How To Make A Monster

I think when creating monsters, there are two things that I consider the most: the mouth, and the eyes.

The mouth is by far the most telling feature and probably the most terrifying. There’s always that instinctual fear around mouths and teeth in particular, acting as a reminder that those jaws could wrap around you. Now, mouths can come in all different shapes and sizes, each of which could mean different things, regarding how they hunt and how they eat, and most importantly, how they would bite you. 

Small mouths with needle-like teeth could mean your monster normally hunts small  prey, or perhaps is very thorough, scraping the flesh right off the bone. 

Mouths with tentacles feel unnatural, and slimy and the discomfort is more of a moist doom. 

No mouth at all can be effective as well, creating an effect of something alien, and inscrutable, pushing the narrative of your monster to something more than just food. 

But, personally I enjoy large, gaping mouths, with long stretched out smiles. Something big and ready to swallow you up, ready to gnaw you into bits, laughing all the while. 

Following the mouth, I focus then on the eyes. If the mouth’s purpose is to create and illustrate danger, then the eyes are meant to haunt and make you create intention. 

Narrow slits feel reptilian or feline, and generally are predatory. 

Small round pupils feel manic and unstable.

Solid black eyes are sinister and unknowable.

But my personal favorite are hollow eyes-the ones that are hollow, gaping. Hungry.

And then everything after that just flows outward. Monsters don’t need a definite shape. They can shift and contort however they please. It just depends on the story you write for them, or that they write for you. You don’t even have to give them eyes or a mouth to be scary. They can be anything, from anywhere- so long as they live in your nightmares and are made of fear....

I just happen to like my fear with a face.