ISSUE #23

Dangerous Design

Here you'll find all the contents that were in issue #23 of the Rahaman Reader

Welcome to the end of the week!

Friday has arrived!!

 

Here are some awesome additions to Rahaman Writing:

                                                       

One of my favourite parts of writing is creating new, interesting creatures. Or even manipulating the form and function of existing ones. The Baron's Journal; Of the Sky, Of the Sea, and Of the Stones; and many of my short stories all include weird, curious, and/or deadly beings of various amounts of sentience.

 

But designing monsters/animals/humanoids can be tricky. If one does so poorly, they would end up with something no one would be able to take seriously.

​

For example: It would not be the best if one's fictional race of plant-people came off as hilariously dumb when the writer is going for environmental allegory and a more serious tone.

In all uses of the term "Design", the best results are those that marry fashion and function.

 

The Baron of Beholder's Writing Tip #12:

 

A great way to design a new creature it to start with the 'function', the core, of your creation and then work outwards to it's 'fashion'.

We'll use dragons(in western mythology) as our control example.

 

Pick a purpose, any purpose! Then determine how this creature fills, or attempts to fill, this purpose.

Dragons are meant to be terrifying and powerful, so they need to be dangerous! Make them breathe destruction (fire, frost, poison, etc.), be intimidatingly larger than a person, and give them an aerial advantage with wings.

 

Now that your creature has a purpose and a basic form, you can define how this form appears to your readers.

Dragons use wings to fly, but how many wings? Two, four, six, or more? Are they bat-like, bird-like, or insect-like?

 

When you reach this point of creature creation, write it into a story and see how it would work in your preferred setting. Considering its environment will help you tweak and change certain aspects of its function and fashion to give you not only a being that fits into your world, but also captures the readers attention for the duration of the tale!

Though, creature creation can appear in many forms. Even in a fun, fictional card game!

After briefly resting his mind while observing such a game, Athos finishes reading the second part of the book, Theories of the Sky: Volume One, and learns of the fascinating sources for the knowledge bound within this tome.

 

Knowledge from Eons Past

© 2020 Rahaman Writing

Subscribe to our newsletter for cool exclusives!

You will get updates on the happenings of Rahaman Writing, writing tips, entries of a story that is my world-building Work-in-Progress, access to the site's hidden secrets and a few surprises here and there! Newsletters are sent out every Friday. 

Still unsure if you should subscribe? Here's an excerpt from this newsletter's ongoing series:

​

"One such Spark, but a mere fraction of Order, became the source for all we know upon Okeanós. While spinning and soaring through the many violent tendrils of Chaos, this particular Spark willed for it to stop; for the madness and rushing of void mixed with explosions of light to cease. So it forced the chaotic clouds around itself to shift into a pattern. It gave reason and rhythm to the matter and energy, previously untamed, until the void and light coarsed together, in harmony, at the weaving will of this Spark. Near the bottom of the page sharing this information, it is mentioned that there was a ‘God’ who had succumbed to a Chaos-stricken madness following the learning of these details. How they transferred the information, and what became of them, is not mentioned until the reference section, which I shall get to a bit later, as they warrant explanation as well..."