Welcome back, my fellow creatives!

Now that we are raising three teenagers, Bo’s had great fun sharing some more of his favorite scary movies with the not-so-little-B’s. Not only did Blondie love John Carpenter’s The Thing, but she couldn’t wait to watch Aliens after Alien. She also REALLY dug Halloween III: Season of the Witch. The last scary movie we snuck in was actually requested by Bash: Christine.

A car doesn’t seem like it’d be much of a monster, does it? (I mean, unless it’s The Car from Hell, I suppose.) Yes, cars can kill people, but Christine can do it without a driver and while engulfed in flames. Why? Because she loves a man, and he loves her, building her up, obsessing over her, losing his humanity to her.

Love: a human feeling placed inside the inhuman can transform a thing into a monster. Love can turn plenty of humans into monsters, too–just look at Friday the 13th.

Monsters have been on my mind a lot lately because of my cosmic WIP…and because of Halloween, of course. As a kid, monsters weren’t people. They were bizarre, unnatural creatures like Beetlejuice. Viscous aliens like the Rancor in Return of the Jedi. Cursed offspring of the gods like Medusa.

Monsters help genre stories achieve that crucial escapism. They spike the stakes. They compel your characters and readers alike to keep moving through the Unknown to reach their goal.

Simply put, monsters don’t play by our rules–and that scares us.

But then there’s the whole making-the-monsters part, and that can be tricky. That’s why I heartily recommend Writing Monsters by Philip Athans.

If you’ve asked readers to sign on to your fantasy or science fiction assumptions, you have the responsibility to make sure those settings–and all the scary and outre’ denizens of that setting–seem real.

Granted, I don’t want my protagonists running into monsters everywhere all the time while out in space. That’d be exhausting. But Athans makes a lot of powerful points in this book about transforming the Familiar into the Strange, and creating creatures that fit their environments on this planet or any other. How else do we end up with memorable creatures like the worms of Dune or the ROUS’s of Princess Bride?

Imagine an entirely unique world in which no real-world animals are found at all. Science fiction authors will often find themselves in this territory by default…in worlds like this, new creatures are created to fill certain niches that real-world animals would otherwise fill.

Science fiction author David Drake cautions you to “remember the little things. You don’t have birds, but you can get a really disconcerting effect by having frogs flapping their huge webbed feet to fly from tree to tree.”

I couldn’t help but think of the Mos Eisley Cantina scene when I read this. Unlike Star Trek, where many aliens are still fairly human-looking (a few extra bones or spots on a skull is much easier for a TV show’s budget, I know), the alien life in Star Wars varies greatly in looks. Yet they’re all drinking in a bar. Are these aliens from Wisconsin?!

And that sticks with me as I continue to develop my cosmic worldbuilding. Some monsters should terrify and intimidate. But they also need to fit their environment while also being understandable somehow. How does this scene do that? By using the dive bar setting. Obi-Wan already told Luke this was a place of “scum and villainy.” So when we see all these aliens huddled in a bar, we don’t need any more information about them. They are seedy souls in a seedy place. Even Jabba the Hutt is referred to as a gangster. That’s a very human thing. When you apply that human element to something so inhuman, you make that Inhuman accessible and also scary. Heavens, I even learned this watching the cartoon Silverhawks. The Silverhawks were essentially a police force tackling Monstar and his galactic gang. It was a mob of crooks. They looked bizarre, but they also had things like key-tars and pitchforks and slot machine faces. They were bizarre, inhuman, and yet, a touch of humanity was there. As Athans highlights from author Nina Hess:

“But I do think monsters embody many universal fears and desires–and the lore of monsters taps into the need to address those universal emotions.”

Athans does marvelous work in exploring various monsters in famous stories and breaking down what makes them work. From word choice to sensory detail, Athans guides writers through the common traps of monster creation and why those traps can be so detrimental to the story as a whole.

Remember that while some monsters have special strengths and specialties, they should always be flawed in some way, just as your characters should be.

He even highlights that role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons can inspire creature creation. It’s a good thing my kids spotted this little beauty in the bookstore this summer!

I may not use the strength or skill points or whatever the little stat cards say, but I love the visual combinations I can make with all these different illustrations. And speaking of skills, it is VITAL we establish the rules of our monsters.

If you’re creating a world from the ground up, you have to set all of the rules, not just the rules for monsters…. But once you tell me–or better yet, show me–stick to the rules you’ve set…whatever they may be.

We all hate when the goalposts move mid-story: a protagonist with a special skill only uses it once or twice because THOSE are the moments that skill is needed in the plot. A monster seemingly unconquerable is quickly vanquished by the hero because…hero?

No one likes reading that.

So for all of us creating the Impossible, let us remember that any universe needs its laws of nature. Philip Athans’ Writing Monsters is the perfect guide to see you through those dark and sticky corners where Humanity pulses in the Alien, and heroes face Unknowns echoing something…something familiar…

“Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with is, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.” -Francisco de Goya

Coming up, I’ve got a fun blogging announcement, another interview and podcast, and of course, a bit of autumnal gratitude. Stay tuned!

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!