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

Everything is boring unless it has a function in the story. It it is irrelevant, it is boring. There is nothing you can do with language to make irrelevant stuff not be boring. Conversely, if somet...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-03T20:41:52Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26493
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 · 2019-12-08T06:03:06Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26493
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:03:06Z (over 4 years ago)
Everything is boring unless it has a function in the story. It it is irrelevant, it is boring. There is nothing you can do with language to make irrelevant stuff not be boring. Conversely, if something is relevant to the story, then it is interesting. Describing it beautifully may be icing on the cake, but it is its function in the story that makes it interesting.

Fantastical creatures and fantastical fauna need a story reason for being fantastical. Their fantasticality is irrelevant unless it plays a role in the story, and therefore boring.

So if your descriptions of your flora and fauna are boring it is not because you are describing them wrong. It is either because they are gratuitously fantastical in a way that is irrelevant to the story or because you are describing them at a time that they are not relevant to the story or in a way that does not make their relevance to the story clear. Connect them to the story and they will not be boring. (Unless the story is boring, of course, but that is another problem.)

Everything that Lauren says in her answer is perfectly valid, but only as long as these things are relevant to the story. What is the story reason that your character gets up and contemplates the strangeness of her garden? What it the story reason for the fantastical beast she transforms into?

If these things are connected to the story then the logic of the story will drive you to reveal them at the appropriate time. If they are not connected to the story than introducing them in the way Lauren suggests will be boring because they are irrelevant and irrelevant = boring.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-02-04T00:00:44Z (about 7 years ago)
Original score: 5