Trouble Spots: Fantasy creature description
Courtesy of M. T. Dremer

• Standard Traits that are first noticed.
• Color, size and one memorable factor (glowing eyes, bat wings, laughing screech)
• Make the beast noticeable with only a hint of it
• Clicking is heard before it attacks
• Small bugs swarm around it, symbolizing its arrival
• Let the audience know something bad is coming with only subtle but noticeable hints, it helps to build the tension.
• What can it be compared to realistically to help readers picture it?
• Legs of a horse, lizard, man?
• Is it skeletal, meaty, muscular?
• Does it resemble real animals in manner or shape? (Stalked like a cat, lumbered like an elephant)
• Yes it has sharp teeth, but what else does the mouth show?
• Dripping saliva or venom?
• A fowl breath that clouds the air?
• A massive forked tongue that flicks out or a small fleshy one? What color is the tongue?
• What is the creature’s means of defense?
• Clawed hands? Poisonous bite? Unparallel strength or speed?
• Is it armored, hairy, leathery skinned?
• Does the monster look the part?
• Does it appear frail at first then turn unstoppable, or look unstoppable and prove frail?
• Is it a representation of death or life (skeletal blackness/muscular youth)
• Do people quiver in fear at the mere sight of it? Or is it devious, putting its prey in a false sense of security?
• What is the beast’s weakness?
• Can only a certain weapon destroy it? Or a certain element? (Sunlight, water, love)
• How can it be a major threat while still being vulnerable and how can the character exploit this? (Character can only kill it on a full moon, or week point is very small and hard to find.)
• What does the beast leave in its wake?
• Is there a lingering smell? Deep foot prints? Crushed vegetation?
• Does the world change when it is around? (Air gets colder, animals stop making noises, mist clouds characters vision)
• How does it move, aside from similarities to real animals, what is different?
• Is it on all fours, does its muscles ripple and twitch?
• Are the movements mechanical (legs pumping like machine turrets) or fluid (flowing like water)? Are either of these movements very quick and painful or slow and deadly?
• Is it speed or power that makes this creature feared?
• Where is the creature from?
• Underworld, forests, parts unknown?
• It is good to have a character that knows the origin and name of the creature so you avoid saying “the creature” over and over.
• Names are not required but they help.
• Is the name a representation of what it is or does (Called a howler because it howls) or is it completely unrelated?
• What accessories set this monster apart? Sure it looks like a cat, but that isn’t very interesting.
• It doesn’t hurt to use things you know. (Horns, tail, wings) Anything that puts a new spin on something that might have been familiar.
• Now mix it up, give it the head of a cat, the body of a lizard and the wings of a bat. But don’t describe it like that, describe the cat features as if the person reading didn’t know what a cat was, and same for the lizard and bat portions. Make it seem like these features were meant to go together.
• Don’t be afraid to be explicit in your description. Anything that grosses out the reader is a good thing; it means you brought out an emotion in them.

I can’t tell you how to create an original creature, but once you know what to look for when creating one, an original idea you had trouble implementing might not be so difficult any more.