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.

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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

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"Approaching the docks, we heard the violent smashing of wood and the clanging of metal being pounded through the cold veil of white mist that hung in the air by the coast. With a sudden gust, the pale haze cleared to reveal a beast from the brine like none I had seen before or after my time on Kioshell Island. It was roughly the same size as the fishing ship that had ferried me here and was in the process of tearing apart a vessel of similar proportions with a cold fury, pausing only to fling away huge bits of debris or adjust the monstrous maw that was its shell: the living, partially decomposed head of a sky serpent.."