Writing Help ~

[Volaju]

Hey everyone, I was curios if someone could help me out with something. I've been writing a book and I've come across a little hitch that's been itching at me. There are multiple races and sentient species in the book - I've come to the conclusion that the list will grow as I write as the world becomes more fleshed out and grows into a story of its own.

However, there are some creatures that are just sort of essential to the carry on of things, so I was wondering should I introduce the races wen they are first seen in the story if I should come up with a another way to describe the different creatures.

Got any opinions or suggestions for me? I won't be diverging from the multiple-species kind of thing so that's out of the question c:

[Tanemon]

I like writing that runs from the specific to the general.

If you describe a race, you're working with a generality. If you describe an individual within that race, you're working with specifics. For the most part, I like specifics being described first - and then possibly some encapsulating statement, some generalization, some sweeping 'fact' about the person (or in theis case, race) being described.

It's definitely a greater challenge if you're describing 'a person' who isn't human at all... doesn't stand upright on two legs, have a head with eyes, nose, and mouth on the same side, have two arms and hands (with five fingers), and smooth skin (rather than scales), etc. Because descriptions of people can assume all these things, and you can start the description with actions or intentions, or with personality traits... your readers know the general parameters of a human.

If you describe the behavior of a dog, it's similar - sure, dogs' sizes and the coloring patterns of their coats can vary a lot more than with the appearance of people, but you can still assume that the reader will know how dogs act, generally.

I write some fiction, but it's about humans. I sometimes will describe a dream sequence - which can be very surrealistic - but it's still a territory known to humans: it's a dream someone had, with dream dynamics in it.

So, you'll have to make a choice. While I like specifics being described first, and then possibly some generalization or some sweeping fact about the person or situation, I'm not sure just how well this will work with your races or creatures. If we imagine an intelligent, capable being that resembles, say, a giant sow bug with prehensile hands - an advanced being - you can't know what your reader can picture about the behavioral norms of this being... because your reader has no experience of someone like that.

Just a few thoughts, fwiw.

[Volaju]

I wasn't sure if I should of posted this in the books section or the art section as I consider art to be broad term I guess and it just confused me.

Anyways, thank your for your suggestions, they actually make a lot of sense and I'm wondering maybe that's how I'll have to go along and do this. Luckily most of the main characters are humanoid at least, and there are humans so that will help balance out the visualizations needed I hope. I'll just have to try describing little thing here and there to keep the story interesting, little things with a lot of draw and interesting to them.

As a reader I don't like to be spoon fed information. It's more enjoyable have my curiosity piqued so that my imagination has to do some of the work filling in gaps.
As an example, finding out about an unknown people's environment first before they are encountered can add mystery and apprehension.

However, it is also enjoyable to be surprised by an unusual species. Like if they jump out of hiding, or suddenly appear from out of nowhere.
Then I suppose it's their culture and environment that becomes curious, mysterious, and exciting.

t.

Personally, I'd introduce them very briefly well before you get to their main part of the story. Not necessarily at the beginning though. Just sort of almost insignificant brief encounters. Without knowing what your story really is, I can't give a fitting example, but generically, perhaps one of the characters who will shine later in the story might be a passer-by in an earlier scene that gets the most brief of mentions, perhaps because he's in the way of the current character, or perhaps the a character will wonder if he's arrived at the house/town/pub he seeks, and asks a stranger for confirmation that this is suchandsuch a place, to which the character that will shine later answers simply 'yes'. The point is the reader will, at that point, think you are just painting the scene for the current part of the story, but on some level, you are also paving the way for a later scene, so that when the reader gets to that point, the story will 'feel' more connected up.

If you go too far, and introduce all characters in detail at the start, it will do two things. It will remove much of the surprise from the story, and potentially it will bore the read as they read at length stuff that at that moment, doesn't seem relevant to the story.

So, its a balancing act. Save the big intro for the character's big moment, but have little, very subtle intros along the way, just so that the reader kind of half knows who they're reading about, and also remembers earlier parts of the story where that character briefly appeared in an almost insignificant role (or a role that seemed insignificant at the time).

Its all about firing up the old synapses in the reader. Getting them to make connections of their own, so that the story becomes more than a story for them, as their own imagination elaborates on what you've written.

[Volaju]

Alright, this has helped, and the information was very swell! Blessing to all of you.