For this installment of Inside the Writer's Studio we will now turn our attention to physical archetypes, specifically speaking - the starting point of a character that will be augmented / enhanced.

Most transformational stories (not all, to be certain) that I've read usually start out involving an average sized individual of reasonable healthiness, sometimes of less then normal height or body mass (i.e. thin as a rake).  I think the reason for this almost stereotypical motif is to help reinforce the impact of the transformation has on the reader - i.e. the radical differential between what the character had been and what they'd become as a reborn being.  That it's easier to describe the "growth scene" or "process of growth" probably also goes a long way to explaining why this is the case with so many stories.

However, rather then this - have you (or not, or maybe not yet) used a less then average subject?  Perhaps someone who is overweight (perhaps even seriously obese), elderly/aged (w/ age regression as part of the transformation) or physically impaired in some fashion, perhaps wheelchair-bound or lacking some other ability that most people normally take for granted.

Adjunct to this question, does the transformation into a super-superior being automatically equate to making this individual better - or do they become worse in nature?  I'm thinking in the terms of how Marvel comics is typified by the concept that the psychological strengths and flaws in person's character eventually lead them to becoming a hero or a villain.

I'm fairly sure that I've seen a fair few with overweight girls... I just did one on the addventure of that very nature.

But yeah, the short, cute, wait is usually the one that gets FMG'd... I suppose there probably ought to be some more variety but I'm thinking more in the sub-average... BE stories where the girl starts out with tits bigger than her head are kind of... meh, if a girl starts off as a a bodybuilder - well, that's kind of meh too.

My stories tend to involve girls who are on the slightly plump side. My current heroine (if you can call it "current", given that I haven't worked on it in over a month ), Callie, though, is less than average in terms of weight.

As for future stories involving less than average characters, while I wouldn't rule one out, I can't see myself doing anything like that soon.

I buy that.  That is probably one reason you seldom see this theme.  In good fiction you want to be fair to your character and give her 3 dimensions rather than make her some stock caricature.

As for accuracy and realism, though, I don't know how many writers in this genre balk at stories just for lack of knowledge.  Maybe the ones who post to this board want to sound like they know what they're talking about, but I'd say many a writer doesn't bother with technical details.