough include the following.

1.  Forgetting their name!  It can happen. It's bad enough when a reader does it but if the writer does so, then the character is in real trouble.  If they're not memorable enough to you, they certainly won't be to anyone else.

2.  Running out of things for them to do.  Yet the plot is strong, the other characters are ticking along very nicely with plenty of dialogue, action etc.  You need to ask yourself whether you really need this character in the story after all.  If you feel you do, look at why.  Could this character be combined with another in the tale to make one really strong creation that keeps the reader's (and writer's) interest?  You need to keep in anything and anyone that moves your story onwards.  You also need to ruthlessly cut what you really don't need.

3.  Their dialogue isn't distinctive enough.  Your reader should be able to tell who is speaking in a story by the style of the language used by the characters.  Character A talks in clipped tones, Character B tends to laugh a lot after talking, Character C has a lisp, Character D has a strong northern accent (as someone once said, everywhere  has a north!).  If you can't tell your characters apart by how they speak, they're not distinctive enough and again I would look at whether you really need them in the story.

I like to look for a major trait in a character and use that to help "round them out".  For example, if I decide a character is a coward, I dig deeper and look for what has led to the character being like that.  I can also look at whether they're ashamed of this or not.  Not everything I outline here will make it into my story but I know that if I know what the answers are here, I will write my character with more confidence (and therefore conviction as well) and I believe THAT comes through to the reader.

So useful character traits to consider then could include:-

1. Cowardice/Heroism;
   
2. Being a Liar/Being Honest (the latter could cause as much trouble as the former and the potential for comedy is here too);
   
3. Stubbornness/Being Flexible;
   
4. Being Unfriendly/Being Sociable;
   
5. Being Prejudiced/Being Open.
   

There are of course many more traits than these and practically every trait has its opposite flaw/virtue which could also be used.

Questions to ask yourself when using these:-

1. How did the character develop this flaw/virtue?
   
2. Do they see it as a flaw or virtue?  Are they right about this?
   
3. How do others around the character react to them and their flaw/virtue?
   
4. What are their society's expectations?
   
5. Does the character change - for better or worse?
   

Have fun!

 What matters most to your characters and why?  Get your characters to face losing what matters to them most and that will increase the tensions in your story considerably.

The nice things with this is whatever it is that matters most can vary considerably.  For one character, it could be a life or death situation.  Another character could be terribly worked up because they're late back with their library book.  The potential for  humour is here too. 

The one proviso is that your characters have to have very good reasons for why these things matter.  A life or death scenario has an obvious "why it matters" inherent in it.  In the case of the library book scenario, could it be that your character has never been late in their life for anything and fears losing control over their neat little life if they ARE late at all?  Maybe they worry about what the librarian will think - other people's opinions matter to this character.  You get the idea.

Have fun and play with this.  Work out what could make your character lose what matters most.  For someone with a controlled life, what on earth has happened to make the possibility of being late back with their library book happen at all?  Something catastrophic (to them) must have occurred.  Hopefully it will be very entertaining for a reader!

The theme of the right ingredients ties up with my Chandler's Ford Today post this week about Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, my review of the Chameleon Theatre Group's recent panto production.  Why?  Because I talk about what ingredients are needed for a successful pantomime and I'm glad to say this show had them all and in great quantities!

What are the right ingredients for a fairytale?

1. There must be a magical element.
   
2. There must be a wrong to put right.  (See Cinderella/Snow White etc for the way they're treated initially and how their stories end).
   
3. There must be plenty of drama.  (You know from the outset that Cinderella is never going to keep to the midnight deadline set by her fairy godmother.  The drama here is in finding out what will happen when the girl is inevitably late!).
   
4. The ending must be appropriate for the story.  That doesn't necessarily mean a happy one - see The Little Mermaid as Hans Christen Andersen wrote it!  Also while Snow White had a happy ending, her stepmother rightly didn't!  (Perspective is important too).
   

What are the right ingredients for a writer?

1. A willingness to put in the work - to write, rewrite, rewrite again etc until the story is right.
   
2. Accepting the fact rejections happen and trying to learn from them and then move on.
   
3. Always seeking to improve what you do.
   
4. Reading widely and across genres to feed your own imagination.  It does need feeding.  Often and lots!
   

Where stories go wrong can be down to a number of factors but I list what I think are the most important points below.

1.  Character not strong enough.
By this I mean the character does not grab the reader's attention.  There is not enough in the character to make the reader want to have their attention grabbed!  A reader needs to either identify with the character and so follow the story to see if all works out in the end, or be very happy to see your character get their comeuppance and again follow the story through to find out if they do!  (I remember wanting to cheer when Molly Weasley in Harry Potter "dealt with" Bellatrix Lestrange - and sorry but I refuse to accept that's a plot spoiler now!  The point is the characters or Molly and Bellatrix grabbed my attention.  One I wanted to succeed, the other not to and so I was hooked).

2.  Story not strong enough.
There isn't enough conflict or drama to warrant there being a story!  Things have got to happen in a story and sometimes those things are not necessarily dramatic but they are everything to your characters.  The reader needs to find out how your people will react if things do or don't turn out well in the end.  Is there enough in your story to make readers want to find out what happens next?  It can be a good test to step aside from your work for a bit and come back to it as a reader would.  Is your story the kind you would eagerly pick up from a book shop because its opening lines and its blurb grip you?

3.  Characters not distinguishable from each other.
Each major character has to have their own voice.  A reader should be able to tell who is who.  If they can't confusion sets in and nobody will read a story like that.

My Chandler's Ford Today post this week is called Three Wishes and asks what would you choose if your fairy godmother turned up and granted you the customary three wishes?  Naturally, there are ground rules but check the post out and have fun picking yours!

For this post, I thought I'd look at what your characters would wish for.  Okay a lot is going to depend on your story, genre, etc but some general pointers I think would cross all of that and be true for most of them.  These then are:-

1.  To be well thought out before my writer puts me to paper or screen
I've found outlining a character to be a useful tool.  I don't put down every single thing but I need to know their major traits, what might send them "over the edge", what drives them etc. By the time I've thought about all of that, I can hear the voice of that character and once I've got that, I can write them into existence!  I've found that time spent initially in thinking about what I need to know here has saved me time later in editing and not having weaknesses in characterisation and/or the plot.  The lovely thing here is each writer can decide what they need to know.  It will vary from writer to writer.  It can vary from story to story too.  For example if you know you are going to write a humorous tale, you can ask what would your character dread happening to them because they'd be so embarrassed?  There would be a lot of humour potential there!

2.  To give me dialogue I can actually speak and which doesn't sound like "authorese".
This is where reading your work out loud pays off.  You can literally hear if the words flow or not.  If you stumble over dialogue, a reader will too.  Time to edit then! Speech itself, as well as speech patterns of characters, must seem natural.  You want to convey that this is something a "real" person in these circumstances might actually say (even if the setting is fantastical).

3.  For the writer to know what they are doing!
We're back to outlining again.  Your characters need to have a function to justify their place in your story.  So you really do need to know what they are doing in your story and, as importantly, why.  Once you know that, you can write with confidence (and it does show through). 

Storytelling is one of our oldest traditions of course.  You can understand the appeal of fairytales especially when it comes to the oral storytelling tradition.  A simple plot, a structure that works, a clear goodie and baddie, and a happy ever after ending.  Perfect way to end the day!

Now, of course, we expect our characters to be more nuanced.  There is no such thing as the perfect hero.  Villains have to have good (and understandable) reasons for acting the way they are (and that can include the fact they simply enjoy being evil. To them, that is reason enough!).

What I love about stories is that there is no one perfect format.  I love books in all their forms but totally understand why audiobooks work for some, whereas the print format doesn't.  Our focus as writers is to come up with stories that can work in several formats.  Our focus is to entertain.  I've never understood why some look down on escapism.  The world is sad and bad enough to make a wish to escape understandable.  After all why did our cavemen ancestors tell stories?  To remember what was important.  To bring the community closer together.  To escape the cares of their day and the ones to come for a while.

So as a writer then I want my characters to appeal to readers.  I also want to drop my characters right in it whenever I can.  I want my books to engage people.  It's a good thing to aim for:  to improve your storytelling as much as possible.  You discover better ways of expressing things, learn what works and what doesn't.  Enjoy your storytelling and relish every moment of it.

I hope you had a lovely Christmas and wish you a Happy New Year.  I enjoyed the break but am glad to be back writing again. 

In your stories, what would count as welcome breaks for the general populace?  Do they have holidays and how are they celebrated?  Are visitors welcome to join in or are they kept out?  I look at Winter Traditions in my Chandler's Ford Today post this week - what would these be in the world you're creating?  Is there such a thing as winter?  (I suspect we often wish there wasn't but it is necessary, honestly!).

Is everyone in your world celebrating a special holiday or is that the privilege of the ruling classes? What makes the holiday different from what we know here?  What are the similarities?  Does everyone enjoy the break?

Now there's some story ideas there for you!  Happy writing!

I love fairytales no matter what the time of year is, but the Christmas season I think makes those who don't usually read the genre more open to it.  I think a lot of this is due to the influence of pantomime (at least in the UK it is.  Several of the best known pantomimes are fairytale based - The Babes in the Woods, Aladdin, Cinderella, Puss in Boots etc). 

Also it is the perfect time of year in the UK when it is cold and gets dark early to curl up with favourite stories and books and again fairytales play a huge role here.

The one thing I wish I could wish away is the image of fairytales being twee.  They are  NOT.  Just look at what Hans Christen Andersen wrote!  Also I'd like to get rid of the "it's just a fairytale" statement that people come up with sometimes.  There's nothing "just" about being a fairytale.

Fairytales contain truths, show up humanity for what it can be like, and can be scathing about greed and unkindness.  Justice can be on the rough side too!  So no unfair dismissal of fairytales then?  I think that's a good wish for 2019!

Happy New Year!

My Chandler's Ford Today post talks about Christmas Stories (and I share some links to some of mine on this too).    One of the great things about this time of year, when the nights draw in so early, is that it is a fantastic time for reading more!

One of my highlights at Christmas is at the end of Christmas Day itself when I've put my feet up on the sofa and I'm curled up with a book given to me as a present.  It is very easy to please the writer in your life by the way - just ask them what books they'd like and Christmas present shopping problems are resolved!

So what stories do you hope to enjoy over the Christmas period?  I like a mix of fiction and non-fiction books plus, of course, there is the chance to enjoy stories as films.  (Watched The Muppet Christmas Carol earlier tonight, which is one of my favourites). 

As for writing stories, I tend to take a short break over Christmas and then resume but I come back eager to write again and find the respite incredibly useful for recharging the imaginative batteries.

However you spend Christmas, do have a lovely time, and I hope you get to enjoy stories old and new!

]It occurs to me I should have written this post long ago but never mind!

I use the phrase "fairytales with bite" as a lot of my flash fiction work, in particular, is set in a fantasy world and I use a lot of irony.  There really is a bite to a lot of what I write.  I like quirky writing - my own and that of others!  I also use twist endings a lot and there can be a great deal of bite behind those.  I am, after all, looking to make an impact with my stories. 

My catchphrase is also a reaction against those who think fairytales are twee.  I know I've touched on this topic before, here and on other blogs I'm involved in, but fairytales can show up human nature for what it is and are anything but twee as a result.  Think of all the tales where kindness is rewarded and/or greed is punished.  What happens to the villains in lot of fairytales is anything but twee!

Of course, with the Big Bad Wolf, you could argue the fairytale with bite is literal here!

Some of the ways I edit a story are:-

1.  To put it aside for a while.  Sounds odd I know but you need to put some distance between you as the writer of the piece before you can become you, the editor of that piece.  You are too close to the work to be objective about it just after you've written it.  You're either going to think it is the best or worst thing ever written (there seems to be no happy medium here!) so remind yourself, you will look at the piece when it will seem like new to you again.  Then and only then can you judge it properly.  Assuming you have done that:-

2.  Read work out loud.  This is great for literally hearing whether your dialogue works as well as you think it does.  If you stumble over words or phrases, so will your reader.  I've sometimes recorded a story (using Audacity) and played it back.  You get to listen to it as a listener would then. 

3.  Do a basic edit first.  I start by getting rid of my known wasted words, repetitions, and go through for spelling and grammatical errors.  You will need to do this again at least once more once you've got a final draft but I have found it useful to use this to get me into "editor mode" and to get started on the whole business!

4.  Look at whether the structure makes sense.  Are there gaps the reader can't follow?  Where you have hinted at something happening in the story, did you follow through on it later? 

5.  Do all of your characters have a vital role in the story?  If not, can you get rid of some or amalgamate them into one person?

6.  Do all of the plot lines tie up and make sense?  Have you shown a point of change in the characters?  Have you ensured the story reaches a logical conclusion (which doesn't need to be a happy one)? 

Good luck!

There is no hard and fast answer to the above question, of course, but what I have found to be true is that a story is ready for submitting when:-

1.  You really cannot edit another word of it without spoiling it in some way.

2.  The story haunts you - and you wrote it!  (Good chance readers will be haunted by it too).

3.  Having deadlines to submit (for reputable competitions say) can be really useful as it makes you work to a date and encourages you to let a story "go".  It can be easy to keep editing and polishing.  At some point you need to pluck up courage and test the market with your stories.

4.  When you can genuinely envisage your piece as suiting Publication X, say, because you have read several of their editions, have a feel for their style and your story or article fits in beautifully.  If you are right go on and send it in but be sure to follow their submission guidelines.

5.  You come across other published stories which you have cause to feel are not as good as yours.  Only one way to find out if you're right or not:  send your one in!

The Light Fantastic is my latest Chandler's Ford Today post and looks at light and dark from the perspectives of vision (including photography), mood and fiction.  Light and dark are crucial to fiction.  If there is no dark in a story, there is no conflict, there is no drama, nothing happens for better or worse, and any potential tale here collapses.

Fairytales are full of the contrasts between light and dark in the way they portray their characters.  Fairytales are often grim and perhaps the antidote here has been what has become the "happy ever after" ending.  Light and dark have to be in the right proportions.  All darkness is just oppressive.  All light would be blinding. 

Look at the light and dark qualities of your characters.  Are they in balance?  What weakness in your character really lets them down?  What virtue really makes them?  How did they develop these things?  Do they actively try to fight the weakness?

It isn't always appropriate for a story to end happily of course but the finish must be appropriate.  I like to see stories end on a note of hope even if the finish is a sadder one. 

What are your characters' favourite times?  Curling up with a good book?  Lazing in the bath?  Going for a good walk with the dog?

Use questions like this to help you establish your character.  The answers may not appear in your story but knowing something about the character before you start writing about them will be enormously helpful.  You don't need to know each and every little detail.  What you want is enough information that you can write clearly for them, knowing how they would react to a situation and why.  The reader will pick up on the fact you really do know your character (even if they do this subconciously, in many ways it is better if they do pick up on this that way) and the writing will flow better as a result.

Of course, working out what your characters' favourite times will tell you so much about them.  Do they curl up with a good book because they can't face what is their real life?  Why can't they face it?  Dig deep. Maybe you will surprise yourself with what your characters show you about themselves.  Use that. 

I write about The Importance of Memories in my Chandler's Ford Today post this week.  I touch on the subject of memories and fiction writing here too but below are some specific reasons why memories should come into your stories (even if they are just implied.  They often are just implied in flash fiction due to the limited word count but to my mind that makes the impact more hard hitting).

1.  Characters need to seem real to be believable.  Real people have memories.  So do real characters.

2.  Our behaviour is affected by memory - memory of what we did wrong, memory of what we did right and the difference between the two!  Our characters should reflect this too.  They're not going to get it right all the time (good thing too - no story there!) but do need to show they've learned from their mistakes.  That is where memory comes in of course.

3.  Your world setting will have rules and values it expects its citizens to live by.  Your characters will know what these are, will know what special days and ceremonies there are, and will live their lives i obedience to all of that or be rebelling against it, but again your characters need to know and remember what these are!

4.  We are shaped by our memories in terms of who we are and why we are the way we are.  Our characters should be too.

5.  We can be haunted by memories, especially of those we've loved and lost.  Our characters should be too.

Character dialogue has to sound natural when a reader comes to it, whether they read it aloud or not and whether they read a print or ebook or listen to the story on audio first.  Often character dialogue is a "tidied up" version of what we say in life with few hesitations (best used sparingly in writing.  It looks gimmicky and is "tiring" to read.).

I've found reading work out loud (sometimes recording it and playing it back) is a great way of checking to see if my dialogue is up to scratch.  If I stumble over my words, a reader will too as out with the old editing pen again!  It is wise to use accented speech sparingly.  You want to give a sense of what a character's accent is.  You don't need to use an accent for each and every word they say.  Again, that is tiring to read, especially in a longer work.

You need your characters to speak in different styles so readers can easily tell them apart during "conversational pieces".  Sometimes this can be done by the choice of words a character uses.  Sometimes it can be that Character A always speaks in short, sharp sentences, while Character B takes their time in getting to the point!

I love getting my characters to "chat" even if sometimes it is to themselves via their own internal thoughts.  This is where you and, later, a reader can find out so  much about them.

What are the signs of a fairytale world?  How can you know quite quickly you ARE in one (via fiction I'm presuming for the purposes of this post!  If you do find a portal to another world, however, be sure to report back with plenty of details, pictures if at all possible.  We will all want to know!!).

1.  Magic.  The biggest giveaway of course is the use of magic.  The interesting thing to work out when planning your stories though is whether everyone can use magic or just a select few.  If everyone can use it, what are the rules so anarchy doesn't break out?  Boundaries increase the drama in your story.  If everyone can zap everyone else, that doesn't make for much of a story.  If only a few can do that but the price they pay is their own lives are forfeit, now there's a potential story.

2.  Inanimate Objects - The Use Of.  We all know from Disney (see Beauty and the Beast) a teapot, to name one example, is rarely just a teapot!  Sometimes they're an enchanted victim.  Sometimes these things are portals (also see Harry Potter).  So what uses are the inanimate objects put to in your setting?  Does a particular object convey a particular meaning or power and, if so, what and why?  What are the limits to the use of objects?

3.  Creatures.  Ranging from domestic animals that can talk (hello, Puss in Boots!  Loved Puss in Shrek.  Thought they had the portrayal spot on) to odd creatures that are the stuff of legends to monsters of course.   Basically what you wouldn't see here!  And there's nothing to stop you inventing your own.  This is where some knowledge of natural history is invaluable.  Knowing what animals need to survive and how their bodies are designed to handle that should inspire some ideas for how the creatures in your stories will do this kind of thing.

Happy writing!