Star Wars Writing Tips and Tricks.

Alien Species of Star Wars.

We all know that there are many aliens in Star Wars. That was half the appeal to me when I was little!

But even with all the options of alien characters to create and play with, many of us will simply make human characters that are either rebels and/or smugglers, or the rare pirate.

So what ever happened to the Twi'lek rebel fighter pilot, the Cerean tactician and senator or the Duro space explorer?

For many authors within the Star Wars fandom, it can simply be because of writing what they are comfortable with and what the audience can relate to the easiest. So inevitably, the stories tend to be about young teenage humans joining the Rebel Alliance and becoming ace pilots overnight.

Which, I might add, is virtually impossible and has a massive Mary Sue/Marty Stu warning flashing above it for many readers.

So, what is it about the aliens of Star Wars that lacks appeal to authors?

As stated above, writers tend to write what they are most familiar with. We don't necessarily know all the detailed ins and outs of a particular species, the social do's and don'ts, moral rights and wrongs. But we do know about human social conducts and morality, so that's exactly what we write and portray.

So why can't we do this for other species in Star Wars?

Let's take Twi'leks as an example.

This was the first Star Wars species that I loved dearly. This was first influenced by Aalya Secura in the Prequel films, then her and Numa in the Clone Wars and much later by Hera from Rebels. I just loved them; it was rare for me to play any other character in a Star Wars role-playing game alongside my dad, brother and sisters. My brother would always play a Wookiee, whom he'd usually name Lowbacca, my youngest sister was always a Togruta (my second favourite species), and my others two sisters chopped and changed what they played as.

My first (shitty) drawing of Neeran was her as a Twi'lek before she morphed into a human so that I could use her in my many other fandoms. They have always held a special place in my heart, and will continue to do so until I die.

So, of course, the most logical thing for me to do later was to look up everything about Twi'leks, both Canon and EU.

As a fun fact, the Ryloth shown in the Clone Wars is quiet different to how it was originally described. It was first described as a baked dust ball with one side almost permanently cooked and the other side cooler but still mostly unliveable except for underground because of an almost never ending cyclone that constantly traveled the planet. Forget the greenery you saw on there in the Clone Wars.

As another interesting fact, after the discovery of the planet by the early old Republic, due to its remoteness and the prized and coveted nature that Twi'leks quickly came to hold, Ryloth became a hotbed for slavery in the Outer Rim, much of it the dealings of other Twi'leks selling their own brethren and family into slavery. Kinda glad that this aspect isn't as Canon as it used to be!

Reflecting upon this, the Twi'lek species, and many others, feel sadly neglected in SWRC, though there are other Twi'leks that will appear later in the series, specifically one named Amelia who plays a significant role in the life of one of the core cast of characters.

Since there are so many different species throughout the Star Wars galaxy, I have created another book for all of the individual species of Star Wars. It's called 'Species Specifics', and will detail a species culture, roots, planet and other things and facts one may want to know about a certain species. Comment what you think I should include in it, whether content, species or both!

Also, the language spoken on Ryloth is Ryl, not Twi'leki like many sources seem to claim. The second one just sounds wrong. A personal, deep-seated pet peeve of mine.

Next up, the design of a plot...

Further suggestions welcome!