How to portray a non-human character? - Writers Forum

Poison Donuts · 11-10-2005, 05:18 PM

The main character of my story is a cyborg, and I don't know how to portray that - especially in the first person - without it sounding corny or fake. I mean, I really want my heroine to have personality and emotion, instead of just being a mindless, heartless killer... but esentially, that goes against the whole idea behind artificial intelligence and shit like that, doesn't it?

Idk.. Any advice would definately be helpful.

Lord Raiden · 11-10-2005, 06:14 PM

LOL. It's pretty easy. Sure, your charecter is a cyborg, but just pick a human personality for them, adjust it slightly for any limitations that the charecter might have, and bingo, you have a winner.

For example, I already did this with a group of lions actually. My lions were all sentient androids, but I applied a human personality to them, took into account for their body form, and ended up with quite a colorful set of charecters.

ravravrav · 11-10-2005, 06:41 PM

The important thing in a story is to be able to connect with the audience and this probably means to have some human emotion which affects your character. Think about the Terminator - even though he had super-human abilities, it was when he almost became human ('I know why you cry - but it's something I can never do...) that I thought it was most poignant.
Yeh it might be a good idea to give your cyborg-lady human characteristics, and it might help to show her limitations - for instance she might not even get some obvious jokes or think we're all stupid/weird.

Hand · 11-10-2005, 10:46 PM

Neither of my two protagonists are human (well, one's half-Errol Flynn), but because they're a part of human society, their personalities are very normal. Not too normal that you don't know whether they're human or not (that's Doctor Who territory, where all life in the universe speak with a British accent; yes, even Americans), but normal enough.

Of course, if your non-human character is part of a non-human society, it could be a lot trickier. Plus there's the tone of your story, which could allow you less or more freedom permitting on which it is. Their values and reasoning could be completely different, so different that they could be written as heartless monsters when in fact they're incredibly nice and love a cup of tea every so often.

(If your cyborg in fact does not have a heart, note that I was speaking metaphorically.)

bheid1.01 · 11-11-2005, 06:56 AM

in the future, androids may sue for discrimination agaisn't their kind, treat them as human with a human personality and emotions