posted
i have repeatedly tried to begin writing a novel set completely on other worlds. the storyline will only work well if humans play no role (maybe a cameo or something, but anything more will kill the whole thing). unfortunatly, that means virtually no comparisons can be made to things humans (aka the readers--kinda important folks) consider equivalent. i try to avoid comparisons anyway, but for some things they seem to be unavoidable. in all my attempts, this problem has led to confusion, and i'm at the point where i may just have to scrap the whole thing. i really don't want to <sob>, so any suggestions you guys have will be GREATLY appreciated.
BTW, i'm sure someone knows of the perfect book for my situation, and i'm grateful for the 411, but my wallet's on the thin side and the local library isn't exactly the most helpful (i've scoured (sp?)), so i'd prefer if you shared your wttw (words to the wise), thanx!!
TTFN & lol
Cosmi
[This message has been edited by Cosmi (edited September 03, 2001).]
posted
First of all, Cosmi, how are your aliens different from humans? Not just how their bodies may look different, but how do they perceive and interact with their environment?
Second, what are you having the most difficulty with? Alien point of view? The setting? What happens in the story? Making the aliens understandable without making them seem to be humans in heavy makeup?
If you could give us some idea of the difficulty, we could probably be of more help.
posted
it's rather complicated, which is why i didn't go into it in the first place, but i guess i should give a little more info.
most of the aliens (there are several species that have detailed roles, all from different planets) are what i've dubbed class 1 species (it'll change, but details like that are the least of my problems!). they have been interacting with each other for long enough to be loosely knit together with common codes and their cultures have considerably blended (actually, cultural identity is something many of them strive to maintain). their main separation from humans (physical features aside--which vary in extremity according to species) is their level of technological advancement and the roles individuals play in society (also, regional and planet-wide affinity (sp?) i suppose).
does that help? probably not. if you need more, let me know.
posted
Ok. I can sense your problem though I'm not entirely clear on the details (though not entirely important for my reply either). Anyhow, it would seem the best advice I could give is to look at the human species, particularly those of another country. If you want say real stark contrasts study up on chinese(sp?) social structures in relation to say american. Another place, and not often thought of is, England's social curious. Again this would be called 'patterning' but it would give the reader (the real important people) something to associate w/ on the subconscious level.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Okay, Cosmi, looks like you've got the setting worked out, or at least you're heading in the right direction.
So, I have to ask you: why aliens? (Maybe I should ask what the story is about, but that may be asking for more than you want to tell.)
Generally, writers use aliens to comment on humans--some exaggerate things about humans and make those exaggerations alien traits, others use alien reactions to human things to say stuff about humans, and so on.
Since you say humans are more or less cameos in your story, what is it you want to explore with your aliens?
Are their interactions going to be a metaphor for human interactions?
Are you just trying to explore what-ifs that are different to human?
What is this collection of alien cultures for?
By the way, there is a kind of story that is used rather often to comment on things in different cultures. One name for this kind of story is "fish out of water" (OSC puts them in his milieu category). A good example of a "fish out of water" story that you may be acquainted with is CROCODILE DUNDEE. Mick Dundee's reactions to American culture, especially New York American (in the first movie) is a way to poke fun at that culture as well as to point up good things about it.
So, are you doing some kind of "fish out of water" story, perhaps? Or is the point behind using aliens something else?
This is a big assumption on my part, but my guess is that you cannot have a major human involvement because you want to challenge your aliens with a problem that humans have already solved. If you had humans running around in the story, they could solve the problem on page 1. It would spoil the plot. Am I close?
My advice is to believe in the intelligence of your readers. If they are sophistocated, you will not need to lead them by the hand. They will find their own way.
Suppose you introduce an alien biology or culture with no human characters present. You cannot have an alien say: "Our form of government differes from humans due to X and our method of reproduction differs from humans due to Y."
However, your readers already know about human government and reproduction. If you describe the way the aliens do it, your readers can infer the alien/human comparisons.
This may limit your audience, since less sophistocated readers will not relate to your story. But if this plot is burning in your heart I say your should write it the way you want to write it rather than dumbing it down for the masses.
[This message has been edited by Doc Brown (edited September 04, 2001).]
If I'm understanding your need here properly, you want to be able to describe things by comparison to your readers, but you have nothing human to compare them to because you have an alien culture.
OK, there is a trick for this (which you might already know), which is to compare things alien that the reader has never heard of to other things alien that the reader has never heard of, and to make the comparison clear by context and/or naming. I don't know if it's a good trick, but you can decide that. Here's what I mean:
Context: By the way you make the comparison, you can lend meaning to the thing you're trying to describe. Example (these will be dumb examples, by the way): "The Gniha Coalition was hardly as bad as Hrog Gnag and his bunch, but they did have a few executions almost every day." Even if we have no idea who Hrog Gnag and his bunch are, we now at least know that they slaughtered a lot of sentient beings.
Naming: You make up a meaningful name for the thing you're comparing to. Example: "It wasn't much, but to her it had all the glory of the Sublime Rainbow Jewel."
But if you're describing things in an alien culture, why resort to comparisons at all? I mean, can you simply describe the things when necessary, or get away with description of the thing itself by context or naming when not?
posted
Cosmi, I sympathise. I had to struggle with this very problem a year or two ago. Like you, my story was told through the eyes of an alien, in an alien society, with no appearances from humans save short cameos. I solved it in a fairly simple way, which I suppose some of you may decide was a bad way of solving it (especially when you compare it with Doc's sophisticated advice!). When rewriting the story (cos it got so badly confused it needed rewriting!) I placed a human cameo near the beginning. The man's not there for pure comparison, but there were other ways of moving the plot along. I really only included it because readers like to be able to 'see' your characters and places; if they're like me, they have a little film running in there heads, and what kinda film has a black hole where the main character is? Of course, since my story revolves around the human/alien relationship, any comparisons other than physical weren't difficult to perform, so I guess I didn't struggle as hard as you. One final thing. Red Wolf, why is our (English) society curious? Be careful what you say! *grin* JK
Posts: 503 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
Cos, which story is it? Is it the one with all the comp. stuff, & the twins or whatever (pardon my vagueness, but I am trying not to reveal anything you might not wish others to know)? If it is, I may know how to help you with it. E-mail me an example of your problem (or give it to me next time you see me), and I'll do my best.
P.S. I really liked the beginning that I read the other day - like I've always said, suspense, suspense, suspense!!
posted
Well... the English, not to dis them mind you, are very curious when compared with say Americans. Americans, are money grobbing, lazy slobs, with most of them being sheep (personal oppinion here, and yes I'm american). The English on the other hand, even the lowest class citizens try to be prim, proper, and well, very aristocratic by general nature (which is where they become curious) They also have strange eating habbits, but then I can't say much for american eating habbits either. These are all scrapings on the surface, into a deeper field, and ideas on things that can be used as a model. Point of note, looking from the outside in, just about anything can seem curious. Last point of note, it's these differences that make our lives interesting and colorful. Posts: 10 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Y' know, you're right, I don't know anything about the English, except for what I've seen in the media and in the history books. Given that poor information base, I still stand by my oppinions (even though they stink). I've also had a friend who's british, though I think she was more of the sterotype then the actual rule. In any case, that doesn't make the English any less curious to an American.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Aug 2001
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