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Whether it’s a character’s beloved pet or the invented creatures of a fantasy world, writing about animals offers a unique opportunity to bring richness and depth to your stories. From majestic wild creatures to mythical beasts, animals can play a vital role in your narrative.
But as exciting as it is to include them, writing about animals poses challenges. How do you accurately depict an animal’s instincts and behaviors without making them feel too human?
How do you balance their role in the story without turning them into caricatures or oversimplified symbols? And if you're writing in a fantasy world where animals speak or exhibit superhuman intelligence, how do you craft that in a way that fits within the rules of your universe?
These questions often trip up writers, but animals can become essential and memorable characters in your story with the right approach. In this post, we’ll explore five tips for writing about animals in a way that feels realistic, engaging, and well-integrated into your story.
Research Real Animal Behavior (Even for Fantasy Animals)
Understanding real animal behavior is crucial if your animal characters are real-world creatures like wolves or fantastical beings like dragons. For instance, even though dragons don’t exist, basing their habits on the behaviors of large predators like eagles or tigers can ground your fantasy animals in reality.
Real-world research can also prevent mistakes that may distract readers from your story. Horses, for example, don't behave like dogs, and wolves don’t act like house pets. They have instincts, habits, and limitations shaped by their environments. Incorporating these realistic details makes the story richer and more believable, even if your characters are riding unicorns or telepathic felines.
So, before you start writing, dive into the natural world. Observe how real animals move, interact, hunt, and protect themselves. Even if you’re dealing with mythical creatures, using real-world behaviors as a foundation will make your fantasy creatures more relatable and authentic.
Avoid Over-Anthropomorphizing (Unless It’s a Key Part of Your Story)
Giving your animal characters human traits is tempting, especially in fantasy stories where they might talk or think like people. However, over-anthropomorphizing can make the animal feel unrealistic or jarring, especially if they behave in ways that don’t align with their natural instincts.
For real-world animals, try to avoid making them too human. A wolf isn’t going to understand moral dilemmas or carry on conversations about the weather. Their motivations revolve around survival, hunting, and protecting their pack.
However, it's essential to strike a balance in stories where animals talk or behave like humans. Think of Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia. While Aslan speaks with authority and wisdom, he still retains his lion-like qualities. He hunts, roars, and has a physical presence that reminds the reader he’s still an animal despite his divine nature.
Ultimately, the key is consistency. If you’re writing about animals, make sure their human-like qualities fit the rules of your world, and don’t stray too far from their animal instincts.
Show the World Through the Animal’s Senses
One of the most powerful ways to write animals is by showing the world through their unique senses. Animals don’t perceive their environment the way humans do. For instance, dogs rely heavily on their sense of smell, birds of prey have exceptional vision and nocturnal animals navigate primarily through sound.
Tapping into these sensory details immerses readers in the animal’s perspective. If you’re writing from the viewpoint of a hawk, focus on its sharp vision and the way it spots a rabbit from a great distance. If your character is a cat, emphasize its heightened senses in the dark and how it reacts to even the faintest movements.
In fantasy, these sensory experiences can be even more creative. What if a magical beast could sense emotions, or a dragon could feel the vibrations of danger approaching? Exploring these sensory differences enriches your writing and makes your animal characters feel distinct from human characters.
Give Your Animal Characters Clear Motivations
While animals don’t share human desires and aspirations, they have clear instinct-driven motivations. Whether they need to protect territory, find food, or care for their offspring, these primal urges should guide their actions in your story.
For example, Richard Adams builds an entire rabbit society in Watership Down, but the rabbits’ motivations remain deeply connected to actual rabbit behavior. They seek safety, food, and survival, but their complex social structure adds depth and intrigue to these basic needs.
When writing fantasy animals, their motivations can still be based on these instincts, even if their world is more magical. A dragon might be driven by the need to protect its treasure hoard, or a griffin could feel a fierce loyalty to its rider. Just make sure their goals align with their nature.
Ultimately, even in fantasy, animals should have clear, instinct-driven motivations that make sense in the context of their world. This will help them feel realistic and well-rounded, even if they breathe fire or fly.
Use Animals to Enhance the Atmosphere and Theme of Your Story
Animals can be more than just characters in your story—they can also enhance the atmosphere and help reinforce your story’s themes. Whether they represent freedom, wildness, danger, or loyalty, animals often carry symbolic weight that can deepen your narrative.
For instance, in Jack London’s The Call of the Wild, Buck’s transformation from a domesticated pet to a wild creature parallels the harsh, untamed environment of the Yukon. The animals in the story aren’t just there for action—they reflect the wild, unforgiving nature of the world itself.
In fantasy, animals can take on even more significant symbolic roles. Harry Potter provides great examples of this; the phoenix is a metaphor not just for rebirth but also for the triumph of good over evil. Owls, cats, and reptiles, all of which hold significance in stories of magic, make appearances but take on different roles in relation to the characters.
Use animals thoughtfully to underscore the mood and themes of your story rather than just inserting them for action or novelty. Doing so will make your narrative more cohesive, and your animal characters will contribute meaningfully to the plot.
Writing animals, whether grounded in reality or fantastical worlds, offers an incredible opportunity to enrich your storytelling. By researching real-world behavior, avoiding excessive humanization, using sensory details, establishing clear motivations, and enhancing your story’s atmosphere, you can create compelling animal characters that resonate with readers.
Want More Tips for Creating Characters?
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Whether you already have a story in progress or need a little bit of inspiration, it’s the perfect tool to help you reach your full creative potential so you can impact and inspire readers.
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