Eastercon Blog-A-Day 1: writing aliens

Why is it so difficult to write believable Aliens?

Firstly, I'm aware that this should have been prepared yesterday and that, technically, today is day 2 of the EightSquared Eastercon 2013. But, well, anyone who's been to a con knows what day one is like. 'nuff said.

Anyway, this Eastercon is no different from most in that they feature a program stream for writers, and day one had a panel discussion on that writers' bugbear of characterization. This is something non-trivial and deserves a post or many on it's own, but I'm going to leave you to do that research for yourselves. In very brief, the most important part of characterization is making your characters believable. This is not only to lend credibility to your story, but so that your readers can relate to your characters.

At the end of the session, one woman asked how you write aliens (implying intelligent aliens) because she had some in the book she was writing. The unanimous answer was "I don't". Or, if they were used, it was only to serve a plot purpose, not as full characters in their own rights. If one looks at aliens in literature, this is the general way they are dealt with (just think of that lovable Spock, who represents the pure logical, emotion-suppressed version of humanity).

So, why is this the case?

In brief, because, it most people seem to forget that aliens are, well, alien. In other words, it's not only their biology and culture that will be different, but their very thinking itself. So, first off, trying to imagine a completely alien thinking is incredibly difficult. Imagine different ideas of relationships, different thoughts of what may be important to life, different ideas of jobs or economy, or socio-political heirarchy. And all this with only humans as a sample set. Then, if you successfully manage, you have the challenge of conveying that to your reader, remembering that they've had much less time thinking about it then you have.

If you don't believe me on how hard it is, try it. I challenge you to create a truly alien alien. Once you do, have a close look. Are you sure your alien isn't just some caricature of humanity, some creature that highlights you most or least favourite human trait?

This is precisely why virtually all fictional aliens are intentional caricatures. Because, with a sample set of precisely ZERO aliens to use as examples, a caricature is the best fictional use of an alien.

But I'd still love to see your attempts, so feel free to drop them in the comments.

Insight and longevity.