Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
When developing characters, more specifically writing characters point-of-views, be sure to take into account their background. What words would they use, what metaphors would they lean into? This applies to all genres: romance to horror, fantasy to science fiction; children’s books to literature sob fests.
Don’t have a farmer crossing the ocean to a new land think about how the storm is clashing swords, but how the ship is plowing through rows of waves. Don’t have a creature from a lava planet discuss his love interest skin as “snow white.” Get inside their skin and show the reader who the characters are through the word choices.
WRITER’S EXERCISE: Write about 100 (or more) words scene with the point-of-view character describing the materials and/or actions within the scene in a manner which adds to the character.
My Attempt: Back in March I did a four-part story “Laying Easter Eggs,” starting with The Tortoises (3/8/2026). Each of the three alien species (Tortoises, Birds, and Crocabillies) used words and comparisons tied to their particular species. The Birds (3/15/2026) especially referred to seats as roosts and changed what a human would say as “lucked into something” and “caught a warm draft up.” When the monkey-humans show up, they too used the colloquiums of their species.