Character Design: Breaking Away From Humanity

If one is telling a story in the setting of Earth without deviating too much from reality, I can understand keeping the characters aligned with humanity, at the very least in physical form. Perhaps a few characters have minds unlike the rest of us, bound to chaos or some other strange series of impulses and urges. When telling a story rich in science fiction or fantasy elements, however, I often find the material doesn’t embrace the unique opportunity to devise truly alien and monstrous characters.

For the sake of movies and storytelling so many characters are ultimately humans with a handful of prostheses and some body paint, or perhaps a full body suit. Their personalities and backgrounds might be somewhat different from mainstream humanity, but how often do their ideals so defy our own logic as to be outside our comprehension? I can see the argument, it could be difficult to empathize with an entity bearing a monstrous appearance or a mind/heart/soul entirely divested from humanity.

I personally believe embracing some true aliens and monsters when the setting allows is both wise and interesting, we have a chance to break away from the standard bipedal humanoid configuration and our societies. As we writers are humans ourselves we might well look to nature for inspiration in our creations, borrowing animals or insects to change the physical appearance of our strange new lifeforms, but there are so many more potentials out there. I’m sure I can’t conceive of them all, but why restrict our imaginations to the existence of our reality? Why not draw from all forms of matter, mass, energy, geometry, and language in addition to our own wonder-filled-world? There’s an entire multiverse to play with out there if we’re brave enough to imagine it.

Developing a mind unlike our own would be no small feat, but that would be the next logical step after shedding the human form. Understanding the origin planet, population statistics, society, individual psychology, behavior, instinct, and methods of influence and affecting change would likely be important touchstones. Perhaps then you could build a new mind that while alien, is still comprehensible to us, rather than it remaining a complete enigma. Perhaps your creation would never understand our sense of morality or ethics, our notions of good and evil, the premise of faith, or the necessity of science. Aliens and monsters shouldn’t have to conform to our interpretation of the possible, but its important to keep them sufficiently balanced as to be rooted in their own version of reality.

I’ll admit, even I find the task ahead daunting, but I’m willing to challenge myself along the way and see what new strange wonders and horrors might one day fill the pages of new worlds in far flung stories.