10 Tips for Writing a Realistic Monster
By Deborah Sheldon
In fiction, the characteristics of a supernatural monster, such as a ghost or demon, can be crafted in whichever way best suits your story. However, when writing about a flesh-and-blood monster, only realism suspends reader disbelief. I enjoy writing creature-horror fiction; it’s a lot of work, but great fun to create a species. My award-nominated titles in this subgenre include Cretaceous Canyon and Devil Dragon. My latest novel is Nightmare Reef, featuring the plesiosaur, a marine reptile believed to be extinct for 66 million years. If you’d like to write creature-horror with a realistic monster, here are my top 10 tips.
1: Choose your story first
For my most recent project, I wanted to write a deep-sea thriller with some type of monster. An online search of giant marine animals came up with whales, sharks, squid, and jellyfish. These options didn’t resonate. Inspired by my novel Cretaceous Canyon, I then researched prehistoric animals and found the plesiosaur. Fabulous! As a kid, I loved the Loch Ness Monster – assumed to be a plesiosaur – so I knew I’d found the star of my novel. Since I’m an Aussie and my characters are Australian, I refined my search for a plesiosaur species that lived in the Pacific Ocean off our east coast, and that’s how Nightmare Reef was born. Decide on the type of story you want to write, and hunt for a creature that would suit.
2: Let the monster shape your story
On the other hand, you might already have an animal in mind. This was the case with my novel Devil Dragon. The huge Komodo-like lizard, Varanus priscus, roamed Australia during the Megafauna age, and I wanted to write a short story about it. However, the more I researched this remarkable animal, the more plot ideas arose until my short story morphed into a novella, and then a novel. Let research into your chosen monster whet your creative appetite and help build your story from the ground up.
3: When your story opens, what do your characters already know about the monster?
Broadly speaking, you have three options. Firstly, your characters know nothing: plesiosaurs are considered extinct in my novel Nightmare Reef, just as they are in the real world. Secondly, your characters have some knowledge: my novel Devil Dragon features a prehistoric reptile classified as a cryptid, with occasional sightings that scientists dismiss or explain away. Thirdly, your characters know a lot: my novella Man-Beast has the ‘Yahoo-Devil-Devil’, a species of Sasquatch considered as Australian as the saltwater crocodile or kangaroo. Decide whether your characters have knowledge of the monster, and to what degree. This will influence their every action and shape your narrative.
4: Make the monster uniquely yours
When using a monster already well established in horror literature, such as the vampire or werewolf, put your own spin on it. For instance, my experience as a medical writer came into play for my award-nominated novel, Body Farm Z; I decided from the outset that biology would define the parameters of my zombie. Rather than using established types such as ‘fast’ or ‘slow’, my human and animal zombies are constrained by their degree of decomposition – as in, the fresher the corpse, the more active the zombie – which directly impacts my plot and characters. Consider ways to make your traditional monster unique to your own story.
5: Pick your time frame with care
Nightmare Reef is a modern-day story. My novella Man-Beast, set in 1913, was inspired by boxing troupes that travelled Australia in the early 20th century. The troupes would follow the calendar for agricultural shows, set up tents, and invite punters to fight their boxers for entertainment and gambling. The time period I chose circumvented technology such as mobile phones and satellites, enabling me to create additional obstacles for my characters. Give serious consideration to your story’s time period. Don’t automatically default to a contemporary setting; it could be that placing your story in the past, or the future, would better serve your narrative.
6: Decide on your monster’s immutable characteristics
A fictional monster feels real if it looks and behaves like a flesh-and-blood animal. Important questions to ask yourself include: What does it look like? Where does it live? How does it move? What does it eat? What are its habits and instincts? What sounds does it make, not just when attacking, but when sleeping or interacting with other members of its species? For my pod of plesiosaurs in Nightmare Reef, I studied behaviours of marine mammals such as whales and dolphins to help fashion a species that would be at home in today’s Pacific Ocean. I also invented characteristics – such as appearance, intelligence, social hierarchy – to fill in the many blanks. Specificity is key. Not every detail hit the page, but I knew my monster inside out. To create a believable monster, you will need to do extensive research, then add a helluva lot of artistic licence!
- Give your monster scary traits
This seems like a given – aren’t monsters inherently scary? – but you can’t assume the reader will be unsettled by your monster just because it’s unfamiliar. No, you have to work to make your monster frightening. Keep this in mind as you write. I find it helpful to examine my own fears and phobias for inspiration. So, what frightens you? Can you invest your story with personalised terrors? It’s easier to write about something scary if you’re scared of it yourself. And humans are a homogenous bunch; that’s why claustrophobia and arachnophobia, for example, are universally common. I’m scared of the sea and its creatures for various reasons, and I used them all to write Nightmare Reef.
- How does the monster seem to your protagonist?
Bottom line: the way your protagonist reacts to your monster largely determines the reader’s response. Does your protagonist experience awe? Respect? Fear? Terror? Maybe the protagonist feels awe at first, then terror once they get to know the monster. Or terror at first and then awe. Perhaps even compassion or love, depending on how your story unfolds. The reader needs cues about how to interpret your monster. To do this most effectively, allow your protagonist and other characters to respond with thoughts, emotions and actions. Don’t tell readers how to feel about your monster; instead, let your characters show the way.
- Avoid making your monster nothing more than a killing machine
Generally, an animal that exists solely to kill will seem one-dimensional to a reader, especially if you’re writing a long-form project such as a novel. Consider real-world predators: are they hunting 100 per cent of the time? No! For example, lions hunt about once every four days. A substantial kill allows them to laze in the sun with full bellies. So, what is your monster doing when not attacking? And why does the monster attack anyway? Maybe not just to feed, but to reproduce? Protect itself? Fleshing out its behaviour will help ground your monster in verisimilitude.
- What are your monster’s weaknesses?
No living creature is invulnerable. So, how can your monster get hurt? What is it afraid of? How will you show its weak spots? In Nightmare Reef, a plesiosaur’s flesh-and-blood biology is one of its weaknesses because injury and death are always feasible. At the very least, your monster should be capable of dying. Even if your story doesn’t result in the monster’s death, the reader should understand that death is a possibility under certain circumstances. Otherwise, your monster might seem like a god or supernatural being.
One last tip: read creature-horror stories and get inspired! Figure out what the authors did to achieve their effects, and see if you can work similar techniques into your own writing.
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NIGHTMARE REEF BLURB:
The ocean is vast. The danger is ancient. And nowhere is safe.
For the Wagner family, sailing across the Pacific was meant to be the adventure of a lifetime. But beneath their ageing yacht, Nauti Buoy, something stirs – something thought extinct for millions of years.
Then the nightmare begins. Hunted by plesiosaurs – ferocious predators from a forgotten age – the Wagners are thrust into a relentless fight for survival.
From award-winning author Deborah Sheldon, Nightmare Reef is a harrowing tale of one family’s battle to the death against nature’s brutality.
NOVEL URL: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FPBSYP72
AMAZON AUTHOR URL: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B0035MWQ98
