: Re: How to write from a cat's perspective? I want to write a short story from the perspective of a cat who wants to kill a bird that extremely annoys her. Just like Tom is trying every time

@Steve161

Vote Up Vote Down

I think I might be rephrasing what @MarkBaker says, but perhaps stating it differently would be helpful, especially since he seems to have attracted some antagonism.

You're telling a story. What is your story about? No, it's not about "a cat chasing a bird". What's it about at its core? Is it about hunter and prey? Is it about the futility of chasing an unattainable goal? What idea(s) do you want to express or explore?

What your story is about defines how you tell it. When Seton Thompson wrote The Pacing Mustang, for example, he wrote a story about freedom. He recognised that freedom and an indomitable spirit in the mustang, and then he focused on it and exaggerated it. A real horse might stop eating, but it won't commit suicide by jumping off a cliff. The story you want to tell is bound up with the character who tells it.

Once you know what your story is about, you know who your character is - what kind of "person" your cat is. (Or vice versa - if you know the "person", you know the story.) From there, you'd need to add decoration to convince us that this "person" is a cat: the smell of things, the sensation of pouncing - all the physical attributes of the experience of being a cat. The senses your character has are those of a cat, and its body is that of a cat. Study cats, so you can transmit that realistically. But its emotions, its thoughts, its experience of concepts like "love", "responsibility", "freedom" etc. - those are human. They are merely wrapped up in a cat's body, presumably for the purpose of making some attribute sharper than it would have been otherwise.

(0)

Login to post a comment!