I'll confess that I'm honestly not sure of the difficulty in showing the body-surfing in a non-visual medium; indeed, it seems to me that showing how characters react to the new body, with its new proportions, perhaps even new sex, might be easier in writing.
As to whether it could work, I don't see why not. Admittedly I don't have the broader context or plot, so I don't know how it might work in your specific project, but it doesn't seem unworkable at all to me.
My Games & Writing
Yeah, I know that the initial 'Woah, I have a completely different body and am now slightly awkward/self concious' wouldn't be to difficult in a written medium. But then you'd perhaps have to conciously 'remind' the reader of it. I don't know... I can't help but feel it almost lessens the impact or something.
- I haven't read many books where it's been done, so I'm at loss for good examples.
edited 18th Apr '13 4:25:06 PM by TheMuse
How would it be better in a visual medium, however? Wouldn't you potentially have the same problem?
As to reminders, I imagine that they could be fairly understated — enough to prompt the reader's mind to link back to earlier descriptions, without themselves being full descriptions.
My Games & Writing
(That Guy You Met Once)
But on the other hand, please let me know when you figure out how to realistically draw a human soul.
edited 19th Apr '13 3:00:44 AM by Wheezy
Project progress: The Adroan (102k words), The Pigeon Witch, (40k). Done but in need of reworking: Yume Hime, (50k)
It's not drawing the 'soul' that is the problem. It's more of showing 'Look at this, this character is in a completely different body and looks radically different!"
I would imagine that simply describing the new body, and perhaps any issues that the "user" has with it — "argh, this one's flat-footed!" or *sigh* "there goes my lovely blonde hair...", for example — and trust that the readers remember the previous description. I don't think that it's important to lean heavily on the fact that the body is different — I think that readers will pick up on it, especially once they're used to the idea that the character body-hops.
My Games & Writing
Don't Fear the Spiders
If the main character is a body-hopper, visceral writing would help a great deal.
Keep it breezy!
One book that has body hopping is Every Day by David Levithan, where the narrator wakes up in a new body daily. You could check out that book.
Body hopping can be easily shown in written fiction.
edited 19th Apr '13 1:11:38 PM by chihuahua0
edited 7th Sep '13 3:07:35 PM by TheMuse