Thursday 29 September 2011

ALIEN, NOT JUST DIFFERENT.

Alien means: wholly different in nature; foreign; adverse; inconsistent and incongruous. 

I’m about to unleash the representative of an alien race into my wip.


As unlike human as I could write, he does not look like us but with grey skin, antenna or a shiny silver suit.

The challenge was to write my alien as a three dimensional character and not like a caricature.

For the sake of understanding, he will be able to communicate but it won’t be through any kind of sound.

He is the representative of the alien nation, but (in some respects) he is not the antagonist of the piece - he was invited into the galaxy afterall.

Sercq, Bullient of Easior, is not like us.

Joy is gainful and gain is joy.

I used the Corollary Laws from 10 Laws of Good Science Fiction 

·         You will never meet an alien who speaks English like a native.
·         Aliens just like us, but with little squiggles on their noses only appear in low budget TV shows.
·         We will never be able to have sex with aliens using the missionary position. (As the novel is MG, this piece of advice will not be necessary for any characters in the book;)
·         Aliens as far as they have personalities will be more likely to be aggressive and pushy. There are not likely to be kindly, friendly and caring aliens because they would not have the drive to explore space. (In this way, they will be much like us.)
·         Real aliens don’t act anything like you’d expect them to act. For instance, they will not be Nazis.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE ANTAGONIST IN YOUR WIP?

6 comments:

  1. My current antagonist is best described as the b word. She's nosy, gossipy, and cruel.

    That's interesting about the aliens, and I hope not to meet any.

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  2. That's a weird list. Dare I say that?

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  3. Hi Medeia
    She does sound like a totally nasty piece of work - well done.

    Hi Angela
    It is a great, dark'n'twisty list ;) It made me consider if the character I was about to write was a cliché or something young readers could relate to and yet something new.

    Hi Matthew
    Malleable ;)

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  4. I love that list. And as much as I love shows depicting alien races it would so refreshing to see/read something completely different and unexpected.

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  5. Hi Marcy
    He'll be crystallising as soon as the heatwave goes away. Who can work while roasting in a small office space in a heatwave? ;)

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