1 a : an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure b : one who deviates from normal or acceptable behavior or character
2 : a threatening force
3 a : an animal of strange or terrifying shape b : one unusually large for its kind
4 : something monstrous; especially : a person of unnatural or extreme ugliness, deformity, wickedness, or cruelty
5 : one that is highly successful

 

So, let's pick apart these and see how they could be interpreted, shall we?

 

1a.) This could include almost any living thing. Weirdness is in the eye of the beholder, so you could probably get away with just about anything that the average joe would find odd.

1b.) This could include a lot of people. An outcast, a visionary, a hero, a freak, an adventurer... anyone who isn't regular or normal could technically fit this description.

2.) Almost anything can be threatening. An animal, a person, a natural disaster. This is really vague- which is good for you writers!

3a.) Again, weirdness (or strangeness) is a matter of opinion, so any living thing that isn't accepted as normal would work here. An animal of terrifying form could refer to any creature capable of harming a human being- an angry herbivore on the defensive, a hungry predator, a vicious monster...

3b.) Any living thing extraordinarily large. A mythical giant, a massive plant or animal, even a gigantic machine could apply here.

4.) Almost any villain could fit this bill, as well as ugly/deformed characters like hunchbacks or opera-loving phantoms.

5.) This could refer to anyone or anything that is highly successful. An eerily efficient supercomputer, a bloodthirsty apex predator, a big business mogul, maybe that annoying kid in the front of the classroom who always answers all the questions right? It's pretty open-ended.

 

I guess what I'm trying to point out here is, "don't be turned off by the monster requirement". A monster can pretty much be ANYTHING, so if you think about it, this really isn't much of a requirement at all. It's simply my way of getting you to write something out of the ordinary, something fictional, something... monstrous.

To those of you who plan on submitting fiction, I wish you the best of luck. To those of you here just for the reading- Enjoy! I know I will!