(The sound of a pen scratching.) LOGO.
Hellooo everybody! Today we’re talking about one of my favorite parts
of the reading and writing process, and that’s fictional
creatures and monsters. You guys already know I am
a HUGE fan of mythical creatures. You may
or may not be able to guess my favorite one.
(Neighs) As someone who’s created a monster or two,
I’m here to break down my ten tips for whipping out
super original, super fun monsters! This topic was
requested by one of my patrons over on Patreon, MH
Kelley. They wanted to know all about
my creature and monster creation process, as well
as my favorite and least favorite monster tropes. I will
cover the first topic today, and save the second
part for a future video. Before we get started, my dark
fantasy novel The Savior’s Sister is currently available
for pre-order in ebook, paperback, AND hardback.
I have all of the links listed below.
I also have a HUGE presale giveaway going on.
Everyone who pre-orders TSS is welcome to
enter. And once you’ve entered, everyone will be walking
away with a five (5) chapter teaser of
The Savior’s Sister. PLUS you will be eligible to
win a bunch of prizes. One of those prizes is a
signed copy of
The Helm of Darkness by A.P. Mobley, and if you’re
a fan of fictional monsters, particularly
fictional monsters in Greek mythology, you
will love this book! I’m going to announce the winner of
The Helm of Darkness at the end of this video, so stick around.
If you want even more writing and publishing tips,
please, please, PLEASE subscribe to my channel and ring
that bell! Do it right now! We have a good time.
We show up here on Wednesdays, and sometimes Mondays. It’s
awesome! You should subscribe! But first
I’m dishing out my top ten tips for writing fantastical
creatures in three, two, one, go! Number
One (1): Rate the relevance.
How important is this creature to your world? “But Jennaaa, it’s
obviously really important! That’s why I’m creating it.”
Everything FEELS important during the creation process,
but that doesn’t
necessarily mean those feelings are FACT. I
created a monster while writing The Savior’s Champion,
and while I ADORE that creepy little guy,
he only showed up for one chapter. That doesn’t
mean it wasn’t valuable or served it’s purpose, but it’s a good
idea to have an honest conversation with yourself
regarding how much weight
this monster is going to serve in your story. You need to do this in order
to decide how much time you’re going to put into this creature’s story.
You don’t want to spend weeks inventing a monster,
and have it only show up for one page. Rate it’s relevance,
and you’ll be able to determine how much
time, effort, and detail should go into it’s creation. Number Two (2):
Understand your goal. Not all creatures are created equal.
Unicorns are beautiful. The Sphinx is
mysterious. The moth man is scary. You need to
determine what the underlying goal
of this creature is supposed to be, in terms of it’s
representation in your book. Are you trying to create
something whimsical or fearful? Something
puzzling, or bloodthirsty?
This is an aspect you need to determine early on because it will
dictate your entire process. Say you want to
create a monster who looks soft and unassuming,
but on closer approach is highly dangerous.
This could mean you’re creating something that looks like a pegasus,
but acts like a chimera. Number Three (3): Personal preference.
I often hesitate to mention personal preference in these
videos, because sometimes writers can make their work too
personal, in which case it’s harder for them to notice
mistakes, because they are WAY too attached to the concept. However,
when it comes to creatures,
personal preference can actually do a world of good. What do
YOU personally find beautiful? What do
YOU find terrifying? It can be so much easier to
convey these traits when you are personally invested in them.
Take, for example, my fears. Since I can remember,
I have been fascinated and afraid of deep
sea creatures.
News flash! A lot of people are terrified by deep sea creatures, which means it’s
a perfect starting point for creating a scary
monster. Number Four (4): Ask yourself ‘Why?’
It’s not enough to know what you find magical or terrifying.
You need to know WHY that’s the case. This will
require some introspection, but that’s good for you.
Your therapist agrees! Take a step back and ask yourself,
“Why do I find unicorns so
stunningly beautiful?” Or, in my case, “Why are deep
sea creatures so horrifying?” For starters, the deep sea
is dark. I’m scared of the dark, because something could
happen, and you’ll never know!
‘Cause it’s dark! The deep sea is also
largely unexplored, which means most of the
creatures down there are completely unknown to us.
We have no idea what to expect, and that doesn’t
sit well with me. PLUS most sea creatures are
as far from humanoid as it gets. They got tentacles!
They got glowing lightbulbs on their head!
They got fins and fangs! Lastly, deep
sea creatures are ugly as hell! A.k.a.
Creepy little monsters...
Number Five (5): Trope subversion. I find that creature creation is the
perfect time to implement some good old
fashioned trope subversion. That’s what I love about creating
monsters - it gives you the opportunity to do the unexpected.
I mentioned pegasus and unicorns are two creatures
that are widely considered beautiful. You know what they have in common?
They’re both white!
What if your beautiful creature was black, or purple,
or hell - literally any other color! A lot
of scary creatures are black. What if
yours was white? Or mother of pearl. I don’t know.
Do something different! Give your readers the chance
to say “Wow,
I haven’t seen that before!” That’s the beauty of creation. You’re
in the driver’s seat, and you get to change the rules
however you please. Number Six (6): Origin story.
Depending on the relevance of the creature,
it’s origin story may never be mentioned. It may
not be applicable to the plot. Maybe your characters have
no idea where it came from. Maybe it’s a mystery.
Maybe it’s just not important. But it’s helpful
for you to know where the creature came from, for no
other reason than to make the creation process easier
on you. Now, something to keep in mind is that if you’re
creating a fantastical monster, your readers
know it’s fake. This means the monster’s origin story doesn’t necessarily
have to be realistic, it just needs to be
be realistic to the world and plot
that you’ve created. Number Seven (7): Strengths.
This should be a given, but in case it’s not, it’s a good
idea to know what your monsters are really, really good at.
This is especially relevant if your creature is really scary. What about it makes you not want to go up against
it in a fight? “But Jenna! My creature only shows up
for one chapter. It’s
not THAT important to the story.” Don’t matter!
You don’t get to skip this step! Besides,
figuring out the strengths is REALLY easy to do.
For example, does your monster have wings? Then
one of it’s strengths is that it can fly. BOOM!
Not hard at all. Number Eight (8): Weaknesses.
Because this SHOULD be the next obvious step. Figuring out
your creature’s weaknesses is especially relevant if you’re creating
a big bad monster, and your cast is gonna have to fight ‘em at some
point. If the creature is completely invulnerable,
that ain’t gonna work! Unless you’re writing a tragedy...
Even if your cast believes the creature is invulnerable,
you should be able to concoct some
vulnerabilities for it, at least for your own
knowledge as the all-powerful writer god. The great thing
about creature creation, is that you get to be CREATIVE.
You don’t have to be obvious with the weaknesses, like
head injuries or a blade to the heart. Achilles
had a vulnerable heel, you can do anything.
I support you.
Which brings us to Number Nine (9): Spot the
differences! A lot of fictional creatures are based on
other fictional creatures OR real world species.
Take for example, the guardians in my dark fantasy romance
The Savior’s Champion. They were loosely based
off of viper fish and dragon fish. But if you replicate
these animals, you’re not doing anything
different, so you need to think clearly and specifically
about what makes your being unique.
This especially goes for humanoid creatures. So
many writers create humanoid species that are
exactly like humans except they have wings, or
their skin is a different color. What if they have four lungs
instead of two, due to the oxygen
on their planet? What if they only require ten
hours of sleep a week? Even Vulcans from Star Trek
had things like inner eyelids, and their
heart was in their torso instead of their chest. Remember, you
are inventing a brand new creature using your
beautiful,
fucked up mind. BE CREATIVE! I mean
the aliens from Avatar had sex with their ponytails, so
really anything is possible. And lastly, Number Ten (10):
How much do your characters know? As we already covered, a lot of
this information may not be
relevant to your story, depending on how important this creature
is to your plot.
If that’s the case, you need to recognize and respect when to take your
foot off the gas. And by the gas, I mean info-dumping
about your creature.
This is especially relevant if your characters don’t know a whole
lot about this creature. For example, if they’re stumbling
upon an alien race for the very first time. You may
know your alien’s origin story in minute detail,
but this book is told through your
character’s point of view. If they’re clueless, lay
off the omniscience. I encourage writers to
learn as much as they can about their creatures, because you never know
when that ugly ass monster is gonna pop again
later in the story. But PLEASE resist the urge to
overload your reader with creature building that is either
inconsequential to the plot, or
unknown to the characters involved. So that’s all I got for you
today! A HUGE thank you to MH Kelley for
requesting this topic. If you’d like the
chance to have a video dedicated to you, or if you want
access to TONS of other awards, check me out on Patreon!
We’ve got a monthly livestream, we have early access
to videos, we’ve got an exclusive
writing group, there’s signed merch! It’s awesome!
I have it linked below! Now its time to hand out a prize! One
lucky reader is walking away with The Helm of Darkness by
A.P. Mobley, and the winner
is...this person!
Thank you SO much for pre-ordering The
Savior’s Sister! Your support means SO much to me!
And a huge thank you to A.P. Mobley for always having
my back and being such a wonderful force in
the fantasy community. If you want to read
a dark fantasy novel featuring romance,
violence, action, political
intrigue, and all that good stuff, be sure to
pre-order The Savior’s Sister!
It is available in ebook, hardback, and paperback.
PLUS I got this giveaway going on, and you could win prizes!
It’s all listed below! Check it out!
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