So You Want To / Write a Werewolf Story

aka: Werewolf Works

Legends about werewolves have been around long before making their appearances in written literature. Their role in myth and fiction have also varied from one another, some being threats to humans while others stood as benevolent guardians. That, and they're a potential love interest in a teenage romance novel.

Like the vampire, werewolves have stood as metaphors for many things - but on a different scale.

If you want to write a story involving werewolves (or a werewolf), this will be your guide in creating your own story regardless of what media you aim for. Just be sure to look into See the Index to look into how to write genres, especially Write a Story before you go hunting for ideas on writing your werewolf story.

Necessary Tropes

Before you start writing, consider investigating the following:

• Our Werewolves Are Different: Being a character that is thousands of years old across many cultures, there is no "canon" werewolf. If you're going to write a story with werewolves, you'll first need to determine the cause of lycanthropy, their forms, when they transform, behavior, strengths and weaknesses, relationships with "real" wolves, and whether or not there is a cure. Besides, you don't want to present contradictory information and "rules" about the werewolf only to have them act opposite of what's established. This will help prevent your story's continuities from going wild (no pun intended) and confusing the reader.

• Be Genre Savvy: Consider what genre your werewolf story is going to be, as it shapes the plot and themes. While Horror is an obvious choice, the werewolf is a versatile stock character that can fit in many different genres. Romance novels can get competitive between vampires and werewolves, Science Fiction has plenty of options to take existing lore and creating a scientific explanation for the unnatural, Mystery Fiction is always a classic for finding a werewolf among innocents, and comedy can play elements of a werewolf's condition for laughs, leaving them asking "What Did I Do Last Night?".

• Stock Monster Symbolism: The werewolf is often more than just the physical monster. What does your werewolf represent and how does it tie into the Central Theme of the story? Does the beast allude to the dark heart at the center of man, or is it a metaphor for puberty, addiction, or even a primal connection to nature? Connecting to the themes of the story allows you to determine the werewolf's (and other characters) motivations and actions and tie them together more coherently.

Choices, Choices

Once you've got an idea of what your werewolf (or werewolves) is, here are some things to take note of:

• Figuring out the setting to add is the next step to consider. Is it a Science Fiction or Fantasy story? Does the fantasy world have its own werewolf lore to explain their origins, strengths and weaknesses? Does the sci-fi world have a method of creating and spreading the Viral Transformation through laboratory experiments or are they an alien species? Depending on which spectrum you choose, the werewolf has to be explained in a way that is consistent with the setting and genre that are used, and nothing derails a story like an Outside-Context Problem.

• Worldbuilding: It is important to determine how the werewolf fits into and interacts with the world of the story. Is it the only supernatural creature, part of a pack, or part of a society of thousands? Is there a whole hidden world hiding behind The Masquerade or is lycanthropy a fact of life? Are there other supernatural creatures like vampires or other werecreatures, and are they in conflict or are they allies? Do humans know about them, fear them, or aspire to emulate them?

• Character Alignment: Like the vampire, the werewolf has to answer where they stand in alignment. Is there a werewolf or a pack that is Always Chaotic Evil with no qualms about who their prey is? Or is there a group of werewolves who stand as guardians of humanity against monsters with less moral standards than them?

• Speaking of which, you need to know what point of view you're telling the story from, as it has bearing on what story you will be able to tell. Is the protagonist trying to solve a series of grisly murders or just trying to survive the night from a monster, or are they the monster, fighting the beast inside or the society outside?

Pitfalls

Now, be vigilant, and watch out for these traps:

• Characterization Tropes: Creating a werewolf character is all well and good, especially if you've got their origin, abilities, and role in the story figured out. But then you realize there's something missing - personality. Without personality, the werewolves will come out as cardboard cutouts or negative stereotypes.
• Remember the wolf part of the werewolf - if the werewolf can be replaced with an unpowered human with minimal alterations to the plot, what's the point? For romance novels, this may not be that much of an issue, but the more mundane a story is, the more jarring the fantastical elements become. This is especially apparent with those that transform on the full moon. How does their condition affect the other 30-odd days of the month?
• Wangst may be completely justified, but the werewolf moaning about how they turn into a monster is easily overdone and becomes annoying, especially if there are a lot of benefits included such as a healing factor and increased strength.
• On the opposite end, a friendly neighborhood werewolf can equally become boring if they are in total control of their transformations and urges, effectively becoming a normal person with a easily controlled condition or a flat-out superhero. To make this interesting, elaborate on the sheer effort it takes to get this level of control, and what happens when that mask slips.
• Fur Against Fang is a very flashy setup of Cool vs. Awesome, but ever since World of Darkness and the Underworld (2003) series popularized it, it almost seems obligatory for a werewolf work to have vampires in it as well. While a Fantasy Kitchen Sink or Monster Mash can liven up a world (compare, say, the Sony Spiderman films to the MCU), it is also easy to lose focus on the werewolf. Decide beforehand what direction your story needs to go and if the addition of another monster would help achieve that.
• Depicting minority ethnic groups, such as Native Americans, as shapeshifters can be highly problematic seeing as they already get stereotyped as magical or closer to nature with their culture overwritten and commodified by the dominant culture. The Twilight Saga caused a lot of damage and annoyance to the actual Quileute people. Do your research and be aware of perpetuating stereotypes, especially if you are using real groups.
• Alpha and Beta Wolves are a long Discredited Trope that still shows up a lot in werewolf fiction, used to implement a Fantastic Caste System and other problematic social elements. Not only is it not how wolves in the wild work (they are primarily nuclear families with one breeding pair), but someone is almost guaranteed to point out that it is both inaccurate and cliched.
• Alongside the fetishization of vampires, it's common to portray werewolves as virile, husky men and women, but overdoing it can derail the plot with too much wish-fulfillment unless you're writing porn. And going too far on the animalistic side of romance could cross the line to bestiality.

Potential Subversions

Don't think for one moment that all werewolves are the same. There can be differences.

• There are many legends of how someone can become a werewolf other than bites. Magical wolfskins, magic knives, curses and rituals abound and can throw investigators off their game believing they have it figured out, thinking they just need to find someone with a bite scar on their arm.
• Try subverting or deconstructing the commonly used strengths weaknesses associated with the werewolf. To give a couple examples:
  • Silver bullets or weapons can still be useful against werewolves, but rather than kill them instantly, it only leaves lingering pain when hit or it weakens their transformed self. Or better yet, have their human form tough to kill with silver weapons, and flip expectations on their heads by making it tougher still to combat a werewolf even with silver weapons. Or since silver bullets were created by The Wolf Man (1941), silver bullets make no difference against a tough, but ultimately killable, wild animal.
  • The full moon may be assumed to be the only time the werewolf transforms, but it's only due to the werewolf playing into stereotypes and waiting for the heat to die down. When the town thinks they have their suspect cornered and powerless, the werewolf transforms at will and shows them how wrong they are.
  • Another double subversion would be to toss in a really obscure werewolf weakness, such as saying their names or giving them food.
• As a beast wearing a human skin or a human wearing an animal visage, the werewolf can be anyone and no one the characters and the reader suspect to be. Musclebound hunk Randolph "Lone Wolf" de Lupo may be at the top of the suspect list until he turns up dead. But what about the always-tired gas station attendant no one pays attention to?
  • Werewolves and their victims are often all white and all heterosexual with the occasional Magical Native American or Magical Romani. How about an all-black cast or setting within the LGBTQ+ community? The latter has been fairly common in Werewolf films recently, so you might need to work harder to stand out.
  • Werewolves are always assumed to be humans by day. What if the werewolf was never human at all and the humans keep suspecting each other until it is too late?
• Try deconstructing heroines that fall in love with a werewolf. Even if they didn't know at first, it would be pretty fucked up to be attracted to a dangerous man that can easily kill her and has killed others.
• The amount of heroic werewolves subverting the evil werewolf narrative begs for the double subversion of a werewolf using the modern revision as a cover for their agenda or working at cross-purposes for a cause humans simply don't understand.
• Conversely, the wolf is often depicted as a Superpowered Evil Side, but what about a Superpowered Good Side, where an irritable person turns into a playful, affectionate wolf?

Writer's Lounge

Suggested Themes and Aesops

One can be surprised what they can learn from these creatures.

• The most common theme is the struggle between man's civilized and savage nature, how ordinary people can be capable of horrific acts of violence, involuntarily or completely at will. The loss of one's humanity while maintaining a pleasant public face. The insatiable hunger versus the fear of harming the ones you love. How far are you willing to go to protect yourself and others, what will happen when you inevitably fail? How much of that violent drive is the wolf, and how much is the human? Can our werewolf overcome the beast through great effort, or are they destined to fail at the worst possible moment?
• Positive depictions of werewolves sometimes suggest that control can be achieved by acknowledging negative urges and accepting them instead of trying to shut them away. Achieving balance may also be the key to unlocking a werewolf's greatest potential - all the benefits of a more aggressive, assertive nature without losing themselves to the violent beast.
• Themes of transformation can be extended to discuss puberty and adulthood, of growing up and seeing your body change and society changing how they perceive you. Sexual awakenings also tend to show up a lot as characters start getting in touch with the "wilder" side of themselves.
  • Werewolves also tend to be outcasts living on the literal and figurative edges of society, there are also possible themes of navigating social rejection, found family, and acceptance of what someone truly is. Expect allegory with all sorts of marginalized folk but be aware of taking too far into a Space Whale Aesop or making it too allegorical.
• There could also be a wider Green Aesop about how human encroachment brings humanity and nature into conflict. Traditional werewolf tales tended to view the wilderness and the people and creatures in it as dangerous and godless, but modern works take a more neutral or positive view of a person's embracing of nature.

Potential Motifs

Remember, pay attention to potential signs of the werewolf:

• Animal Motifs abound! Wolf-themed objects tend to be everywhere - wolf shirts, pelts, wolf-headed canes - sell the point that there is something stalking around the woods, though it can be tiring if overdone.
• The full moon is similarly omnipresent, as is the mystery and terror of a dark night, even if the werewolf is not bound to the moon. It is often the only source of light deep in the woods, an object that provides safety or foreboding.
• And of course, what is a werewolf story without Spooky Animal Sounds or that Wolves Always Howl at the Moon to signal that the beast is on the prowl?

Suggested Plots

There's always a chance to make a plot for the werewolf to follow:

• The murder mystery tends to be the most common - horrific murders wreak havoc in a community, the bodies mutilated to where it appears more the work of a beast than man. Can our detective or plucky citizens find the monster before they kill again?
• The Paranormal Romance is also a popular plot - the protagonist, often female, encounters falls in love with someone who is not who they present themselves to be. Or perhaps they are attracted specifically because of it. Will their relationship survive The Reveal, and could the werewolf overcome their inner beast to be with the one they love?
• If the werewolf is the protagonist, their struggle against the beast within is a gold mine for twists with how they defeat it, come to terms with it, or lose themselves to it.
• Making the werewolf the protagonist also allows them to fit into a wider variety of plots. They could be fighting a war with vampires, struggling against a society that rejects them even if they are in control, or leverage their abilities in solving a mystery of their own.
• Humans extirpated wolves from most of their historic range, and a werewolf is ultimately one creature with claws and fangs against numerous and well-armed humans. How would werewolves deal with no longer being at the top of the food chain, and what may take their place?

Departments

Set Designer/Location Scout

Be thorough as you search out potential lands the werewolf makes their home:

• Werewolf stories tend to be set in or near the wolf's natural habitat of the Wild Wilderness or Arcadia. Though with enough space to hide, a werewolf could be at home in the desert or corn fields just as easily as in the forest. If werewolves are depicted positively, there will be extension be Scenery Porn. If the story is leaning into Gothic Horror, then it'd be best to have setting be in Überwald or a variant. More modern times tend to set them in small towns, whether that be a Town with a Dark Secret, a Quirky Town or even Lovecraft Country. In any case, the Close-Knit Community will be shocked by the string of grisly deaths.
• Small, isolated communities could be further isolated by setting them in the winter, creating a Closed Circle of humans trapped in their homes while the wolf howls with the cold north wind, ready to break in at any moment.
• Though, if the story is an Urban Fantasy, the concrete jungle could work wonders. Works set in Victorian Britain could still play into Gothic Horror. A werewolf could hide in the alleys of a Wretched Hive or The City Narrows while the throngs of humanity provide perfect camouflage and easy prey.
• Non-traditional settings can be fuel for non-traditional stories - how would people deal with a werewolf in the close quarters of a ship, an airplane, or a moon base? How about the trenches of World War I or the cities of Ancient Rome?

Props Department

Well, now, it looks like the werewolf has left some clues behind:

• Any werewolf hunter worth their salt always packs his Silver Bullet, silver knives, and gadgets that could help them in a fight. Get creative and exploit the werewolf's weaknesses in interesting ways. Silver fragmentation grenades, silver nitrate in a bottle, or a silver sword oiled with a wolfsbane mixture make a flashy part of a hunter's arsenal.
• Something that can make Human-to-Werewolf Footprints, a Trail of Blood, claw marks, and nice big old heaping pile of Gorn will undoubtedly be useful. Throw in a Sinister Deer Skull, wolf skull, or human skull for good measure.

Costume Designer

Mind you, nobody, even a werewolf, dresses the same way:

• The werewolf is typically depicted in torn clothes that conveniently stay intact around the waist area, often as a clue of their real identity or a reminder of their shredded humanity. If the wolf is a fully intelligent creature, they may have even have clothes tailored for their unusual proportions or could transform with them.
• Wolf pelts tend to show up a lot as well, usually in the trim of a hunter's coat to show his experience or as the magic belt of the shape-changer.

Casting Director

Werewolves aren't the only players in the story. There are others to balance them out.

• The werewolf hunter, a veteran of a trade where many die young. He knows all there is to know about hunting the ultimate hunter, but he may be wrong, and if he's not the protagonist, he has a giant target painted on his back or could turn out to be an antagonist committing Van Helsing Hate Crimes.
• The Sheriff, the appointed protector of the community facing a threat they are ill-equipped to understand or deal with. They may not even believe anything supernatural is amiss, at least until faced with the undeniable.
• The Amateur Sleuth, the only person who really knows what's going on and often in a position where their words fall on deaf ears. It's thus up to them to solve the werewolf problem personally.
• The Everyman (or woman) that gets Welcomed to the Masquerade, whether through falling in love (or being merely associated) with a werewolf, hunting the werewolf, or becoming a werewolf themselves. A common protagonist choice that needs exposition to get them up to speed.
• Some kind of magician that knows what's really going on and dispenses pertinent advice about the werewolf's abilities and weaknesses. In some stories, they may be another werewolf that serves as a Good Counterpart or as The Mentor to the cub.
• A small pile of victims, Asshole and otherwise.
• That leaves us, of course, with the werewolf. They tend to have Werewolf Theme Naming, impressive physiques, and a tendency to be male. Feel free to subvert any of these expectations.

Stunt Department

Be ready for any stratagem these creatures will enact upon:

• A Transformation Sequence is a must, showing the twisting of the human form into a beast. It could be Painful with lots of Body Horror, or something flashy and fantastical.
• A victim, maybe the first or even the poor schmuck made into a werewolf, is chased through the forest at night, the monster invisible in the gloom. Leaves crash, roots and rocks trip them up, and a P.O.V. Shot closes on their screams as the wolf moves in for the kill.
• The Siege, where our characters must hold out against the beast (or beasts) until dawn. A howl pierces the walls and then claws break down doors and smash in windows. One makes it inside and now it's a terrifying close quarters fight against something that is built for melee combat.
• Torches and Pitchforks as a village singles out their suspect, whether they are truly the werewolf or not.

Extra Credits

Finally, refer to the following examples of the best werewolves in media while knowing which ones to watch out for.

The Greats

Film

• An American Werewolf in London - The visual standard for transformation sequences, the film also does a great job in depicting the personal horror and mental anguish of a werewolf.
• Dog Soldiers - Soldiers versus werewolves, what could be better?
• Ginger Snaps - Uses lycanthropy as a metaphor for female puberty, in all its disgusting, confusing glory.
• The Howling - One of the modern classics alongside American Werewolf, and largely responsible for the modern "man-wolf" form.
• Teen Wolf - Ain't no rule in the book saying a werewolf can't play basketball!
• Werewolf of London - The original werewolf film from 1935 codifying them as supernatural killers. While more obscure than the later 1941 film, it reintroduced the werewolf for modern audiences.
• The Wolf Man (1941) - The classic film from 1941, introducing the classic weakness of the silver bullet.

Literature

• Cycle of the Werewolf - A whodunnit in the style of an anthology by horror great Stephen King, as a town is stalked by a werewolf for a year. Its depictions of the werewolf attacks are incredibly suspenseful and horrifying, but leaves its characters somewhat underdeveloped.
• Mongrels - a look into the Blue-and-Orange Morality of werewolf culture, of how stories are the only thing keeping people together past the horror and hardship. Based on the author's own experience with life in poverty and their indigenous background's oral tradition, a teenager grows up with his werewolf aunt and uncle, constantly moving across the South to stay ahead of the law and their constantly reemerging past.

Tabletop Games

• Werewolf: The Apocalypse - a small-scale trope codifier of werewolf fiction since the 90s, combining various media depictions of werewolves and adding the twist that they are warriors fighting to defend Mother Nature from the cosmic manifestation of entropy and decay. While the various stereotyping elements haven't aged well, even in its time, more recent editions have sought to address them.

Western Animation

• Wolfwalkers - Visually stunning and dives deep into Irish lore with their Werewolves of Ossory while tying it into themes of environmentalism and colonialism.

The Epic Fails

• Most of the works based on the Omegaverse setting does not specifically include werewolves, but are highly reliant on the same cliches like A/B/O and tend on fall into explicit Slash Fic, though a few can be interesting explorations of unusual social dynamics. Needless to say, this should not be your primary inspiration.
• The Twilight Saga - In addition to the aforementioned problem of "portraying a real Native American tribe as shapeshifters", the series then goes out of its way to clarify that they aren't "real" werewolves. And don't get us started on the "imprinting on a baby still in the womb" weirdness.
• Anne Rice may be known for her vampire fiction, but her branching into werewolf fiction with The Wolf Gift is kind of a miss, with lycanthropy be more akin to gaining superpowers with little to no downsides greatly lowering the stakes.