Young Writers Society

All right, so I tried my best drawing a picture of what I had in mind for my fantasy novel, but I just don't know how to describe it in my book! So can anyone help me describe the picture like, The Leviathan's huge legs made him look like a giant frog or something... Thanks!

The Leviathon was an aqueous creature as could be seen from his large, webbed feet and a tail closely resembling that of the dolphin. He was aqueous in his strong, back legs made for moving quickly through the water and in his thick, rubber hide but his head and upper back were made for the skies. Dragon-like with his flame breathing snout and short, wing-like fins.

Okay so it's a quick throw togethr but hopefully it will give you a ffew ideas and there'll be a phrase here or there you can drag out of it. Drop me a pm if there's any part you want specific help with, like a way to describe the shape of his feet?

Also, cool drawing!

What I would need to know in order to help you out is where is this creature of yours from? From there then I could make a helpful suggestion. Also what does it smell like when it comes across a persons path. Is it foul or slimy etc? If you're looking for help we need a bit of background on this amazing creature you have created.

People are going to have their own mental picture of any made up creature anyway.

Use this to your advantage.

Describe snatches of the creature, never really letting it solidify. Please don't dump it all in one paragraph, and try not to load up any one sentence up with so much description that it chokes all flow. And, try to describe it the way the MC would, even if it is in third person. That little extra anchor to the MC can help you get a grip on how to describe it.

Now, how you actually describe things relates to whether or not this is a monster or a sympathetic creature. If it's a monster, describe the strangeness. Parts that you'd never hear together in any normal creature would have. Frog feet. A dolphin tail. Shorn off bat's wings. Things that don't go together at all. If it's a sympathetic creature, emphasize how everything works together instead of how different it is.

Just remember that you'll never going to get people to see it exactly the way you'd pictured it. Go for affect instead.

babymagic18 wrote:What I would need to know in order to help you out is where is this creature of yours from? From there then I could make a helpful suggestion. Also what does it smell like when it comes across a persons path. Is it foul or slimy etc? If you're looking for help we need a bit of background on this amazing creature you have created.

Okay so here is a few stuff about the Leviathan:
Nobody knows exactly where it lives, but it's usually seen in the White Sea. When fishermen or sea voyagers get even half a mile near it during its surfacing, they would be able to smell a combination of burning rubber and rotten flesh, but when they get any closer... They rarely survive. The Leviathan is completely covered in brownish green scales except for its eyes, claws, horns and fins (The wings are actually fins). So if anyone has any other questions that could help in describing the Leviathan, please ask

Hmm. This really confused me to be honest. I always thought the Leviathan was a carnivorous whale of gigantic proportions. However, a quick Google search has shown me otherwise.

In answer to your question, don't compare it to an animal, because then the reader will get a picture of what you compared it to in their head. For example, don't say,

The Leviathan's giant legs made it look like a frog

because it makes it comical. You picture a giant frog jumping around. Try,

The Leviathan's giant, reptilian legs

as this creates connotations of all things reptilian: scales, danger, aggression etc. Hope this was helpful!

Actually, there's quite a thorough description of Leviathan in the book of Job. If you need inspiration that might be a good place to start.

My book has a Leviathan actually

Some have legs and some don't- mine didn't.
They do have a massive tail, in some lore it is said to be 30-40 pounds when slamming into ships and such. Because it is a Mythical creature you can put you own little spin onto the beast. Leviathan's 'fins' as you call them can lift these creatures out of the sea and above ships.

This is how I described mine. = a character's name

turned as he spoke only to meet face to face with the great beast. "I correct myself, and we should probably RUN!" they all moved as fast as the could away from the leviathan. It lifted its long scaled neck up and created an eerie sound from its gut. The wind picked up as the massive beast swayed its four fin like wings and rose from the sea's cliff side. The tail followed the creature as it glided across the land, with razor sharp wings the trees did little to slow its speed.

Well you get the idea, right