Currently Listening To: Scream, by Avenged Sevenfold.
This is how dedicated I am to my blog viewers – I am making a post after a night of Irish pub hopping.
Anyway, so in this post I had discussed how I go about designing my characters physically. However this mostly applied to human characters. What about aliens or other creatures?
Well, the inspiration can come from many sources. Watching TV shows and reading novels of the sci-fi and fantasy genres. Researching animals and some of their amazing abilities. Folklore from different countries and cultures.
I use all of those. I also utilize another source: video games.
Games that take place in some setting other than Earth (or games that involve alien invasions of Earth) will have monsters that are literally out of this world. The concept of “alien” might be completely redefined for you.
Now, this is worth saying again:
Now keep in mind, the point is not to copy characters off of other shows or stories [or video games] (seriously, don’t do that). But rather they can be used as a stepping stone and then you, the author, add your creative touches to them.
Ideas can come from anywhere. Observation is one of your strongest tools as a writer.
Gates' Claptrap 
That’s my approach too. But I always wanna put my own spin on it. Change things up. I’ve read things where you can tell its a uninspired copy, though, which is always dissapointing.
Keep in mind that so many ideas have already been written that it’s kind of difficult to be original. So I might read stories where somethings seem similar, but so long as it’s not a carbon copy of the plot or such, then I have no problem reading it.
Example – say someone published a novel about an orphaned young boy who learns he’s actually a wizard and goes off to wizard school.
Sounds a lot like Harry Potter right? If the writer continued the plot to include an abusive uncle and aunt, a big giant who becomes a friend to a young boy , a professor of potions that seems to harbor an intense hatred for the boy, and a stone that grants immortality…then someone’s gonna be talking to a lawyer 🙂
BUT – say the wizard school is actually a place where the best students are turned into assassin mages through brain-washing and torture. The young boy must work to figure out the secret and expose it without raising suspicion.
That’s a nice little twist right there.