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Q&A How to convey the anatomy of a humanoid race?

As a quick thought, many species lay eggs and are not birds. Personally, I would find a second feature from a non-bird egg-laying species (or a sporulating species, or an asexual species) and plant...

posted 4y ago by DPT‭  ·  edited 4y ago by DPT‭

Answer
#2: Post edited by user avatar DPT‭ · 2020-04-16T20:44:05Z (almost 4 years ago)
  • As a quick thought, many species lay eggs and are not birds. I would find a second feature from an egg-laying species (or a sporulating species, or an asexual species) and plant that first.
  • Build your world so that they are cold blooded, and they sun, to warm. When they sun, they develop a glow (or something, a more nimble behavior and so on). Then one character can comment on the behavior, which would be meaningful to them.
  • Make them photosynthetic. Or give them gills. Or, establish that all flying creatures in the world give live birth.
  • Creatures that lay eggs include everything from newts to lobsters to snakes to fish to amphibia to platypuses to birds.
  • This is how I would handle it. Plant up front anything to say 'not bird' (one character could, for example, go so far as to say 'Jackie's duckbill-like lips always gave him pause,' and we automatically get steered to platypus.), and build the world in such a way that the exposition is natural.
  • If you feel there's a problem, there is, but the problem might be earlier in the story than you believe.
  • As a quick thought, many species lay eggs and are not birds. Personally, I would find a second feature from a non-bird egg-laying species (or a sporulating species, or an asexual species) and plant that feature first.
  • Build your world so that they are cold blooded, and they sun, to warm. When they sun, they develop a glow (or something, a more nimble behavior and so on). Then one character can comment on the behavior, which would be meaningful to them.
  • Make them photosynthetic. Or give them gills. Or, establish that all flying creatures in the world give live birth.
  • Creatures that lay eggs include everything from newts to lobsters to snakes to fish to amphibia to platypuses to birds.
  • This is how I would handle it. Plant up front anything to say 'not bird' (one character could, for example, go so far as to say 'Jackie's duckbill-like lips always gave him pause,' and we automatically get steered to platypus.), and build the world in such a way that the exposition is natural.
  • If you feel there's a problem, there is, but the problem might be earlier in the story than you believe.
#1: Initial revision by user avatar DPT‭ · 2020-04-16T20:43:28Z (almost 4 years ago)
As a quick thought, many species lay eggs and are not birds. I would find a second feature from an egg-laying species (or a sporulating species, or an asexual species) and plant that first. 

Build your world so that they are cold blooded, and they sun, to warm. When they sun, they develop a glow (or something, a more nimble behavior and so on). Then one character can comment on the behavior, which would be meaningful to them. 

Make them photosynthetic. Or give them gills. Or, establish that all flying creatures in the world give live birth.

Creatures that lay eggs include everything from newts to lobsters to snakes to fish to amphibia to platypuses to birds. 

This is how I would handle it. Plant up front anything to say 'not bird' (one character could, for example, go so far as to say 'Jackie's duckbill-like lips always gave him pause,' and we automatically get steered to platypus.), and build the world in such a way that the exposition is natural.

If you feel there's a problem, there is, but the problem might be earlier in the story than you believe.