Flora and Fauna

Welcome back to the Worldbuilding Chronicles! You will learn how to create plants and animals from scratch in this article. This may be really useful for Fantasy writers and creators of very imaginary worlds. You may have written several books before and are amazing at many things, however, many writers often forget to flesh out the flora and fauna existing in their story setting realistically which leaves their story with plot holes or creatures that seem illogical and difficult to make heads or tails of. Yet, some writers may not even touch on it in their stories because they may not know how to utilise flora and fauna, making their stories feel a bit bland or flat in some areas. But worry not, for in this article we will be covering a guide of sorts to help you with that. So sit back, grab some tea and have fun reading!

Fauna - a deeper look 

When it comes to writing animals it's pretty simple. Firstly, figure out where it lies on the food chain. Do you want a prey animal or a predator?

Category A: The Predator

If it's a predator, ask some questions, these will help you out further in your writing and make the storyline more engaging and realistic.

- How does it hunt?

- How does it survive?

- How does it defend itself?

- How does it reproduce?

- What does it eat?

- What does it look like?

All of these questions will help you build it up. If it's a predator, it needs to hunt to survive. Therefore, what does it eat? How does it hunt its prey? Claws, teeth, pitchers, poison? There are lots of different types of ways an animal can hunt its prey and it can use these things to defend itself too! Does it stalk its prey or attack the moment a prey is in sight? All of these will circle back to what it eats! What it eats will relate to how it stalks its prey and how it kills it. Of course, there are also a rare few that are stationary and do not stalk their prey but hide in waiting as they lure their victims into their folds. For example, the famous fly trap plants the giant carnivorous flowers that bewitch with their beauty or the angelfish that uses the light above its head to lure unsuspecting fishes in the sub-ocean where light is poor.

You also want to consider how it looks and here's why, when writing animals it needs to hide in some way due to its intrinsic ability to survive and that loops back to how it looks. Does it camouflage? And if so how does it do that? Many animals do it via color and some do it by changing colors. Others use patterns to blend it and some even use both! Figuring out the animal's appearance will be the animal's lifeline.

Category B: The Prey

When it comes to prey you can use all of the above questions besides the ones related to hunting. Writing about animals who are ranked lower in the food chain is simpler than writing the hunters! First of all, just focus on figuring out what it eats. Many prey animals are herbivores so think about what kinds of plants and/or fruit they eat. What about nuts and seeds? Also, they could also be omnivores. Examples of omnivores are the legendary lynx and the cute foxes. Lastly, think about how it gets that food.

When it comes to hiding, prey animals need to hide to survive, or at least they are the experts in finding ways to get away. So ask yourself what is it that they do? Camouflage perhaps? Or do they have fast legs to run away or even wings to fly away? Or do they have special magical abilities like invisibility? Some notable prey animals in the book lore include the cricket in Mulan, Pickett, Nifflers and Demiguise in the Fantastic Beasts Series. There are many different options and it can feel overwhelming deciding all these traits, but the good thing is once you've thought it through and decided on your one-of-a-kind, it would stick with you and your readers throughout the story. Especially, if these animals are of a totally new species. We would recommend doing some research to figure out what is right for you!

Prey animals are usually peace-loving and also precious, as they need protection from the harsh environment or predators to thrive. These creatures have one common thing their bodies are useful for something. 

Weird thought, huh?

Well, consider why they are relevant and, nine times out of ten, it is for food or some other tool. If it's not food it can be fur, horns, feathers, and much more! With this, you can also give your readers hints about the culture of the world your characters live in! Are pelts common? Do people have a special way of cooking the animal? Are the body parts used for other clothes or tools? These questions can all be answered thanks to the animal! Of course, you might not consider these at all and instead choose to just create them for the heck of it to just make the world look pretty. And that's fine too. the animal might be needed to eat or to wear instead it might be there as another world-building tool so make sure to dive into that!

Plants, greenery and flora

Now onto plants what's funny about them is you can use most of the animal-related questions for them!

- How they look?

- How they reproduce?

- Methods of defence?

Usage in the story

We will dedicate a paragraph to each of these bullet points so be sure to enjoy your tea while reading this!

The appearance of a plant is very important for many reasons like survival and usage. Some plants use their bright colours to show they are threatening and you shouldn't eat them while others have it to attract bugs to pollinate them. You can also use their appearance to show what people can use them for like dyes or poisons which can also help worldbuild cultures!

Plant reproduction is also important to worldbuilding. If the plant is a crop how do people replace their crops? The most likely answer is seeds but you can make it be whatever you want! Just be sure to explain how it works too so you don't confuse the reader (or yourself) secondly if the plant is endangered, maybe it's because it reproduces slower than those using it can keep up with it which can also explore more things in your world like why it's endangered!

Plants need some way to protect themselves! When it comes to deciding how you have a few options like thorns or poison keeping the plant safe. Deciding these will let you figure out the animals too! Maybe it has a special guy to not get affected by poisons so it can eat them safely.

How the plant is used in the story is a broad question but still a good one..and a fun one too ;). You can use the plant to add tension to the story; perhaps it's part of an antidote to cure an illness a character has. You can use it to make the story happy or it can even be used to play a crucial part. Maybe it could be a plant that is used as a biological threat, for example, water hyacinths in water bodies. Or Maybe it's a flower used in a romance confession! You can set the mood with the plants too! Romance, confessions, gifts, use of poison all these things are good ways to make the story have some tension or make the mood more lighthearted.

Now that you know ways to make and build plants and animals, start creating! You are a shepherd and your creations are your sheep. 

Written by: Pellucidletter; devianmisfit; Evelynfrost23; PinkMarbella2050

Edited by: SardonicBeauty