All right, so, the title says it all, huh? Do any of your characters have pets (dogs, horses, cats, fantastical animals that only exist in your world...rocks, etc.) that they are close to and you sort of keep throughout the book? What role do these animals play in character development, plot, etc.? If your characters don't have pets...why not?

To answer my questions: I don't really have pets in my world...see...I have these things called dragons. And I suppose they can be a kind of pets, since a dragon can be as good as a horse. In fact, character pets hardly occur to me when making characters.

Bethany Faith

I don't think any of my characters have pets...my family never had any when I was growing up, so it never occurs to me to give pets to my characters.

Hmm I have not up to now, but you know me! They will end up in somewhere I reckon!

I've considered giving my character's pets, but I've yet to find one who can actually have one

No pets for mine. Unless you count the unicorn, but he doesn't fit the definition of "pet".
I wonder if my characters need pets? I'll think.

Let's see...

Tanner has a wolf named Benjamin (but not until later in the book)

Melany has a gray cat named Charlotte

Kaida has a tiger named Liam

Aren has two chamrosh named Avante and Stian

And Eryn has a horse (but we don't hear of them until later)

Their pets are usually someone to show what the characters are like. Either by reflecting them or being their opposite to make dynamics more interesting.

Good topic!

There are a lot of pets in Faded. Carter, the MC, picks up a fantastical bug-like creature called a criet that "adopts" him and follows him around. (For the record, Carter's criet is orange and sings the note of C. ) Arc, a secondary character, has a talking dragon that is a cross between pet, coworker, and best friend. One of my bad guys owns wolf-like dogs (they need development) that are for both work and companionship.

Criet comes into the story because Carter is looking for criet silk. As he follows Carter around, the little bug adds some heart and joy, a bit of companionship. Carter feels the loss pretty deeply when, during the darkest hour, my bad guy feeds Criet to one of his wolf-like dogs.

The dragon, being a talking creature, serves as a secondary character and comic relief.

The primary function of the wolves is to indicate the bad guy's presence. Early on, Carter is attacked by the dogs. It's not until later that he figures out who owns them and puts the pieces together.


Faded has a pretty high concentration of pets, because it fits with the world. Some of my other stories don't have any, or only lightly developed ones. (For example, in Alaidia, most of the MCs will probably have horses with names. But while the horses will be used, they don't play a major role in the story.) I have two feature scripts with significant references to pets. In My Pet Dragon, the MC finds a dragon egg (in modern-day America) and wants to keep it as a pet. In Child, I develop the family dog pretty well, who attends them on their adventures.

I've had plenty of characters who own horses.

On an interesting note, Caleb owns a pet rock.

(The Caleb in my story, not the Elanhil Caleb. )

Philli, that is so sad.

Yea, my characters own horses as well.

Zaciré owns a horse, being of the Enclave nobility. He does not bring it with him, however, for various reasons, and it was later killed when the Enclave was destroyed I don't really do pets in the stories, usually

eru

In one of my first books my character has a spider. That is really all I have now.

*giggles * In my very first book (I wrote it when I was 8, but I don't count it as me really writing because it was soooo bad!) my MC had a pony, a dog, a dragon, a mouse, and a kitten as pets. *rolls eyes * Like I said, it was a bad story.

I'm sure it was fine! Speaking of having a lot of pets... I seem to have forgotten that one of my protagonists has one hundred and thirty seven hamsters...

Whatever for?! That is a lot of hamsters!!!

Well... he made a bet... it started with fourty and then kinda became an obsession lol

Oh my! Some bet.

Quite!

Wow... that's a lot of hamsters.

None of my characters have pets, but I really want to give someone, maybe even just a random person, a pet snake. Snakes as pets are awesome. XD

Ooh snakes... cool.

I guess I've never given my characters in my Trilogy pets (other than the Diegose, which isn't necessarily a pet, and their horses) because there really is no need for them. And my characters don't get the luxury of staying put, so having them have one never seemed to be a need...

If I were to give one of my characters in a fantasy story a pet, I'd probably give them a pegasus or gryphon.