[Writing/OCs] I've been struggling with my writing projects for a while now, but I had this crazy idea at work tonight that would radically change a character and the entire book, but... I think I kinda like it...?

To give a little bit of detail here... Owen, the main character in my book, is a shapeshifter

He's kinda fallen in with his sister and best friend as a thief and con artist as the story begins, using his Gifts for little more than petty theft and vindictive little moments.

Vindictive how? The first scene actually has Owen seeing someone bully a kid, so he both picks his pocket and assumes his identity, spending all of his money and maxing out his credit cards.

Anyway.. one part of this story is that every Gift comes with consequences.

Healers relive the memories and pain associated with injuries, any vision a Seer has always ends with the moment of their death, etc.

With Owen, he's always has two limitations: He has to eat a LOT of food to get the energy to shift, and he's got a psychological block where he can't morph away his scars.

Which... admittedly, isn't that big of a deal if you come down to it.

But randomly at work I got an idea... what if taking someone's identity was more than just assuming their physical appearance after making contact with them?

Like... little fragments of their personality and memories get jumbled up with Owen's.

There's a really cool Twilight Zone episode from the 90s where an older man is short on money and sells his memories to a local business that then gives them to other people.

At the end of the story, one of his most precious memories is taken away, and the man pulls out a gun and demands it back. For some reason, it can't be filtered back...

So he gets ALL of the memories in the system.

And I thought that might be an interesting idea to play with... what if you weren't ever completely sure which memories were yours?

And there's a theme to the whole story about accepting who you are and finding your own identity, and that aspect to his powers would play really strongly into that.

But it would also require changing a lot of the story, and Owen's character would be radically different.

So... I dunno. It's an idea, I guess.

it's a neat idea!