My Author's Blog

Fantasy creatures brought to life!

         Thought today I would touch on another part of creating a Fantasy world for my fellow fantasy writers out there. One of the more fun, entertaining, and sometimes scary elements to a fantasy, mithilogical, or sci-fi world are fantastic creatures. These can be anything from a huge fire breathing Dragon, to a new and rare breed of horse, or little fairies that fly around the camp fire.
 
         I have always found, that when reading a fantasy or sci-fi tale, that I like the creatures in it to be well defined, well reasoned, and believable on some level of thought. When you place a fantasy animal, or mythical being into a story, weather it is one that you have barrowed from folklore or mythology, or one you created yourself, you need to describe it so that your reader can see, hear it, and even smell it if appropriate. When using an 'existing' creture some of that detail can be implied to rather than directly stated, that is if you are using the 'standard' look for that type of creature. Take a Minotaur from Greek Mythology for instance. When we hear this term, our minds automatically conjour the image of man shaped form, with the head and legs of a bull, and perhaps with thick hair over the rest of its body as well, waiting deep in the center of a labyrinth. We probably see him as being large, strong, and agressive. If we are using this as 'our' type of Minotaur, then we know that the reader already has at least a basic idea of what we are talking about. But lets say we want to make our Minotaur's a race, that needs to be referenced in some way, either by another character, or perhaps by seeing more than one of them, perhaps parents with a young one. Also we may want this Minotaur to have different reactions and character than the one in Greek Mythology, therefore we have to make surewe tell the reader that in some way, either through dialogue, or perhaps through the creatures actions, say maybe our Minotaur gets obviously squimish when he sees blood, or perhaps he has spectacles balanced on his snout because he is scholarly.
 
         Of course, something that I think is fun, is to create a new type of creature or animal, something that sparks the imagination and can give the reader the impression that this world is wide and complex, and not tied to completely to our everyday reality. With these types of creatures though, it's important to be descriptive about their appearance, their attitudes(again maybe just through their actions), their habits, perhaps even the feelings of others about them. Remember, when you create a whole new creature, or race, the reader has nothing to pull from to picture what you are talking about, therefore you are challenging yourself as a writer to place the picture that is in your head into theirs. So, before you start writing about that Skarlog, or Wererat, have a picture in your head of what they look like. Decide upon what kind of creature they are. Are they sentient? Are they animal-like? Do they speak to humans? Are people afraid of them, and do they have reason to be? Remember, this creature is the child of your imagination, and therefore you need to shape and mold them, give them flesh and blood so to speak, explore their personality, delve into their mind and see what 'makes them tick', both as individuals, and(if applicable) as a race.
 
         So fantasy/sci-fi writers out there, what kind of creatures/monsters/etc, do you use in your stories?
 
Until later, Happy Writing!
 
 
RD Williams
http://www.authorsden.com/robertdwilliams1