Fantasy Races Writing Tips from the Pros: Kell Inkston
So dapper.
Hey there,
Let’s talk about fictional races, and how to make them both interesting and real. An interesting species will draw people into your series, and give you room to taut your creative juices, whereas also making them real and believable does wonders for investing those hooked readers into the real meat and potatoes of your carefully crafted world.
In this short summary I’ll being outlining a few examples from both my own work and that of others.
Now, onward!
Interesting.
This one may appear simple at first, but there’s a lot of nuance to it. What makes someone find a race, species, nation, or even group of characters worth reading about? We must approach the question of genre, and to utterly butcher the concept into its very elemental components, that question is as follows:
Ask yourself: Given the setting of the book, how do I want to make the reader feel? Again, it’s not truly that simple, but I find this is a fair guidepost when you’re starting out. Consider this: knowing the genre you’re writing to, and thus the kinds of people who will be reading what you’re writing, what sort of race would interest them most? Are they reading because they want a grand adventure, are they reading because they want to see different cultures communicate and handle issues, or perhaps they’re just reading because they want to find something to be afraid of?
It’s your job to find this out, and then create a whole nation of someone’s that fit the bill for this.
Wouldn’t it be unusual for your peaceful diplomatic sci-fi to introduce a race of creatures for which diplomacy is never an option? Keep it in mind, but ultimately you have the freedom to stay true to your vision.
You want your race to apply to the rules of the genre, and be auxiliary to a sense of wonder, discovery, dread, or whatever you’re looking to conjure up in your writing’s universe. Keep in mind that you don’t have to show the same side of a race (do evil orcs enjoy baking?) if you’re going for a specific feeling.
Depending on your protagonist’s point of view, you can get almost any genre-feeling out of any species you like – the power is in your hands!
If your main character is a mole-person who’s never seen the world above, just how would he interpret a typical bunch of humans? Make sure to ask these questions when building out your world, because the way your main characters interact with these races could have a significant butterfly effect on how believable your story’s primary goals become.
This goes beyond planning considerations for setting up your story: Whether you’re a pantser, a plotter, or a “plantser” when it comes to constructing your narrative, it is imperative that you have at least a cursory grasp on what role you want them to play.
Barring that, I highly recommend making your fictional races as cool as possible.
The Vulcans from Star Trek may seem plain at first sight (grumpy space elves, anyone?) but once viewers get to know Spock and the rest of his (half) species, it becomes apparent that there’s more going on under the hood of this metaphorical star-cruiser. The Vulcans don’t have to be “cool” for the sake of coolness, but they become cool because of the sorts of questions they raise and the unique situations that a supposedly emotionless people might get themselves into.
The viewer, reader, player, or what-have-you must ask himself: “what would a society of these people look like?”
Check out Occult Vengeance and Kell Inkston’s super awesome Soot Knight series for more kickass fantasy races!
That brings us to the second bullet point for our part of an outline:
Believable.
Now, you have someone that grabs the reader’s attention, but how exactly do you make it feel real?
How do you increase the quality of most things?
It’s the same with writing as it is with carpentry: detail!
To draw from one of my own book series, Voidstar Empire, the Ardians are a sentient race of human intelligence that evolved from hornets. Physiologically they still have a queen, a female soldier caste, and males who act as drones, but this is a modern society: what sorts of civil issues would have shaped them throughout history?
Would the drones have fought for suffrage? Would the workers have requested the right to raise their own families? Did this happen in the past as something to shape their society before we see it through the protagonists, or is it something that’s a current issue that potentially leads the plot?
Remember that whoever and whatever you make, if they have any agency at all, they will invariably affect their environment. It’s here that we enter the realm of questions: be sure to ask yourself as many as you feel is needed, because with every one you answer, your species will become more defined, more real, and more endearing to the reader.
Think about one of your fantasy races for a moment. I’m sure you have at least one swimming around your mind somewhere.
Now start with the questions: What tools would they build to solve their problems? What size dwelling would they need? If they’re modernized, how did they figure through nuclear power, the internal combustion engine, and any other sort of discovery?
If they’re insectoid, what did they do when they discovered the chemical compound for bug spray?
Did religion develop in their world?
And perhaps the grandmaster of all species-building questions:
Are there any significant disagreements among them?
You can play this game against yourself and your race for hours, and perhaps days if their culture comes into focus in the book.
Conclusion.
Ultimately it’s your task to make your race both satisfying to read about, and believable enough to keep that satisfaction secure as you lead your reader through your awesome story. By keeping the short principles above in mind, you too can make the next dwarves, or Borg, or seven-eyed lizard people who only speak backwards.
Have a wonderful day - Onward and Inkward.
This post was written by Kell Inkston.
Kell Inkston is an extrarealmic S.E.E.R. analyst tasked with viewing and recording causal events within lower universes. He compiles these writings on the side for the entertainment of the public and to take credit for it himself—the jerk. If you were to tag him with a single niche, it would be "multi-dimensional fantasy" though that itself isn't quite on the money.
His passions include coffee, birdwatching, gardening, videogames, and the beach he never gets to visit.
He lives with his split psyche counterparts and two psychotic dogs in uptown Inklend on Ivy Lane—the side of the street that doesn't actually have Ivy on it.