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Q&A How to introduce alien flora/fauna without turning the fiction into a biology book?

It's just scene-setting. Your main character gets up in the morning and goes out onto her balcony to enjoy the morning while her caffeine is brewing, and she contemplates all the plants in her gard...

posted 8y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:42Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26485
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:02:58Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26485
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T06:02:58Z (almost 5 years ago)
It's just scene-setting. Your main character gets up in the morning and goes out onto her balcony to enjoy the morning while her caffeine is brewing, and she contemplates all the plants in her garden. As her eyes linger over each, describe them briefly, maybe with little stories about why she likes it or when she planted it or how hard it is to cultivate it.

Then she goes to work, and her buddy tells her about the crazy thing his pet TKTK did, and in doing so describes it. ("So Rex got into the kibble, and his head is stuck in the bag. I pull it off and there's kibble all under his scales, and of course the purple kibble looks awful against the green, and then he screeches because the kids startled him and the window shattered!")

When a character shapeshifts, it's perfectly fair to use that as a moment to describe the new animal shape your character has.

Drop in the description when the item comes up, show us through the eyes of one of your characters, and don't overdo it.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-02-03T17:56:08Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 22