Worldbuilding: How to Write Fantasy Creatures

[@Jed_Herne]

My next fantasy novel, Kingdom of Dragons, launches on Kickstarter on November 2nd! Check it out here: bit.ly/kingdom-of-dragons

[@socman002]

I always suspected I wasn't wasting time staring at animals at the zoo and observing their behaviours, wondering what magical beasts they could become in my novel. Thanks J.

[@Jed_Herne]

You're welcome, Sean

[@Dookieman1975]

Turns out plants and fungi work too. Had an art project in high school and made a whole cryptid. Mixed a Smurf, a mushroom, and little nightmares nome and made a garden gnome of a humanoid mushroom. All from staring at a pic of a mushroom and remembering a game from 2017

[@kaiserquasar3178]

Damn this guy's building a whole-ass website. I have a strong feeling this guy will be one of the premier fiction writing channels in a year or so.

[@Jed_Herne]

That's the goal

[@kdm7333]

Watching all those David Attenborough documentaries gave me a lot of inspiration for magical creatures.

[@Jeffersoniananti-federalist]

​@@Jed_Herne I'd say your doing pretty well on this goal.

[@zeropoint2594]

One very funny example for "use all 5 senses" comes in the Final Fantasy series where you have those birds called Chocobo who are basicly yellow ostriches but in cute and they look cute behave cute and everything and you would not expect them to cause problems that is until you are told that they smell horrible so you can use it to give the fantasy animal an interesting twist

[@matthewmcteigue7347]

You can also plumb the vast wealth of prehistoric creatures of Earth. They tend to be very big and very strange looking. Tweak them as necessary to fit whichever fantasy context you have. It's an inexhaustible resource.

[@TyrantAnime69]

Mate, your guide really changed the way I write fantasy creatures. This is significant as I am writing a novel ALL about fantasy creatures. Essentially, my protagonist is transported to a world that is just a singular island where all fauna and some flora have evolved methods and a tendency to hunt humans. Without this guide, I would've screwed up real hard, so yeah, I appreciate it, you really saved my entire novel. Besides that, great content man, keep up the good work.

[@casualdragonslayer9655]

This video made me realize I’ve developed a thematic element in my story that I’d never even realized! 😂 My story is about monster hunters who use hounds to hunt and pursue monsters in a world where wilderness is constantly encroaching on civilization. Listening to your points made me realize that I am using the dichotomy between hounds (animals bred and modified by humanity) and monsters (usually creatures borrowed from mythology and folklore) as an allegory for the tension between known world of human experience, and the larger world of the unknown and the mysterious. I suppose this would tie into your points about world building, but on a fundamental thematic level.

[@CameronKujo]

Sounds amazing! Please expand upon your idea so that I may be reading it in a year or so.

[@Real_MisterSir]

I think a very important aspect of how one describes with senses, is a form of "6th sense" that is rarely used. I'm talking about the sense of emotion, which is a form of sense envoked by something's presence, either physically or in one's mind as a train of thoughts you can't let go of. This creature, how does it impact the emotions of those around it? You can describe a horrifying look, a foul smell - but what is the emotional description? Dread? An aura of dependability? Hopelessness? How a creature affects our senses and idea of what its existence is to us, can do so much more than what normal senses like looks, touch, and smell ever could. It's how Lovecraft wrote of his eldritch horrors, how he managed to describe something so vastly outside our understanding that even a single look would drive one mad. How do you describe the looks of something that you can't see without losing your mind? You describe its impact on our sense of emotion. Lovecraft is of course the very extreme of this sense type, but even adding a mere fraction of this alongside traditional sensory descriptors, can go a long way in deep fantasy writing.

[@fulldivemedia]

I agree but when you describe it with right words and get the point across the reader can see it in the mind, Like saying "it's mouth smell like it just finished eating a 3 days old corpse, hearing a weird noise coming from his tail,...." And one thing amazing about the reading words is, the reader have the most powerful graphics card in there brain, it's up to you to your words to shape it and use the 100% of power of that graphics card, The 6th sense can help, but remember that the main character is experiencing the feeling through the 5 five senses,

[@PhoenixCrown]

13:52 You did an amazing job of explaining why not to use measurements, and this principle applies to so much of our descriptive writing. Here's what I took away: Describe the feel you/MC/reader should have when viewing something, not the real world dimensions. A simple example to show how important this is would just be the height of something: Different people would find different heights amazing, scary, or some other emotion. So if I describe something as 100 feet high, that will evoke different emotions in different people. Thanks Jed!

[@m.j.johnsonbooks7856]

That was one of the most majestic shots of pigeons that I've ever seen. After writing a dragon rider fantasy, I'd be curious to hear the lessons you learned from writing Animal Companions. (Though maybe your dragons are more sentient like people.) I once tried putting a dog in an adventure story, but it was definitely unsuccessful. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.

[@Jed_Herne]

I'd certainly be open to sharing some lessons from that

[@Finding_My_Way_3524]

Dread...I did not understand this word, truly, until the day I saw the beast with my own eyes. Only a wood fence superadded me from a creature that I had only seen in illustrations up to this point and yet while others looked upon this animal with reverence I could feel nothing but the cold wash of fear making my heart beat like some mad drummer. Everyone said that it would be an awesome sight, and they were not mistaken. I was indeed in awe of the giant creature before me but that would not keep me from freezing in stark panic as it lay its sight on me. It moved towards me, bouncing slightly as it closed the distance. Every instinct in my young mind demanded I run. "Flee " it said. "Run! Dont just stand there, get away. Someone, please help me. Dont let this monster hurt me." No matter how my mind screamed at me I stood stock still, unable to even utter a whimper. It viewed me with large back eyes and sniffed the air near me. I could feel the heat of its breath, and the stink hit me soon after. At the time the scent was indescribable but now I can think of no other reek that I would attribute with such a creature. It was foul, and lingered in the air like animal droppings and mulch. I could almost taste it. Those inhuman black eyes blinked at me and its head moved in a quick jerking motion. I remained motionless. I could see its muscles ripple under its skin. Even subtle movements I could tell how powerful this beast was. I knew if it had the mind to it could kill me with one motion. Its powerful limb could break me in half before I had the chance to cry out, let alone blink. This is how I felt getting near a horse at age 8. Large animals scare the hell out of me. Tell me how I did if you would.

[@maximshmelev3458]

To someone like me, who started writing somewhat "accidentally" after drawing a lot of original charcters and creatures, these videos are very helpful and entertaining to watch. They give that structure and organization I need to flesh out my creations and make them functional, believable and interesting. Thanks a bunch!

[@Jed_Herne]

Glad to help

[@jgunner280]

First off, the whale comparison actually kind of helped me. I don't think I myself have many of that... I guess, Jurassic Park style introduction to fantasy creatures. It kinda jogs my memory, that even if we all "know" what a whale is, there are soooo many people that never actually see one, never the less swim with one. The same can even be said about big felines, foxes, even rabbits. Sometimes just spotting an animal from a distance just locks us in a trance, and of course the mighty ones, or fantastical ones, will carry that weight a lot more. Its something different to account for, rather than the convinient lore experts or fear-filled moments done often for the plot's sake or a conflict. The sense of wonder in seeing something wild can be special and almost sacred, and probably should become something to strive for a little more in my own works. The sensory one is a good one. I think I could improve there myself, but I believe I make a pretty good use of 'touch' as well. In a way the two are linked when meeting something new. If you look at an old wall, sometimes you can visualize how it 'feels' by the way it looks dusty or old. A 'chalky' touch is almost seen in it. For creatures, this is good for detailing the texture. Coarse hairs and slimy skin, and wooly is virtually a transcending idea between how they look and feel. Its almost like fashion, the moment you mention corduroy or silk there is a 'feeling' as soon as you see it. If you're not bridging the two, something feels kind of wrong or missing, or the entity itself might be very confusing to behold. Finally, your size advice is great. I find when I'm doing scifi I do try measuring things more. Maybe too much. Function should serve better, and I could consider that a little more. While in fantasy I'm not opposed to some anachronisms, I do halt myself with measurements and really ask if it feels right to weight a beast with some modern and easy unit. In fact "weights a ton" is just an expression we throw around casually, but has a literal alternative, so I don't want to be too hung up and worry over saying something about that. But on the other hand, I can't do it as easily to say it with a genuine force "This cart now weighs absolutely one-ton." It... just feels off. How'd they get that exact measure? No, much like how we loosely say it weighs a ton, someone in day to day life would actually be saying its as heavy as a horse, or as wide as the river. Its especially difficult with time explanations, but I've even used a silly slang of "a sun hop", as if the sun actually made a little jump in the sky to explain "a couple hours". Meanwhile scifi is almost backwards at least when characters are speaking of it. Perhaps narratives could still leave things abstract or down to function, but if a person remarks about it with computers built into their eyes or some screen, they're able to measure things down to the decimal and almost see the world in too much information.

[@Jed_Herne]

Thanks for such a thoughtful response!

[@FabbeNJ369]

The way I describe the creatures in my current project, The golden sea, is that there is a book in the world called ‘The book of monsters’. So when a new creature is introduced, the entry in that book is what you can read. So for example, let’s say there’s a creature that can create rocks(this is a simple example, not one I actually have), then, in the text it might say “Bella opened the book of monsters, and began reading the page *(Insert creature name here, I don’t feel like creating a name for this creature, since I’ll never use it again) A brown creature made of rocks. It can create rocks from thin air, and throws it at its prey. It can also use the rocks that it creates to replace missing body parts, by just putting a new rock there* Bella told her crew to be prepared so they didn’t get hit by a rock

[@aasimmushtaq9494]

Broo keep going you are the best I am very inspired by you

[@Jed_Herne]

Thanks!

[@AutisticBrain]

Thank you as a starting out Author that has written one 20 page novella that isn’t published, and has used chat GPT3 to enhance my writing. This video was very helpful. Thank you.

[@jammydodger5838]

Bro using AI is cheating 💀

[@AutisticBrain]

@@jammydodger5838 I used GPT to write my first draft of my first novel and than I am going back and hand writing my novel the GPT draft was just for structure. Also, I use the platform to come up with plots and book ideas.

[@Thunderrider-2318]

For me, I like to think of my fantasy animals as creatures that fall on a food chain. In my desert world that I'm planning to write a book about, I started off the biology by thinking of a few animals. Then I thought, "what could this animal eat in order to have a need to be [insert characteristic here]" or "what could be eating this animal to make it need the abilities it has?" And if you keep going with more complex questions like "what animal/ plant could this animal have a symbiotic relationship with?" Or "what could compete with this animal for the same resources?" Or "What badass animal would be cool for this creature to fight" then you can have a really complex and deep biology in your world. You can ask a ton of other questions like "since this animal is a generalist (more basic and adaptable), what could be a specialist (heavily adapted for a specific niche) animal?" And so on and so forth. Ofc, a little research is advised, could be anything from nature documentaries or just recalling stuff from biology class. If anybody even remembers anything from that class 😂. But I digress, long story short: Start with a few animal ideas and then ask questions like they fall somewhere on a food chain. I do advise that it's what worked for me, so it might not work for everyone.

[@silvermoon9186]

thank you for your help, This video is going to help a lot with my books.

[@mathieuleader8601]

Ricky Grevais's Fanimals is a great starting point to look at fantastical fantasy creatures

[@derpygoosewrites]

Website looks amazing and is working for me - will be super helpful to get the creative juices flowing! I also completely agree with your discussion of choosing the most evocative details to describe and focusing on functional implications rather than specific measurements. I think it can be easy to mistake 'immersive' for 'highly detailed' but if your reader is taken out of the story in attempting to put together all the details and build the picture then the result can definitely be less immersive. Like everything in writing - all about striking the balance!

[@Jed_Herne]

Awesome, I hope it's useful

[@joshuaparker7095]

Fantastic video Jed! It was super informative and helpful!

[@Jed_Herne]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Mificsai]

Just finished reading the first five chapters and I'm really intrigued! Been watching your KZbin videos for about a year now but that was the first of your works that I've read. Awesome to see how you put all you've been teaching into practice!! The religion, types of magic, creatures, societal castes, international tension, etc. For just the first five of a draft, it is a great read!! Excited to see what editing changes and how the rest of the story goes

[@Jed_Herne]

Thanks! Hopefully it won't be long until the book is published for real now

[@ilovandaele2184]

This was incredibly helpfull, i recently startet writing a novel about a "riftwalker" trying to reach his home dimension outside of conflict and war he also lands in worlds full of mystical creatures.

[@TyTy-ep8pe]

Feedback for the website: #1: For the website, I've noticed that the 'random question' system gives you the same question repeatedly. For instance, I got the 'What is the geography of your world like?' question dozens of times before I got my fiftieth question for the first and it was the same with a few others. Lots of questions make it feel like you'll only come across a certain question by chance. So in terms of the randomizer, I understand the effectiveness of it, I just think you should probably consider a way to avoid questions being repeated endlessly. #2: Then, for the 250 questions package(10$) there is no way of telling if getting those questions would even be worth it. After all, why spend 10$ to get 200 extra questions when you can't be sure if you'll even get all of them(see #1) or if they'll be as useful as the first 50. Not to say I don't think they will be, but without any reviews, you can never be sure. Unfortunately, I can't really think of a solution for this. Outside of maybe hinting what the questions might be and so on. #3: The questions are very, very helpful and insightful. On multiple occasions, I thought 'Oh wow, I never thought about that!' and there were other times when I thought 'establishing this makes sense!'. Overall, the questions are remarkable and very broad, I have to say my only complaint so far is not being able to tell how many of them you have gotten previously without going back and counting your previous answers. #4: All in all, the website is good, could maybe use a dark mode for when it is used at night, but otherwise, I don't really see any problems with it! Feedback aside, thanks for the great and informative video! I hope this helps! 9/10 experience with the website, would recommend it! (P.S. I also think you should leave a spot where people can leave reviews for the website as a whole so people are more likely to trust it!)

[@Jed_Herne]

Those are super useful comments, thanks for letting me know! Not too sure what's going on with the randomisation - it always seems to show different questions for me. Does the same bug come up if you use it across multiple websites? In terms of the Pro Version - if you'd like to try it out, and possibly give it a review, I'm happy to give you a refund if it isn't useful for you. Just let me know within 30 days of purchase by sending me an email, and I'll sort it out :)

[@AnotherDuck]

I needed a pack animal for my mountain culture. Thought about some kind of giant gecko, since those are pretty good climbers. But then I went slightly more mundane and wrote in a giant goat instead. We all know how those don't care about how steep a cliff is, they will stand on it, so I thought they fit well for the purpose.

[@StephenSinclair-d6n]

I recently finished a story with a 'Supernatural creature' as the title character. Wanted to do the horror and pathos thing lol. Based him on 'real' folklore, occult etc (he starts as human but messes with neoplatanist magic aka 'lost hearts' m r james). I kept the design simple.

[@StarlasAiko]

When giving measurements in my fantasy stories, I don't use earth measuring systems. I reference body measures of the people for scale: The creature stood taller than three men high; It was small enough to fit into his palm; He could just about touch the other end with his fingertips, if he stretched far; ... The only exception to this is the fact that Imperial measures for lengths have derived from body relatedness. A Yard used to be the distance between tip of the nose to tip of index finger on the forwardly outstretched right arm of whoever is measuring, and this eventually got standardised to the yard of the monarch that ruled when standardisations were brought in. Same principle applies to the Foot (duh) and Inch (tip to first knuckle on the index finger). Even if a fantasy world has different benchmarks for weights, temperatures, areas, etc..lengths almost certainly will be based on body measures.

[@Jed_Herne]

That's a good way of going about it

[@EmeraldsFire]

Had never heard where measurement for inch came from. A cubit was length of a mans arm from shoulder to tip of middle finder There was someone I came across on the youtube shorts comparing how different cultures count on their hand, not just fingers. Some places instead use space between their fingers, or all the different bones instead. Fascinating stuff in our own world when come across it

[@bgcvetan]

Something to consider, thank you my dear.

[@BruceWayne15325]

Verbs can be a great way to show not tell. IE: The horned beast trotted across the stream. You instantly know that this is a horse-like creature simply because of the way that it walks.

[@KingAlfredTheGreat1]

Website sounds incredible! I’m struggling to get on, there might be an issue with the site! Love your work keep it up

[@Jed_Herne]

Hmm, is the website working now? It seems fine for me

[@KingAlfredTheGreat1]

It’s working now 👍🏼 nice one!

[@sarahuher8358]

It is offensive that you used clips from the Eragon movie when talking about dragon riders.

[@markwatson394]

I loved this video! I have been wondering how I would create and introduce my creatures/monsters in my novel. Do you have any tips for naming creatures? That is where I am really stumped.

[@bypyros1933]

I have a question: what are the rules for secondary characters? Besides the fact that they need to be related to the main plot one way or another what are the rules for when and how to use them? How much should they appear? What freedom do I have with them?

[@5peciesunkn0wn]

And now I've got ideas for someone akin to Steve Irwin getting isekai'd and having kobolds assist them lol.

[@insectilluminatigetshrekt5574]

You should check out speculative evolution

[@Twilightbill]

Use all 5 senses? Like was there an example of using the sense of taste for the creature? Im curious lol

[@Amaurn89]

I'm a bit of an exception for the "smell resonance idea; I have an especially poor sense of smell and often the inclusion of smell descriptions confuse me.

[@SillyJaguar]

1:53 what animal is that? I love him

[@thomass2125]

12:00 I pictured a Narwhal. They're the Jedi of the sea.

[@collegemaster5683]

I'm super serious: The section of "Developing characters" mentioning Dragon Rider stories was interrupted by a movie trailer... "From the makers of "How to Train Your Dragon". I'm not kidding XD

[@cstark16]

Jed - i've been listening to your videos for about a week now, and just wanted to let you know that you have become my favorite youtuber by far. The fact that you spend so much time on these videos helping us fellow writers when you could be keeping the secrets to yourself, writing your own stories, is so generous and thoughtful of you. I for one have been able to TRIPLE my workload since i've discovered your videos after looking up "Joe abercrombie writing process" lol that interview was INCREDIBLE You choose your words carefully and even in your videos about writing it seems like every word you chose to use id with painstaking consideration - i'm always floored by how eloquently you can say something rather simple. I've gone and listened to all of your solo podcasts, and some of the group ones, and decided id need to thank you and show appreciation among the many other writers that you've inspired. I love your enthusiasm and voice in every video - i look forward to everyone even when they're not relevant to my stories! I plan to pick up Kingdom of Dragons or Thunderheist as a way of supporting you to thank you for supporting us and wanting to see us succeed. I'm keeping quiet about my project like you suggested in your writing mistakes - all i can say is it's been something i've been working on and plotting for a few years now (i am disobeying your rule about not starting off with a multi series book lol sorry jed the vision is too clear)- but one day i hope to have a discussion with you about our writing processes :) NEVER stop grinding Jed - you got fans who truly admire your intellect and work ethic, and i think you're one of the most genuine Writing youtubers out there (i've gone through so many books and youtube videos - yours was the only one that kept my attention and felt relatable) I'm subscribed and enjoying your community since last week 👍🏻👍🏻 can't wait to see what's next!

[@cstark16]

I'm not even a big fan of dragons or high fantasy but i want to support the grind for real. Can't wait to see what you tackle in the next video/podcast. I choose one to listen to every day on my mornjng walk before writing, and typically listen to one after a reading session too

[@cstark16]

also just wanted to mention nobody appreciates how welll edited your videos are. You've got a great set up! Ill be following the blog or whatever other sites and handles you got up when i'm home from work. You seem like a cool dude, Jed.

[@cstark16]

I'm also interested in your class/ebook but i'll look around for info on that layer

[@Jed_Herne]

Wow, thanks for such a heartfelt comment! I really appreciate you sharing this. Best of luck with the writing, and hopefully we can be sharing a bookshelf at some point in the future :)

[@5BBassist4Christ]

"The [Mondoceros] was the size of a shark." If your fantasy world did not have sharks in it, then how would you describe this aspects of a creature? I'm battling with this idea that using real-world terminology can break immersion. So if I have a creature that looks like a dear, do I compare it to a dear when dears themselves would be very alien to the world I'm creating? I might then instead seek to understand how the people within the world would recognize such an animal. Overall, this is something I'm working on, that I call Narrative Translation. It is unlikely any fantasy world speaks English, but to write an entire book in a made-up language that the world actually speaks would be absurd, and nobody would be able to read it. So an author could "translate" the language, but still be intentional with world-emmersing termonology. "He was working around the clock" wouldn't make sense in a medieval world where they don't have clocks, and could thus break immersion. Maybe instead, I could make up a phrase like, "He pushed the sun with his labor" to invoke the long hours he worked. Instead of saying, "He never liked being in the spotlight", it would be better to say, "Their gaze felt like a dragon's stare."

[@naomiuchiha0906]

Whale Sharks are indeed amazing to swim with

[@aleximalmgren5301]

Something as big as a dragon would be a pest unless it does something very useful with how much food it would need. Maybe it guards against some kind of threats. Like how the Egyptians worshiped cats as they ate mice .

[@AlejandroCovarrubias-u3h]

In my world monsters were born from cursed dragon blood and a society of hunters formed to keep them at bay These monsters are used by the first big villain of the story and are a bench mark of strength

[@blaircolquhoun7780]

Are dinosaurs, pterodons, or both, the inspiration for dragons?

[@unicorntomboy9736]

I think so, yes

[@blaircolquhoun7780]

@@unicorntomboy9736 Same here.

[@EmeraldsFire]

Look up the ancient wyvern statues in cathedrals and such. They match pterosaurs, including the tail and walking on all fours like a bat

[@blaircolquhoun7780]

@@EmeraldsFire Thank you.

[@kmig42]

@@blaircolquhoun7780but the size comes from dinos

[@Haexxchen]

What I took from this, is we should not be describing fantasy creatures, like Tolkin describes mountains.

[@denisdenis5609]

👍🏻

[@davidmisner6372]

Around the 12 min mark you mention a creature in contrast to a creature from our world. This really pulls me out of a book. I was wondering your feelings on this issue. Say im in a world that is not our own, and i have a large scorpion like creature, I feel like it cheapens the story and is just cheating if i say, its a large scorpion. Assuming this world doesnt have scorpions. Opinions?

[@rphb5870]

I felt like I was in a fantasy world when I visited Mont St Michel

[@Jeffersoniananti-federalist]

By this point, I probably make up about half of the views on this video! 🙃

[@heatherkline6766]

Yes, "save the cat" or "pat the dog" scene.

[@volosguidetomonsters3440]

Or the dragons in my world are 8 miles long and have 200 wings and 11 heads

[@notanog9446]

mwah

[@MonkeJunke]

I accidentally made character development in my book 😅

[@Chilledbaconstrip]

Ah yes numbers don't matter at all unless the numbers themselves have symbology. For me I made a dragon and when describing him I said he is 666 meters. The number has a suggestion of his evil nature.

[@DOMyth]

9:31 Americans when they hear some places have dogs as common food: 12:57 mm, yeah, this frog creature thing tastes like... vomit I guess?

[@-inFinity05-]

“Whether it’s riding dragons, seeing a phoenix die and be reborn, or meeting Jesus Christ, fantasy creatures can be an incredible pathway…”

[@RobotTrucker]

0:32 that is why I have a personal Beef with GOT, it ruined fantasy.

[@armedtoaster3366]

The show or the books? The show sucked but I don't think it "ruined" fantasy