A Step-By-Step Guide to Designing Aliens

Welcome back, readers! As I write this, it is rather late in the evening, and I am trying to think of what to write. Between scribbling random ideas into my Moleskine notebook and adjusting the many layers of blankets which lie atop me, I come across an inspiration.

In this installment of my blog, which is still unnamed (every blog should have a title, shouldn’t it?), I have decided to discuss my technique for creating ‘realistic’ extraterrestrial creatures, along with their names, their planets, and more. Inventing believable aliens involves lots of effort, as does designing their environment.

Step-by-step Guide to Designing Aliens

1. Appearance: Obviously, the way your character looks is very important. This will hugely impact the way your readers will think of this character. To show this, I will use an example. In A Month Well Spent, my science fiction novel for young adults, the aliens are meant to be relatively human-like. To create this ‘humanoid’ illusion, I created them by modifying a familiar extraterrestrial being, the ‘gray’. These, as their name implies, are the common, basic gray-skinned entities.

However, to avoid the ‘gray cliche’, I significantly adapted the creatures to differentiate them. For one thing, they are not hostile like the usually antisocial grays. Furthermore, I gave them human traits, such as love, sympathy, and kindness, and courage and bravery. This is not fully related to their appearance, but I felt it necessary to mention. Always try to avoid cliches and character stereotypes, but if you must, do it infrequently.

2. Personality: Yes, even a alien needs a personality, perhaps more than a human character does. With people, it is easy to guess how a normal one would act, but extraterrestrials are not always human-like in any way. As I mentioned above, I wished to convey a sense of similarity between humans and my creatures, so I designed them to interact like humans. They possess earthlings’ character qualities, they communicate like people, and so on. It is instrumental that you give your characters attitudes and personalities that show the readers what you are trying to get across to them.

3. Names: Just as the title of a book or blog can lend it an attitude, so can a character’s name. For example, if I were to call one of my aliens ‘Thunderbolt’, that would probably conjure an image of violence in the reader’s mind. Similarly, if I named that same character ‘Ice Cream Sundae’, a reader would think of them in an entirely different way.

In an effort to integrate my characters with their planet and technology, I gave them names that, in an abstract way, were related. The most frequently mentioned aliens were named Kintroc and Kalmoch, with others having more or less difficult to read titles.

Notice that I gave the two main characters basic, two syllable names that are easy to remember, but still sound alien-like. That is important when designing unearthly characters: unpronounceable names will deter potential readers.

Relatably, certain planets in my solar system, Iota Samoaritei, have their own naming schemes. For example, a future book will be set on the planet Vintoq, which is mentioned only in passing in A Month Well Spent. Nearly all the characters’ names end with the letter ‘q’. Only the most discerning reader will recognize this, though, as many of the titles are shortened due to their length or complexity.

The names of your aliens are of incredible importance, so choose them carefully. This is a large decision, so take some time, and pick wisely.

4. Environment: The alien’s environment is also a major factor of its life. Environment can include weather, population density, plant and animal life, and more.

Does your alien live on a desert planet? If so, give it characteristics reminiscent of someone who lives in a warm climate. The characters in A Month Well Spent live in an icy, cold area of their planet, so I fitted them with proper tools, such as boots.

Also, remember to not only think of the climates that the characters like, but those where they are not comfortable. The Ventrillodae in A Month Well Spent have trouble traveling to the stifling Northern Region of their planet, since they have less tolerance for heat than humans do.

Another key factor is how many aliens live near the character. This is also known as population density, and is important when designing a new planet. Whether the aliens live in an extraterrestrial metropolis or a pleasant rural area determines the thoughts of the reader.

5. Technology: The final aspect of an alien species that I would like to discuss is their technology. In classic science fiction books, the foreign entities usually possess greater levels of tech than their human counterparts. This is not always the case. For example, the Ventrillodae, discussed in the upcoming book Only Time Will Tell, are inspired by Earthly inventions and engineering, despite their advanced galactic transit mechanisms. In many ways, they are a technologically backwards civilization. On the other hand, the Citeites, who you will read about in a future book of mine, have such incredible technology that they can hardly keep from destroying themselves. This is only an example of the variety of alien technology situations you can create.

Also, the gadgets themselves are important to design. Can the aliens travel between planets? If so, how? What weapons do they have access to? These are the sorts of questions an author must ask themself when creating technology for their civilization.

The Ventrillodae fly in wedge shaped spacecraft that travel at incredibly high speeds. They invented things such as touch-activated computer displays, complex electronic security systems, and more at a time when these were virtually unimaginable to humans. However, they are not so far ahead that the earthlings are completely confused when viewing their latest creations.

Cheat Sheet For Creating an Alien Species

Alright, that is all I have to say. I hope that this posting helped you in your sci-fi related endeavors, or at least was interesting to read. Before I go, I will provide a quick summary of what was discussed today, and things to remember when creating your own extraterrestrial species.

Alien-Designing Cheat Sheet
Appearance	Height	Head Shape	Skin Color	Unearthly Traits	Other Features
Personality	Qualities	Flaws	Human-like Traits	Unearthly Traits	Other Features
Name	First Name	Last Name (Opt)	Title of Royalty	Unearthly Traits	Other Features
Environment	Weather	Pop. Density	Plant/Animal Life	Unearthly Traits	Other Features
Technology	Transport	Architecture	Weapons	Unearthly Traits	Other Features

If you found this cheat sheet helpful, drop a comment in the box below. Also, if you would like to suggest a name for my blog, tell me! I appreciate your comments, as they give me inspiration. Thanks for reading!