Making a Race

One of the fun things about writing a fantasy or science fiction story is that you have the opportunity to create different races and their cultures. However, nowadays in most fantasy, there is sadly not much imagination in this realm, as the typical races tend to be human, elf, and dwarf, all of which are stereotyped into the powerful, magical elves, gruff dwarfs, and the weaker humans. And some attempts to get away from those stereotypes just end up horribly convoluted *glares at the "Inheritance Cycle"*.

Here are some suggestions for getting out of the bog of unimaginative races.

1) Do a bit of research. When looking for ideas for creatures not used commonly in fantasy, I like looking up folklore (particularly Irish) as well as creatures of legend. All you need is a quick wikipedia search, nothing real fancy or in-depth, but rather something to give you some ideas. Then contemplate this for as long as necessary then begin writing down about your races.

2) If you want to or already are using elves and dwarfs, don't be afraid to let them evolve or even give them new names. A race called Loreleis (taken from a poem called "The Lorelei" that I read in high school) in my current fantasy novel has undergone years of evolution from a powerful race to one where normally they would be called human (or mortal, whichever you prefer). Try new twists on things, like have the elves as the dominant race and humans as dying out or humans as the magical race and the elves as not. You get the idea.

3) Be careful with how many races you have. I've had several different kinds with mermaids, vampires, humans, and another race all in one story., but it only got confusing and bogged me down, so I only left it to two races, where it currently is now. I don't have a good number for what to shoot for, but I would recommend to do only as many races as you can handle and only what are needed.

4) In relation to #3, you don't have to have one or two races that are all the same, because that's boring and not realistic. In my current novel, I've discovered that having one blanket term for a race and then letting them branch out is better than creating so many races. For example, my vampires are all descended from three people, but they are divided into many various groups, each with a different culture, language, physical attributes, etc... Besides the fact that it's fun to think up histories for the different branches and thus interaction between them, it's realistic. Think about it. All humans have the same ancestors, and yet we're all so different, being divided into various cultures and peoples from tribes of Central Africa to Native Americans to those of Polynesia to those of European descent; each is different and unique in its own way, yet they all are of the same race.

The only fantasy writer I have seen yet to use this concept is Tolkien. He doesn't go into detail about all his races, but ultimately there are four humanoid races: human, elf, dwarf, and hobbit. Each of these are divided into various kinds, like Silvan Elves and Noldor Elves or the Rohirrim and the Men of Dale. This allows for a lot of diversity in his races and makes the story more realistic and interesting.

I'm sure I could think of other tips, but right now my computer time is limited.

Take Your Time

I know for certain that when you finish a story (especially a novel) that you get so excited and you want to get it published. Publishing is a noble thing to aspire to, but it's not a good thing to rush into.

When I was a young teenager, I finished a first draft of a fantasy novel and was so pleased with my accomplishment that I started looking up publishers. I was urged not to do that so soon, and I'm glad I was told. About a year or two later, I discarded the novel for its steadily-increasing bizarre nature and general disappointment in it. I looked it over a few months ago, and my, did my hairs stand up on my head. Absolutely horrible. I couldn't even finish reading it, even though years before people had said they liked it (though they may have been being polite, which is never a good thing when you want to take your story seriously).

But here's my point: take your time. Don't finish a novel and then work on it for a year or two then seek to be published. An important thing that I have learned from about eight years of story-writing is not to rush. The reason is, writing, especially for young people, is rarely well-written but has potential. But to reach to higher levels of quality, you should practice a lot and take your time, even years. And don't be afraid to let your story change as you keep writing new drafts of it. The evolution of a story is half the fun of writing as you discover how to make better characters, how to solve plot problems like inconsistencies, and in general how to write something better. So don't be afraid to spend years on a particular story. In reality, the fantasy novel series I am working on at the moment is the product of eight years of story evolution from Tolkien rip-off fantasy world to something hopefully far different.

So, as I say: take your time. Don't rush the writing process to gain fame for something poorly written that has a lot more potential but was never exploited. And keep this in mind: I heard somewhere that Tolkien spent over ten years (not sure of the exact time) working on the Lord of the Rings trilogy (someone correct me if I'm wrong) before publishing it. All that time, and look at the masterpiece we have today.

So take your time and make a masterpiece that will be remembered for all the right reasons.

Ok...

Ok, so I've decided what I'm going to do here. Once a week (probably every Saturday because my weeks are filled with work), I will post something, a blurb or an article or however long I want to talk, to do with writing. No, this is not the blog where I will ramble about Celtic music or write various reviews. I will talk about my own thoughts about story writing, offer some bits of advice I have learned from about nine years of writing attempts, and possibly challenges for other young, aspiring writers like myself.