Writing a book with aliens as main characters. Do I need to describe their looks?

[EvilGenius]

Hi everyone!

I'm writing a first book and it has aliens as main characters. They have more or less human personalities and feelings.
Is it absolutely required for me to describe how they look or can I leave that up to the readers?
I'm not asking because I can't but I'd rather not. There are other alien species in the story and I plan on describing those, but with the main species I want to have the readers' experience of them shape how he/she thinks they look.

Can this be "forgiven"?

 

[Darth Angelus]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

I would describe the appearance of the alien species in general, just to give the reader a general idea of their appearance, to begin with. That is needed, to some extent, one way or another, I think. On an individual level, you wouldn't neccessarily have to describe what they look like, just like you wouldn't with humans. In fact, I would say you could describe individual looks a little less with aliens, because many appearance features would have less meaning to the reader an human ditto.

Then again, you might get away with leaving the appearance of the main species entirely to reader's imagination. I am not sure.

That is just my two cents.

 

[Dozmonic]

You don't have to describe them if their being without form doesn't impact the story. If the reader doesn't know what they're like, will their actions and achievements seem more or less impressive?

 

[EvilGenius]

At the moment all the reader knows about them is that they are humanoid with two legs and arms and a head, and that males are about twice as large as females and that there are five times as many females as males.

 

[DthenB]

I'd only describe them if I was doing a third person perspective, as that voice will be relaying a scene to the reader. If it is from the aliens' POV, only describe the unique differences in those features that allow individuals to be distinguished from one another. The aliens would think all their anatomical oddities and normal and not worth mentioning. If a human character stopped to tell you how many arms and legs he and his friends have, you'd think that guy was weird as hell. Humans only describe height, weight, build, hair, eyes, skin tone, clothes, jewelry, scars, tattoos, and posture. Use the alien equivalents of those.

 

[Abernovo]

You don't have to go into detail, if you don't want to. It's your story and, if you decide that you need more description for your protagonists later on, you can always go back and add it in. Write the story first.

You could, if you wanted, give little clues, though. That would give general description to create a base upon which the reader could build, without giving any great detail. As a reader, it's sometimes nice to have something to fix in your head, even if it's only a small part of the character.

Good luck and welcome to the Chrons.

 

[EvilGenius]

The first chapter is in first person as one of the protagonists narrates the backsory. In this chapter he talks without species boundaries, as if he is talking to an audience. Then, with the second chapter it goes into a third person perspective with this protagonist being just another of many characters - though playing a central role -. I'm planning to do the last chapter in first person as well with the same character narrating the end of the story.

 

[Aminar]

Bruce Coville wrote a great short story about Aliens where he didn't reveal the aliens weren't human until the end. You should track it down. It might offer some insight. I've had similar problems with my own nonhuman characters...

 

[C. A. Mitchell]

If I was reading and had no description, I'd automatically revert to humans when picturing each scene. If you don't want a big load of description, then just describe a couple of pertinent details that will stick in the reader's head.

 

[Jake Reynolds]

"...five times as many females as males."

Nice.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I think you should put in a few details because I agree with C. A. Mitchell that most readers (and I would be one of them) will automatically imagine that the aliens look exactly like humans.

It would be easy enough to do, just mentioning the distinctive characteristics of one or two individuals, and readers can extrapolate from there.

 

[Bowler1]

Yes, provide some descriptions that make it clear they are alien. Tails, snouts, fur etc.

I would only describe them in full if/when humans describe the aliens, a tail or fur would not be odd to the alien but is to us. Of course the reverse is true, we would be odd to the aliens and they could describe us in conversation.

Welcome to Chrons and good luck with your aliens.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Yes, welcome to the forums, EvilGenius.

It's not required (some of us have never done it) but if you go over to Introductions and start a thread telling us a little about yourself, you'll be welcomed by the usual suspects, who will tell you a little about the site.

 

[chrispenycate]

you'll be welcomed by the usual suspects, who will tell you a little about the site.

I could warn him about us here?

If you're first personning, it's the exception that strikes you. If you're sat at a table with a group of acquaintances, unless you're in a very peculiar introspective mood, you don't think "Oh, he's got four fingers and an oppsable thumb on each hand." You might notice nail varnish (particularly if the user also wore a beard) or the fact that one of the people present was lacking one or more digits; so if your sexual dimorphism makes females much smaller than males, you can bring this out with "a huge woman: she almost came up to my chin." Things that you, with your alien physiology (to first person adequately you've got to be totally inside the skin of your protagonist, not merely perched on its shoulder, feeling and sensing through alien senses), you would actually notice (as opposed to the much vilified mirror scene, allowing you to describe yourself) about those around you, as against things that were so obvious (of course I've got feathery antennae; everyone does, but I don't go around putting mascara on them like some people I could mention, nor pierce them with shell studs. That's just vanity).

Very few pertinent details will indicate to an alert reader that he's no longer in Kansas.

 

[Tecdavid]

I'd recommend dedicating a paragraph or two to the description of your aliens. It is rather important that the reader knows what you're talking about, and that they can form a good picture of it in their minds. This is especially true if your aliens' appearance will have a certain "use" or "effect" on anything, such as scaring human characters with their faces, or having longer arms that could reach higher places.

 

[nightdreamer]

I recall the novel Alien Perspective by David Houston, that told the story of humans' first encounter with aliens from, as the title implies, the aliens' perspective. Not just aliens, but alien children, insectoid, who had lost the adults somehow and are desperately trying to survive. If you can scrape up a copy it might give you some ideas. I was deeply impressed when I read it.