Creature Creation Do’s and Dont’s

This blog is about the do's and don’ts of character and creature creation. I used to have trouble creating characters. Lately that is, but not when I was a kid, I remember making things up all the time when I was little.. The Tyrask is the one I remember most vividly. It was almost like a werewolf, only mixed with a bull. They were grumpy and always looking for trouble. They were foul, barbaric and they smelled really bad. At least that’s what I remember. Then I started to grow up and I wanted to write books, and I’ve had trouble ever since trying to make up new creatures for my stories. I think that I have just been trying too hard. If you really think about it, creature creation is very simple. However, there are many do’s as well as many trepidatious don’ts involved in the process.

DON'T:
Don’t think that just because you make a creature that is bright purple, that it can’t be in your story about the green forest. What if that purple creature lives in the trees, hanging or sitting in the branches? It curls up and looks like a big and beautiful purple flower, Of course, when other inhabitants of the forest walks around below it or above, it springs into action, catching and devouring it’s prey in a single graceful swoop.

Don’t let people tell you that just because a critter has legs too short to walk on, that you can’t make it a viable part of the environment. What if your characters are walking through the woods and they see this adorable but sad looking creature waddling around among the bushes? They might feel the need to follow it until they hear crashing branches as a huge monster lunges toward the helpless creature. When the main character decides to intervene, they would surely be surprised as the stumpy critter bounces high into the air, and lands directly in the flowing mane of the terrifying monster, and together they ride through the forest, away from the heroes.

DO:
Use your imagination to its fullest extent. If you want to make a character or a creature that speaks every known language plus one, do it. If you want to make someone who changes colors every day, do it. If you want to make the main character in your book a talking cracker, do it. The point that I’m trying to make is that you can literally make anything you can think of become real in your stories, as long as you have a rhyme and reason for it. If you can tell a great story about a world full of box cutters that only eat lettuce. Do it!

 During this blog I am reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. it is very different from what I normally read, but I highly recommend it to anyone wishing to broaden their horizons and try something new.

"If you don't get lost, there's a chance you may never be found."  ~Author Unknown