Biological Questions

In fantasy, sci-fi, or even paranormal genres, it is not uncommon for the writer to either make up their own race or to do a variation of a race that has already been created, such as vampires or elves. However, when you do this, you also need to keep in mind some of the biology and anatomy of said race. Consider the following examples:

1) Get a basic idea of what the race looks like. Are there any distinguishing features or anything that sets them apart from other races? For several years, I've been developing a race of winged humanoids, and I am currently trying to figure out what their wings look like and how the wings can seemingly disappear when not in use. So, if your race has something like wings or some "non-human" feature then decide what it looks like, if the feature can be hidden at certain times, etc... You don't have to go into insane detail over it, but get enough so that the feature remains consistent throughout the story.

2) How long does this race live? If its people either have longer lives than normal or are immortal, how does the aging process work? Do they age more slowly than people, or do they stop physically aging at or around a certain point? Again, make sure this is consistent in your race.

3) Can this race interbreed with other races? Tolkien let his elves interbreed with humans to form the half-elves, and Stephanie Meyer reluctantly allowed for the existence of half-vampires, which brings me to the main gist. According to Meyer's version of vampires, they cannot have children, but it is possible for them to have children with humans (though it likely results in the death of the mother); however, biologically, this would not be possible because vampires are supposedly sterile, and you cannot expect offspring if one of the partners is supposedly sterile. So, if you decide to have cross-race romance with a child as a result, keep this in mind: either make it possible for both of the individuals to bear children or make it so that both of them together cannot have children. Or, as one friend suggested to me, make the children sterile, unable to have children of their own one day.

4) If the story calls for it, make sure you get some detail on the biological/ anatomical aspects of a race. For example, I've been working on sort of a rewrite/ rebuttal of "Twilight" and the whole paranormal genres. Because of flaws in Meyer's version of vampires, I've tried to improve on them by offering a semi-biological reason for why my vampires heal fairly quickly, why they are largely resistant to illness, and why they all have problems with fertility. I had to do this because, even though I may never state the reasons in the story, I want to make sure that the race remains consistent but also realistic.

Those are just a few considerations that popped in my head, so consider them if you are creating a new race(s) for your story.