Hello all,
I had a story idea come to me recently and I thought I'd run it by yall and see what ya thought. There were a couple of nights this weekend where I had to walk down the street at night. I know that seems like no big deal, but I live in Memphis, TN and most people at my school don't go out and about at night. So as I walked down the well-lit street at night I had an idea come to me. It started as "Night Stalker" and switched to "Nocturnal." It's basically a super hero-esque story about a guy who shape-shifts into nocturnal animals every night. There are basically five or so basic forms that he shape-shifts into and they cycle through the course of a month (lunar cycle, I want it to be somewhat moon related). For instance, one week is the panther week, the next week is the owl week, the next week raccoon week, and I haven't decided the last one. He has no idea how or why this happens (in fact three years before the story takes place he woke up with amnesia), I plan on leaving it that way, for now. It seems like most stories about unexplained phenomena in our world feel obligated to explain it and I've pretty much decided that I won't explain it. Though I did have an interesting idea of linking it to King Nebuchadnezard in Daniel; there was a story in Daniel how God struck him with insanity and he lived like an animal for awhile, so I thought about giving my character some slight Iraqi heritage and saying that he's a distant descendant of Nebuchadnezard and has inherited the curse because he was like a bigshot before it fell upon him and now he can't remember it and he turns into animals every night. But I haven't decided to use that idea or not. Part of me really likes the idea of leaving it unexplained even if I settle on an explanation in my head. Part of the reason is that I don't want this to be one of those stories where a person discovers a new ability and spends the majority of the story to figure out how it happened. At the point I would come in narrative-wise, it's been three years since he woke up with amnesia, he's had the ability ever since then, and lives comfortably with it. The Christian aspect of the book is that during the mid of the conflict (which I haven't settled on) he comes to Jesus, realizing how truly helpless he is. Don't know how or why it happens just yet, but that's the main crux of the story at the moment.
Now here's another hitch in all of this, I can't decide if I want this story to be Urban Fantasy (which I haven't read) or science-fiction, or a mutt between the two. Since I don't know if I'll explain the origins of the ability or not, I don't really have a clear genre-identification for this story, whereas in most cases the explanation would dictate the genre.
For the most part, I see this in my head like a lot of the comic-book based action movies only that it would be written as a novel instead of a comic book or a screen-play. It would still have that kind of fast paced character-driven feel to it. Clearly it's an idea that needs a lot of work. What do yall think? See any potential here?
In Christ,
Jordan

I think it's sounds interesting. It would be cool to not really explain it, and let the reader figure it out, although it might be irritating to never really know. So, does he save the world, or something like that?

Oh no! Not even close. As my "World Endangerment" thread somewhat mentions, I'm not the biggest fan of the tendency in Fantasy and Sci-Fi (and even action stories to some degree) to rely on such large-scale conflict. The conflict in this story isn't going to be so grand as that; much smaller scale.
Actually, my thought is that the character never knows, so why should the reader? I think that if the character's non-questioning acceptance is portrayed well enough then most readers will probably be ok with that. Especially as the Christian aspect comes more into play there can be the idea that since God's in control, obviously this is something he allowed/caused. Dekker fans who've read Blink will remember that he takes a similar approach to explaining the protagonist's ability to see multiple possible futures. The story focuses more on his fight for survival and such because he doesn't have time to stop and wonder how it is that he's able to see these things. I plan on the same idea only different because I'm coming into the story long after Nocturnal has discovered this ability and stopped asking for lack of answers. I would start off slow enough for readers to get a feel for him and his world and then the action and conflict would move the story along to a point that the reader won't have time to ask "how is this possible?" That's my thought at least.

Seer, if you did that well, I would be an ENORMOUS fan, and totally buy a book like that.

I DO think that at least in your own mind though, you should try to explain it. It helps keep your story consistent even if you never spell everything out.

Okay. Now I want to read this story too!

Actually, in my head I understand how it works fairly well. I just don't have the origins pinpointed and I think as long as the practical sides are clear in my head I'll be able to keep it consistent.
I might make this my NaNo project...even though I've never done it and November is a busy month for me. I'm still praying about it.

I know the busy feeling. I'm praying for you.

I thought about coordinating his forms with phases of the moon, but it's still in the air.
And as an update, I've decided that I just can't get into NaNoWriMo this year, but I'll still work on this idea.

I see where you are coming from on this, and if you feel strongly that you want to portray the message that your protagonist must trust in God despite not understanding what is happening to him, I don't want to mess with that. But as a reader, I would be wondering...and would likely be disappointed if there is no hint of an explanation. I'd like to see (at least a little) the reason this transformation is possible in your world. But that might just be a matter of personal preference.

I do think you have an interesting concept...have fun developing it!

I'm not sure why I didn't see your post before Seer. Hmmmm....

I love this idea; it is very organic in my opinion. I think it would be a captivating read. However, like many others voiced, I would be disappointed if by the end of the book I felt clueless. I think you should leave the mystery aspect of your story intact, but at the end kind of have this huge unveiling so that we all have this profound 'ah ha!' moment.

That's exactly what I don't want to happen . That technique has been run into the ground by many an author more talented than I. Again, I'm thinking along the lines of Tedd Dekker's Blink where the supernatural phenomena is never totally explained. I'd obviously give enough of an idea that the reader wouldn't be left banging their head against the wall in frustration, but not exactly an answer either.

Actually the character doesn't really have a relationship with God until the end of the story. And after three years he understands perfectly what is happening to him and in what way, he just doesn't understand why it happens or how it's possible and honestly doesn't care about either.

I think if you did it like Blink, that could be cool. In some superhero stories you don't know why they have their superpower, but they do, and we accept that.

If you could make your story work like Blink (which is tricky) then I think it would work well. However, that is a fine line to walk. Dekker managed to satisfy his audience without having to explain too much. I don't think I could end up with the same satisfying result though. Good luck on the project Seer.

I agree with Airianna here that this might be tough to pull off in a satisfying way. However, the only way to find out is to give it a try, and it sounds like you are pretty passionate about the idea. If you have good first readers/critique partners, they'll let you know whether or not it works. Since the vision is clear in your mind, go for it!