One of the most quintessential pieces of any sci-fi story has always been this concept of life existing on another planet, or alien life. Aliens are a very integral part of the world building process when it comes to a sci-fi story that includes them. Beyond that, there are many mistakes that some writers make when it comes to aliens and their existence in a story. So, for today’s post, we’ll be diving into how to create an alien species for a sci-fi book and how to make sure that yours is unique and actually works for your story.
What Role do the Aliens Play?
Before you really start working on the specifics of the aliens, you should try to understand what exactly the aliens’ role is in your story. Are the aliens the main species that will be focused on in the story? Are they allies with your main character? Enemies?
You want to understand what role the aliens play in your overall story and what their point is in the plot. You also want to think about if the aliens are meant to be more of a symbolic tool or more of a story device than a major part of the plot.
For my series, The Fallen Age Saga, the aliens are VERY important to the overall plot. Some of the main characters in the book are actually aliens and they all play a really important role in the progression of the plot of the series.
Think About the Alien Planet
When you go to design the alien species, you want to think about what planet you’ve designed for them to live on. If you’re not sure how to design a planet, then check out this post where I go in-depth on how designing a planet works for sci-fi world building.
Either way, what your planet looks like and the sort of atmosphere that it has will impact the way your aliens look. For instance, the planet Karnakania in my series is basically a rock of lava with a lot of water on the surface and so the aliens are made of fire.
Gravity is also a big thing to think about, as a planet with gravity that’s different than Earth will impact the species that lives on the planet. Furthermore, the atmosphere could lead to differences in the way the species develops, so maybe they have gills and not lungs, maybe they have more lungs or more advanced lungs.
The climate and the geography of the planet can also affect how the aliens are. A species underwater will not look the same as a species that lives in the mountains.
Physical Appearance
The first thing that you want to focus on after you’ve established your planet and the rules for the species is to actually design the anatomy of your alien species and the physical appearance.
Firstly, you want to think about things like body symmetry, the number of limbs, the number of eyes if they have eyes, or some other sensory organ, and more. You can make your aliens like humans or you can make them completely different from humans. It really depends on the story you’re writing and if you have an explanation for why that is.
You also want to think about their skin and if they have skin like humans or if they have scales, fur, feathers, etc…
Think about the size of the alien and the shape of it and how that is affected by the environment and the area around the aliens.
If you want, you can add unique features that sets your aliens apart such as telepathic abilities, detachable limbs, bioluminescence and more. These features should make sense in the overall context of the story as well.
Culture, Religion, and Society
For aliens, you do not want your aliens to be like the ones in most military sci-fi movies and have them all just be a giant armada that does not think for themselves. It’s important to develop the aliens as though they were like humans. I advocate strongly for this because I think it’s a shame to have a cool alien species that just doesn’t have any depth to it!
You want to think about their religion and what they worship and if this affects the way they interact with other species. For instance, the Ones Above in my series, The Fallen Age Saga, believe in a religion where their main duty is to essentially just cause war and kill a lot of people in the name of their god.
You want to think about how their society is organized and if there is evidence of a hierarchy or not. Back to the Ones Above, being such militaristic people, they organize society around military ranks.
Communication and language are also important to think about. How do your aliens communicate? Is it through spoken word or something else? Do they have multiple languages and dialects and accents like humans do?
In terms of technology and innovation, do the aliens believe in advancing their technology or are they passive and prefer to remain on their home planets?
For things like the arts, do they have art and music? What about the architecture? What sort of changes do they undergo in society that may impact this?
Much of the world building for the aliens will be here and this is where you want to show your skillset the most. If you want to learn more about how to get started with world building, check out this post!
Psychology and Consciousness
One thing that can be interesting to explore in your story regarding your aliens is the idea of psychology and the state of being conscious. Consider how your aliens think and how they process emotions, if they have those capabilities.
You want to think about what their motivations are and what their view on ethics and morality is like. Back to the Ones Above again, but since they believe that they have a divine right to destroy other planets in their conquest, to them, they believe that the ends justifies the means so it doesn’t matter how many die in their conquests.
Where did the Aliens Come From?
There are many beliefs on where humans originally came from, with some believing in evolution and others believing in creation and some believing in a mix of both. Either way though, you want to think about how your aliens believe they were created and if there is an answer in your lore that matters.
You want to create things like myths and legends in their race unless they have a religion that explains their creation story in full detail like humans typically do. Having lore that explains these things could be really interesting for your world building.
Furthermore, you want to think about if the aliens came from a common ancestor and if they interacted with other species and if these interactions spawned new versions of these particular aliens.
Human Interaction?
If your story has aliens and humans interacting, you can make this occur in a number of many ways. Most stories tend to use the idea of first contact. First contact is a really interesting concept as it entails the humans and the aliens basically meeting for the first time. Obviously, this would be a little freaky but it would also be fascinating if the aliens are not hostile or they are also equally freaked out.
Some stories about aliens like to showcase the exchange of language and culture and how the two species interact. Other stories like to jump into war and if the aliens are with or against humanity. Most alien war stories have aliens invading and attacking humans and others have them fighting alongside each other.
In my series, there are many alien species so not all of them are hostile and not all of them are actively attacking humanity. It depends on what side they’re on. I can’t say much more than that because I would be spoiling a lot!
Avoid This!
A lot of stories make many mistakes with their aliens and I’m going to highlight a few of these common mistakes that I see.
Firstly, do not make the aliens all have the same culture unless you can explain reasonably why this would’ve happened. You want to show the aliens have some level of diversity in the same way that humans do because that is significantly more interesting. Again, unless there is a lore-specific reason for why there is no diversity in this alien species, you need to think about this.
You want to think about the idea of morality and ethics and how the aliens are. You don’t necessarily want to make the aliens all evil and there are ways that you can create morally complex questions for readers to ponder in the alien-human interactions.
You also want to think about how language is complicated for the aliens and the humans and if you have a fix for that. Every story has its own way of doing this. My series personally has the aliens be hyper-intelligent so they can pick up on languages. Also, a lot of the alien species actually developed similar cultures (to show the idea that there is continuity in the universe) and languages, so they may already speak the same thing as some humans do.
Conclusion
Creating an alien species is something that can be a lot of fun in sci-fi stories and it can be really rewarding when done right. However, you need to think about the impact of having these aliens in your story and how they will play a role in the plot. Additionally, you will need to do world building for the aliens too so that it can feel authentic and that the aliens don’t just feel like a monolith in your story that plays no significant role.
Before you head on out, be sure to check out my series, The Fallen Age Saga, and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter so you can get updates on all my latest posts, WIPs, book releases and more!