Post #162 March 25 2019

“Developing Believable Alien Characters – 5 Things to Remember”

One of the most difficult yet rewarding aspects of writing science fiction, or as we call it: sf, is developing aliens that readers can believe yet seem alien enough to evoke that proverbial sense of wonder.  It’s definitely an art, yet there are some do’s and don’ts that any writer should remember and follow.  Here are 5 of them:

1. Remember that your readers are human beings.  This should go without saying but some sf writers work so hard and spend so much effort in developing their aliens that they feel obliged to throw it all into the story, overwhelming the reader.  They develop detailed settings and languages, religions, cultures, customs, jokes, and after all that work, have to figure out a way to embed this in the story in a way that keeps the story moving but lends a sense of alienness to the story, a sense of other.  This is the peculiar nature of sf writing.  It’s being read by actual bipedal humans but it often deals with places, people and times completely beyond anything anyone has ever encountered before.  Imagine Gone With the Wind as told by a Tralfamidorean, set on a time ship skirting the edges of the Andromeda galaxy, fighting off those damned Bugs again.  You get the idea.  You can make your aliens too alien to follow.  I’ve read plenty of stories like that.  So how do we avoid this trap?
2. Let the aliens speak for themselves.  There’s a risk in this.  While it’s normally good practice to drop your reader right in the middle of the action, you don’t want your reader drowning in details they can’t understand.  Some readers like this and like to participate with their imaginations in creating your imaginary world.  That’s great.  You can use that.  But some readers will eventually give up and put the book aside.  One way to avoid this is to have a strong, narrative line, clearly evident, so that the reader can at least ground their imaginations in something familiar.  I just put aside a book that came highly recommended as a potential Hugo or Nebula Award winner because I couldn’t find a story there.  There weren’t any aliens per se but the flow is so jumbled and chaotic that I eventually gave up trying to find it.  Make sure your aliens are doing things in service of a strong story line and, most important, make sure the reader can find and follow that story line…maybe some asides or journal entries or narrative stretches narrated by a scientist or something, anything to help the reader.
3. Use a human narrator or a human to interact with your aliens.  I did this in my sf novel The Farpool, with two teenagers Chase and Angie, who represent the human reader in dealing with the alien Seomish people.  Their reactions and responses guide the reader as to how he or she should respond.  And, when done properly, the reader starts to have sympathy and concern for your humans and even better, gets to vicariously deal with the aliens and experience your story that way.  Try it.  It works. 
4. Put humans and your aliens into conflict situations.  This is a great way of illuminating different sides of character, whether human or alien.  How do they react to each other?  Does a friendly human gesture or word evoke disgust or threat to your aliens and vice versa?  This point is a kind of subset of point #3 above, but with a sharper edge and greater consequences.  Conflict gives both your aliens and your humans a chance to find out what the other side will do in tense situations, and to learn more about each other.  Moreover, it can move a story along in a very engaging way, keeping the reader interested.  What will those Tralfamidoreans really do if we build our shelter right here?  Maybe I’m building on a holy site or a capital setting, and the Tralfamidoreans are highly offended?  This gives you a chance to provide some (brief) background as to why they’re offended.  And what will the humans do when they learn this?  Will they stop?  Will they keep building anyway, regardless?  Either way, the reader learns more about the humans involved and the aliens.
5. Make a decision: can your aliens grow and change in their interactions with the humans?  If the answer is yes, your aliens can be shown to change as they deal with humanity, what does that entail?  It could make them even more believable, even more sympathetic.  But it’s also harder to bring off as you really have to understand your aliens’ motivations and feelings well.  If you don’t allow your aliens to grow and change, the story is easier to manage but you run the risk of having cardboard/1-dimensional aliens that aren’t really believable, or seem like humans in funny costumes, a common enough failing of older TV and film sf.  Either way, allowing your aliens to grow and change as they interact with humans does give you a chance to illuminate different aspects of their character, and the humans too.
    
   Writing stories with believable aliens is a real art that is particularly unique to sf.  Remember these five do’s and don’ts and you’ll find yourself on a more productive road to a unique and compelling tale that won’t allow a reader to just set it aside.  And that’s what you want.
    
   The next post to The Word Shed comes on April 1, 2019.  Let’s plan on exploring aliens in sf a little more…I think this is a productive avenue to explore for many sf writers.  It’s so easy to mess it up.
    
   See you then.
    
   Phil B.