When a young man betrays his best friend and ends up in hell for his deed, he quickly discovers that things are about to go way out of hand. Written by Trauma Advocate from September 07, 2006, to November 25, 2006, this is his third fiction to make its way to the Hall of Fame!
Do you want to read the fiction? Come on, you know you do! You can download it here, and read it at your own leisure.
Feel free to comment on the story, and tell us what you liked, didn't like, and
your overall opinion of the story! To comment, simply send
me a private message. You'll have to register at the RP Haven forums
to do so, but is that really a bad thing? Didn't think so.
You may also send me an e-mail with your comments, if you prefer.
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Some general information regarding To Become A Demon |
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| This fiction was written by Trauma Advocate. | The story is a fantasy. |
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This fiction was started on Thursday, September 07, 2006 |
This fiction was finished on Saturday, November 25, 2006 |
| This fiction was 47 posts long. | The story is 27,869 words long. |
| This story took 79 days to complete. | On average, 353 words were written per day. |
Here we have an interview with the writer of To Become A Demon, Trauma Advocate. Warning, there are some spoilers here!
| Interview with Trauma Advocate |
| Where and how did you come up with the idea for To Become A
Demon? Originally, Deon was inspired by Dante's inferno. Much later, after Destiny Dreams 5, I decided I really liked the character and wanted to write his backstory (I think I might have been at work, bored, at the time). When I wrote four pages straight just to test it out, I knew I had something. A lot of the actual content of the was inspired by games like Diablo and Painkiller. |
| What inspired you to sit down and write To Become A Demon? My early success with the story set me off. I was on a roll, and it dominated my imagination for a while. |
| Are any of the characters in To Become A Demon based on anybody you know online or in real
life? All of the characters have a symbolic significance to them, but I don't think any were actually based off real people, though Lamia's name and appearance was inspired by a character of Horn's. Gutwrench also may have been a rip-off of the lashers from Diablo 2, but everyone else is my own, honest! |
| Did you learn anything while writing To Become A Demon? Although a person telling his life story doesn't really warrant it, I realized my descriptiveness is sorely lacking. I never stop to take a look at the surroundings, I always want to just get to the good part, and it's hurting me. |
| Did you ever get writer's block while writing the story? How did you overcome
it? Yeah, and it was always a drag. It usually had to do with conflicting timelines and literary dead ends. The only way past it was to buckle down and press on. That, and listen to the right music. |
| What was the hardest scene to write in To Become A Demon? The hardest scenes to write were the ones I didn't enjoy reading. In this case, it was probably where they were preparing for war, it all just kinda... bleh. Didn't seem to fit. |
| What was your favorite scene to write in To Become A Demon? The final faceoff, of course. There's a reason the diabolic dialogue lasted so long. |
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Deon Sloan was
in Destiny Dreams 5: The Programmer's Tower. How much of his
character did you change between that role-play and To Become A Demon? |
| If you were to go back and rewrite To Become A Demon, what would you change, if
anything? There are some parts I don't like, but since I don't really know what to change them TO, I guess I wouldn't change anything. I might want to run over it with another grammar check, though. |
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Do you have any final comments you'd like to say about the fiction? Just that I'm really proud of this one. The characters, the emotion, the ending... I treasure it. I made mistakes, sure, and my version of hell can't compare with commercially packaged ones like I've mentioned before (or the religious versions, for that matter), but I still like it. |
Here we have comments from the people who have read the story.
| Name | Comment | Date |
| Wizard |
Well, this story was a change from the norm. A story from the perspective of one of Hell's Finest... Definitely interesting. I notably enjoyed Trauma's style of Hell. Fighting angels for souls is so much cooler than just standing around saying "OOOOH WERE SO BAD!" And Soul Cleavers... I'll have to take note of those for the future. |
December 05, 2006 |
| Mavrickindigo |
I really enjoyed this story and it inspired me to do more fiction writing of my own. I loved how well-developed and thought-out it was from beginning to end. Actually an interesting little fact about this story is that I had some hand in its creation. One of the characters in the story is based off a character of mine and I loved how Trauma Advocate gave a backstory to what would otherwise have been a throw-away villain. As for everything else, I constantly wanted to read more, and read as much as I could every day that I had set aside time for it. I think it's a great story for a great character from a great writer who probably helped keep one of my RPs alive. As soon as he introduced Deon I wanted to know more about him. Having his story now is probably one of the coolest things that this site has had in awhile. |
December 05, 2006 |
| Snowguy |
It was really good to be reading another one of Dan's stories. I remember that he would constantly ask me questions about what I thought of it, but it blew my mind to a degree that I become utterly speechless. Deon's journey from a human being to something much darker was a bumpy road for him, and an exciting ride for the reader. The little twists and tricks that were intelligently placed in the story made it even more enjoyable to read. |
December 05, 2006 |
| Matthias |
To Become a Demon was one of those rare stories, where the main driving force for reading it was not the plot. Granted, the plot is intriguing, harrowing, and engrossing, but what I found to be the main selling point of this story is the EXCELLENT characterization of its lead, Deon Sloan. I found myself wanting to know more about this character, to understand his thinkings and philosophies. I'm the kind of reader/consumer who NEEDS character development, it's the thing I need most in a story. If you don't have that, I couldn't care about the plot. This story has fabulous character development for Deon. Throw in a few shocking twists and turns, and an atmosphere dripping with life (or death, in this case), and you have the makings of an engrossing read, and a fantastic story. Excellent job, Trauma. |
December 09, 2006 |
| Ricky |
I found this story to be very interesting, well-written, and quite exciting. The characters were developed quite well, and the story never really slowed down. Yet another great story by Trauma Advocate! Great job!
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December 10, 2006 |
| Vash |
Well, I must say, I'm quite impressed. Deon is a pretty dynamic and compelling character, and the way Trauma cast the whole conflict between Heaven and Hell was simply - and I'm sure this word has been used before - epic. It actually kept me engaged, which is saying a lot, since I don't read very much anymore. While the whole premise of the story is disturbing by the very fact that it is from the perspective of "the bad guys," I didn't find anything in the story that was distinctly anti-Christian, which was something I've heard put a few people off. I found myself being reminded at certain parts of Paradise Lost, which I always thought was a very interesting read. Some might consider To Become a Demon somewhat heretical, but in the end, it actually has a positive (if somewhat cryptic) message. Speaking from a literary standpoint, the story flowed well and in a discernible direction. I was surprised by "Reaper" though. As soon as someone mentioned what happened to Schiano in the Neutral Realm, I was like "Omg it's Deadline. Feck, I liked him." What surprised me was that it wasn't Schiano. A nice use of irony there; bravo to Trauma for anticipating what his readers were thinking. It really drove home how "real" Deon seemed, at least from his rational and natural thought process. I noticed a lot of the names had iconic meaning, like Lamia and (obviously) Jack Russel. And I must admit, the revelation at the end that there actually is no Lucifer made me crack a grin. Anyway, in summation, I've got to say that it was quite a refreshing and, frankly, fun read. Trauma Advocate's got very vivid writing skills; which I honestly think he should pursue. |
January 09, 2007 |