Welcome and thanks for reading!

Today’s Writing Tip Topic: Species and Races. Today I’ll focus on the pros and cons of writing your own species versus sticking with the tried and true in both fantasy and science fiction.

I’d like to start by saying there are norms to both fantasy and science fiction. Science fiction tends towards creating your own from scratch and fantasy tends towards taking from mythology or from previous authors (Tolkien). However, there’s no particular reason, you can’t swap this around, but it is much easier to do either/or in fantasy, since there’s less need to justify it.

Building a race from mythology or the tried and true, such as elves, unicorns, the green skinned babe, and so on, has a couple advantages.

• You already have a base, of which to build off.
• The audience is already familiar with these species and creatures. Any explanation you give them should be on how your version of the species differs from the norm.

The disadvantages:

• The race or species can come off as stereotypical
• They can turn a reader off to your book if they’ve seen too many of this race or species.
• But if you change the species too much, it may either be unrecognizable or experience a backlash by the audience who don’t like the change.
• In science fiction, you must justify taking from mythology.

Now just because there are more disadvantages listed here over advantages doesn’t mean you should never use a base for your race. The advantages to this are strong advantages and the disadvantages can be avoided with some effort.

The challenge becomes making your race or species different and interesting, but hanging onto the balance of recognizability and not changing a core feature of the species.

A good example of an author, whose idea was interesting and different, but wasn’t entirely accepted by the audience is Stephanie Meyers. While many loved her Twilight series, many were also aghast at the idea that vampires sparkle instead of burned in the sunlight. This, among other things, put off a lot of readers to her books and is still a frequent complaint about her series.

On the other hand, building a race from scratch has its own set of advantages and disadvantages.

The advantages:

• You can make them whatever you want! There’s no core aspects you must have.
• They may fit the story you want to tell better, since you can create them yourself.
• This is really popular in science fiction. (believe or not, this is actually an advantage. Readers enjoy reading things that fit into what they believe a genre should be)

The disadvantages:

• They have to make sense.
• You must be able to explain and describe your race to the reader, without losing their interest.

In the same way as the build from a core race, the disadvantages do not necessarily outshine the advantages here. With effort, you can overcome the disadvantages.

The key to deciding which to use lies in which approach fits your story better. In some cases, having the race already understood by readers can be an advantage that should not be underestimated. For example, maybe you are telling a high fantasy story and you already need to introduce your readers to the world and everything in it. Having your races already known to the reader can cut back on the needed exposition.

On the other hand, maybe elves and dwarves don’t fit the story you are trying to tell. Maybe you need a species that can exist in vacuum for an indefinite period of time, because its a core plot point of your story. Then it might make more sense to build your own race.

Now most of you are going to see that I just fell into the fantasy vs science fiction tropes that I mentioned earlier, but you don’t have too. If you need or just want a species for your high fantasy that isn’t based on a core race. Go for it! If you want to have a science fiction race based off a myth, go for it! The fun is in building what you want and what you need for your story.

 

Now a warning: The biggest roadblock, I’ve seen, – and this is less of a disadvantage of either side and more of a pitfall to avoid – is that races tend to fall into stereotypical behavior and don’t deviate from it. By this I mean, elves are always elegant and haughty; Dwarves are always boisterous and warriors; Orcs are always mean and evil.

Alternatively a race may have only one trait. For example Klingons are the proud warrior race and you never see a Klingon scientist or a Klingon scholar or even a Klingon farmer. There are several good examples of writers not doing this.

My favorite is a webcomic author, by the name of Meg Syverud (and her co-artist, Jessica “Yoko” Weaver, who does an amazing job as the colorist!). She writes a webcomic called Daughter of the Lilies. In it, she has orcs, humans, and elves, and a few other races. Her major characters don’t fall into the stereotypes of their species, but come across as real beings with their own flaws and characteristics. However, it doesn’t stop there, because even her side characters give off the illusion of people living in a culture with various ideas and various personalities, rather than every member of the species having the same personality and same flaw.

Check it out here: http://www.daughterofthelilies.com/

 

As always, remember, in writing there’s no such thing as absolute advise. Enjoy your story and have fun writing!