Young Writers Society

I recently was inspired to write a new novel, which is tentatively going to be called Extraterrestrial. I won't start the first draft until I finish the second draft of my current novel, but I wanted to hear some thoughts on what the aliens in my story should look like. The story is set on Earth, and one of the aspects of it is that seemingly human characters are aliens who can shapeshift. I've been toying with the idea of creating an entirely new alien race or making them look like the alien down below.



I'm certain that the alien race doesn't look human, but I'm torn between both ideas. On one hand, I'd love to create a new species! I've never done that before, and I'm sure it would be a memorable experience. On the other hand, I'd love to tie in that race to famous alien sightings/encounters.

Thoughts?

What I would do is go Star Wars -- make a new one. If you use a typical alien, that is a) cliche and b) really hard to write description for. However, if you make your own alien, it's easier to describe and definitely not cliche.

Also, now whenever I make an alien race, I always make them look at least somewhat human (Ex.: Manasa from Tears of the Mind -- a story I have not posted -- looks completely human except for the fact that she is unnaturally skinny but still healthy, with healthy weight and stuff. She hides this with baggy clothes. Kimi from Rainbow Smiles -- yet another one in the same series that I have not posted -- looks human except that her eyes change color. Danube from Calm Waters -- you know the drill by now. Haven't posted -- looks normal except that he has some lines on his neck that look like scars but really are gills) so I won't accidentally go cliche. It's also really fun for characters to discover: "Oh wait they're not human." Those scenes are just perfect to write and make me laugh every time haha. A shapeshifting alien is always cool as well so that would be funny too once a "family member"/friend realizes that they aren't human.

Just a thought.

PM me with any questions about aliens. I love the extraterrestrial and am an expert on it (at least for my age).

Hope this helped! --

Kara

Thanks for the advice, @DemonGoddess! I'm definitely go to you if I have any questions about the extraterrestrial.

And thanks for the links, @SirenCymbaline. I looked over part of them, but I'll look at them in more depth if I decide I want to create an entirely new species. I'm guessing that's your suggestion too?

I would say it depends on your genre and audience. I love space operas so I did a bit of research on this before answering, sorry if it's a bit of an info-dump =p

So, there are the good old fashioned bug-eyed aliens like in E.T, which works great if you're going for something more classic. These usually take place where the alien is a thing that is purposely separate from the rest of the world, like an invasion or some kind of peculiar creature, so they might not work too well for your story.

There are the conveniently-human-looking aliens, like Superman and Thor, which tends to be useful for aliens that are kind of like normal people but get cool bonuses from their original race and don't have any technical complications with assimilating into the human environment. They tend to blend well into urban fantasy because their humaness (totally a word) means you can treat them like humans, and have their emotions and experiences reflect what is familiar to us without the extra terrestrial complications.

Then there are humanoid things, bipedals with functional eyebrows and human facial expressions that makes them easier for a human audience to empathise with, but other than that they function quite differently. They work really well in science-fiction and have a lot of elements you find in more complex fantasy universes, particularly the differences in biology and cultural variation.

If you want you could go with both ideas. Create a race unique to your own characters and plot, but also have a secondary, or multiple other races, who your characters will know of and have their own ideas and opinions of and that relate to historical extra terrestrial sightings.

I reckon the main thing to be wary of is that if the biological functionality of your alien's true form is too different from their humanoid form, then the way they experience the world, basic sensations, emotions e.c.t would be different, and you might risk distancing your reader from the characters when they appear with a new face and biology.

You're making shapeshifters, so you've got a lot of freedom there to begin with. You can make their real form look like classic aliens, and have them use shapeshifting to pass as humans. Simple.

Don't worry that the readers might find it harder to relate to and like a character who looks inhuman. It's the CHARACTER that they'll relate to.
I'd say what you really have to worry about is that if you make the alien character too human, people might wonder what the point of them being an alien is.

If your alien mostly looks human, and their body works mostly like a human, and they think mostly like a human, you might as well just be writing a weird human. So I'd say you should work out the base reasons of why you want to write an alien in the first place, and build everything around that.

Even if you go with a classic alien look, you're still creating a new culture and background for them. There's no classic culture behind the classic look.
You're not choosing between going classic and creating something new- you're still creating something new either way. Even if it's a new take on an old idea.

That's about all the advice I've got for now, I hope it was helpful.

It was! Thanks, @SirenCymbaline!

Thanks for the help too, @Tenyo. I really appreciate it.