How to create and describe creatures?

[HourglassMemory]

How do you describe creatures that you've invented? How do you make them belivable and scientifically accurate?
One example of what I'm trying to achive...are creatures like those you see on the new King Kong movie, in Skull Island all those amazing creatures. How can I come up with original creatures like those but at the same time belivable? And also, How the Hell do I describe them?

[alleycat]

Here's a couple of ways to come up with new creatures.

Take animals you know and "mix" them up. For example, a frog the size of a dog with four feet and hairy body, or a horse with wings and a head like an eagle.

Imagine animals living in a different environment than they're usually found. A sheep like creature that lives in the rain forest and climbs trees (it's hooves are claws), a bird that spends it's life burrowing in the ground.

I hope that helps a little.

ac

[HourglassMemory]

Lol of course it helps and any other suggestions and advices will be welcome too.

[Anya Smith]

How do you describe creatures that you've invented? How do you make them belivable and scientifically accurate?
One example of what I'm trying to achive...are creatures like those you see on the new King Kong movie, in Skull Island all those amazing creatures. How can I come up with original creatures like those but at the same time belivable? And also, How the Hell do I describe them?


I have many aliens in my sci-fi stories. One of my favorites:

The Medysta towered over the Pillarax, one of his blue secondary arms snaking around the tiny insectoid in a protective gesture. His large brain lobes hung almost to his shoulders, indigo eyes sweeping over the Human crowd. They started to move slowly, the Pillarax lifted above the Station's deck by her gravity harness. The Medysta stretched his primary arms sideways, supple blue snakes, and the crowd pulled back. Then the alien delegates hurried through the door of the Space Force Headquarters.

Again, this is a short exceprt from one of my sci-fi stories.

[Sage]

Here's a couple of ways to come up with new creatures.

Take animals you know and "mix" them up. For example, a frog the size of a dog with four feet and hairy body, or a horse with wings and a head like an eagle.

Imagine animals living in a different environment than they're usually found. A sheep like creature that lives in the rain forest and climbs trees (it's hooves are claws), a bird that spends it's life burrowing in the ground.

I hope that helps a little.

acDescribing a created animal this way (assuming non-omni-POV), however, only works if your character is in a world that has the creatures you started with (frog, dog, horse, eagle, etc.). If you are in a fantasy world where there are no frogs or dogs, your character can't reference that this large furry amphibian is a hairy "frog" the size of a "dog."

If you find yourself in that situation, just describe the features of it w/out talking about the animals you're piecing together.

Or start from scratch making the creature. Add features that will help the story. Should it be two-legged or four-legged (or 6, 8, etc.)? Should it have claws? Does it have fur, feather, scales, slimy skin, just plain skin? And so on & so forth.

[FlyByNight]

The reason that most creatures are created is to represent a human quality or emotion. They might also exsist to teach us a lesson about our society, ie Frankenstien. If you concentrate on what message you are trying to relate, the creature might create itself. Look around, there might be people in your life whose charactoristics can be exagerated into some extreme form.

[Akuma]

It doesn't have to even look different, Hourglass.

You could have a perfectly normal-looking Chiuaua except that you might create it with telekinetic killing powers and give it the name of, I don't know, Death Dog.

With creatures like these, you might describe instead their normalcy, or the effect they have on your characters. Or, in the case of a Death Dog, the ridiculousness of it all.

[Sentia]

Form defines function. Ask yourself questions about the creatures: how do they move (walk, fly, crawl); what kind of climate are they adapted to (warm, cold, water, arid); what do they eat (flesh, plants); how do they mate (asexual, sexual); how do they communicate (songs, noises, telepathic); et cetera.

Pretend you have just witnessed a crime committed by one of these creatures. The police sketch artist sits, waiting for you to describe it. You close your eyes, and the image of the creature comes to mind. The police officer wants to know, how many heads, legs, arms, eyes, what kind of hair, antenna, et cetera ...

When I'm letting my imagination wander, I find it's easier to dictate into a tape recorder instead of typing, so my right brain can scamper wherever it wants in search of descriptions from the mundane to the bizarre.

[Akuma]

Pretend you have just witnessed a crime committed by one of these creatures. The police sketch artist sits, waiting for you to describe it. You close your eyes, and the image of the creature comes to mind. The police officer wants to know, how many heads, legs, arms, eyes, what kind of hair, antenna, et cetera ...

On that same note, I find it easier to begin with simpler adjectives (blue, small, etc.) before moving on to more complex ones (throbbing, prickly, etc.).

In fact, sometimes all you need are the simple ones, if any at all.

[fallenangelwriter]

How do you describe creatures that you've invented? How do you make them belivable and scientifically accurate?
One example of what I'm trying to achive...are creatures like those you see on the new King Kong movie, in Skull Island all those amazing creatures. How can I come up with original creatures like those but at the same time belivable? And also, How the Hell do I describe them?

You're asking a few complex questions here....

making interesting and memorable creatures is one thing, and the way people generally go about it is markedly different for fantasy, horror, and sci-fi, respectively. still, the advice on this thread is good.

as for making them scientifically accurate.... i don't know, but that's much trickier. jsut grafted animals ont one another willy-nilly is likely to end up creating beings with serious problems scientifically....

still, that may or may not be an issue... for instance, i doubt very much that King Kong is in any way accurate... lifeforms beyond a certain size start having problems which effect his metabolism, bones structure, and so on a giant gorilla can only get so big before it has ot chang einto something no longer really resembling a gorilla... square-cube laws have a lot to do with this.

[Jamesaritchie]

You're asking a few complex questions here....

making interesting and memorable creatures is one thing, and the way people generally go about it is markedly different for fantasy, horror, and sci-fi, respectively. still, the advice on this thread is good.

as for making them scientifically accurate.... i don't know, but that's much trickier. jsut grafted animals ont one another willy-nilly is likely to end up creating beings with serious problems scientifically....

still, that may or may not be an issue... for instance, i doubt very much that King Kong is in any way accurate... lifeforms beyond a certain size start having problems which effect his metabolism, bones structure, and so on a giant gorilla can only get so big before it has ot chang einto something no longer really resembling a gorilla... square-cube laws have a lot to do with this.

All true. Fantasy almost never follows rules of science or logic with creatures. Winged horses and fire-breathing dragons, etc. Horror often tries, but with mixed results. Even science fiction comes up with some real losers, such as giant ants, etc.

Aliens in SF are often even worse. The writer just comes up with something that looks weird, but no thought is given to whether or not such a creature could actually exist, and if it could, then why and how. Or what the rest of the creatures on that world would logically be like.

[alanna]

I look through my GURPS fantasy creatures book, and mix those animals up. ::sheepish grin:: It makes for some very intriguing characters.

[Sage]

I look through my GURPS fantasy creatures book, and mix those animals up. ::sheepish grin:: It makes for some very intriguing characters.I have also used a few from D&D monster manuals, & some that I created my self, & some that are a combination of the two.

[alaskamatt17]

I haven't done much in the way of creating my own species, but I find that some of Earth's older species can be hard to describe to somebody who doesn't know them. Here's one of my favorite bits of dinosaur description, from my short story "Feral:"

Troodon formosus: Dad's favorite dinosaur. Greek for "beautiful wounding tooth." Slender, a little over a meter tall, the animal on the other side of the water stood poised and delicate, but Jesse wouldn't call it beautiful. As for the teeth ... he imagined they'd live up well to the name's promise.


There's a painting of the animal here: http://www.marshalls-art.com/pages/ppaleo/largepaleo/largepg16/Troodon.htm

[Akuma]

still, that may or may not be an issue... for instance, i doubt very much that King Kong is in any way accurate... lifeforms beyond a certain size start having problems which effect his metabolism, bones structure, and so on a giant gorilla can only get so big before it has ot chang einto something no longer really resembling a gorilla... square-cube laws have a lot to do with this.

Hmmm...I did wonder why King Kong didn't just split open like a horror-movie piñata when he fell from the building... I'm pretty sure that even a creature of his size would suffer more...grisly effects.

But I'll reserve that thinking for a sci-fi thread or something.