Creating Alien Aliens, Part 15: If You Put All This Together – How Do You Get A Believable Alien?

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota.

Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS in biology and a fascination with genetics, I started to use more science in my fiction.

After reading hard SF for the past 50 years, and writing hard SF successfully for the past 20, I've started to dig deeper into what it takes to create realistic alien life forms. In the following series, I'll be sharing some of what I've learned. I've had some of those stories published, some not...I teach a class to GT young people every summer called ALIEN WORLDS. I've learned a lot preparing for that class for the past 25 years...so...I have the opportunity to share with you what I've learned thus far. Take what you can use, leave the rest. Let me know what YOU'VE learned. Without further ado...

HOW Do I Do It?

First: Aliens and Humans HAVE to interact closely; there have to be more aliens than Humans; it needs to be a BROADLY threatening situation.

Second: The function of aliens in science fiction is to explore HUMANS. To do that, they have to interact with Humans and be a metaphor of something profound that I’m trying to say. There has to be humor.

Third: Aliens need to be rational; at the least they have to have a possibility of rational thought. In the Alien franchise, the Xenomorphs aren’t given a chance to show their “Human” side.

Fourth: By changing a single paradigm, Humans can become aliens. For example, are children produced via something called a “uterine replicator” totally normal?

Fifth: You need to answer the question: Is being Human a matter of strict biology, no matter how speculative – or is ‘Human’ more a reflection of thoughts, words, and deeds?

Sixth: It takes effort to think like an alien – sticking tentacles on an alien doesn’t make it ALIEN…until you think about the implications, like “How does this alien play baseball?”

Seventh: Ask yourself: “Why would I want to read about an alien that was so different I couldn’t possibly connect with it in any way?”

Eighth: How does the world look through the eyes of a representative of your alien? Sink into ALTERNATIVE senses and imagine the stories that can happen to your alien characters.

Ninth: Alter a single Human behavior then spend time imagining the impact that single change would have on an alien society. You can start with altering a technology you are familiar with and then playing with the implications – but follow them in all of the implications, not just the ones you want to demonize!

Tenth: How would you REALLY try and communicate with Dolphins, Chimpanzees, Dogs, Cats, Elephants? (No smart aleck-y answers! How would we go about really communicating with them?) Pick one as an exercise…

Eleventh: What if ET were microscopic? How would intelligent microbes sense the world? How would the communicate? (For an excellent treatment of these questions, read THE CHILDREN STAR, (1999) Joan Slonczewski.)

Twelfth: WHY would aliens even consider coming to Earth? What’s a LOGICAL reason for invading? Property. Power. Wealth. Probably not as WE understand it, what would be something we WOULDN’T understand?

Thirteenth: An invasion is only an invasion if someone survives it and names it as such. Is objection or manifest destiny – what other things would drive aliens? To answer the question, I would have to create an alien from their DNA outward.

Fourteenth: While parasitic aliens seem unlikely, is that just our omnivore

orientation speaking? How about an intelligent alien tapeworm that has a host THAT WE FIND ATTRACTIVE? These lovely hosts are about as smart as a dog, certainly not starship builders. I have to look beyond my prejudice of ALL life forms if I’m going to create a believable alien.

Fifteenth: Look at a Human society that you don’t understand at ALL – or even a person from a political party you hate. TRY and look at the world through their eyes…OK keep it simple. Look at some military action the society you don’t understand and see if you CAN understand.

Sixteenth: What do your aliens value: Family? Race? Conformity (not the wimpy “conformity” Americans practice. HARD CORE conformity…)? Ideology? Treatment of children? Make yourself study your culture from that alien POV.

Seventeenth: What is it that makes us Human? Pick ONE thing and twist it hard.

OK – that’s what I have so far. You might want to review the specific essay to get the full gist of what I’ve briefly summarized here. Or just take it, tweak it, and run with it!

From this point on, CREATING ALIEN ALIENS will become an irregular feature. I've shared pretty much everything I can think of. For the rest, check out and read books that have believable aliens in them! If you have questions, just post in the COMMENTS below and I'll do what I can to answer them! Thanks for following along this amusing journey!

Image: https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/alien-human-600w-136457129.jpg

Guy Stewart is a husband supporting his wife who is a multi-year breast cancer survivor; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, foster father, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher and school counselor who maintains a writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS (https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/) where he showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has 72 stories, articles, reviews, and one musical script to his credit, and the list still includes one book! He also maintains GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT BREAST CANCER & ALZHEIMER'S, where he shares his thoughts and translates research papers into everyday language. In his spare time, he herds cats and a rescued dog, helps keep a house, and loves to bike, walk, and camp. He thinks out loud in print at: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/