Creating a Lovecraftian Creature

Whether you are writing horror, science fiction or even fantasy one of the most frequently under-used tools is the use of Lovecraftian creatures. They are sometimes ignored because they are believed to be horror monsters or because writing about them breaks many of the basic rules writers have been taught or because they are unusual. But with some effort creating a Lovecraftian creature can add a lot to your story.

To start lets, look at what a Lovecraftian monster is, and isn’t. A Lovecraftian monster is at its core something that is so alien to the human experience that both the reader and the protagonist is incapable of true comprehension. It may be from a different world, a different dimension, created by different gods or have no understandable origin. What it doesn’t have to be is huge, singular, powerful or even entirely central to your story. Though they can and typically have been all of those things. Imagine a race of primitive creatures on an alien planet. They are so unlike anything on Earth that humans are on the planet for months before they even realize they are alive and even once they know they can’t find any common ground to interact. While not what one would typically think of as a Lovecraftian monster they fit most of the definition.

The primary problem with trying to write a Lovecraftian monster is that by definition they can not be understood. This does limit how they can be used in a story. First, while you my not be technically breaking the rule that every villain is the hero of their own story, since you have no idea what that creature wants is it doesn’t matter. You also can’t ask what the motivation of the creature is, or even have it act directly against the protagonist. But that doesn’t mean that a Lovecraftian monster can’t be a compelling and interesting antagonist.

One of the first things you want to do is keep the Lovecraftian creature at a distance from the reader. This is the classic Jaws scenario. The more you see the monster the less scary it is. Once you realize that it’s a badly working plastic shark head the magic is gone. This is even more important for the Lovecraftian monster. You can understand Dracula and still find him scary. Many human monsters are scary because of that innate understanding. But the moment you understand a Lovecraftian monster they are no longer Lovecratian. There are a few tricks used for this. One Lovecraft himself used was to tell the story through a character narrator. This could be a retelling of what happened by someone in Arkham for insanity, a journal found in the severed hand of a long dead explorer or any other way that makes it clear that you’re hearing someone's interpretation of what happened.

Once you come into contact with the monster you will need some description of the creature, but a straightforward description simply isn’t going to work. In the case of a Lovecraftian monster the magic happens in the reader’s mind more than one the page. Lovecraft often used words like unspeakable, unimaginable and cyclopean to force the reader to fill in the gaps with the worst things in his or her imagination. Another way to do this is vague specificity. You describe something specific about the creature which gives the reader’s imagination a place to start while not giving them much more than the unimaginable description. One of my favorite examples is “its eyes had teeth.” I’m honestly not sure what that means or how it would be of any use to anything, but it paints a picture of far more than the eye and it’s creepy.

Another way to explore how difficult it is to convey information about the creature is to use contradictions. If you describe the creature using two terms together that contradict each other it can create something that doesn’t work in the mind putting the reader into the same dazed and confused state as the protagonist. Something that is both dry and slimy, or large and small. You can also put something to human into an alien form. Creating a creature with slimy blue skin, twisted knots of pulsing flesh and a single, sad looking, human eye will stick with the reader. The most important thing is to subvert the expectations.

Intelligence is also vital to the Lovecraftian Monster. You can have a Lovecraftian animal but usually you want the creature be both intelligent and inhuman in its thoughts. A Lovecraftian monster isn’t a human in a monster suit. It doesn’t want to rule people or even kill them. Those are far too mundane. They fail to portray the hopelessness of creating a connection to this creature. But because its actions are often random to human interpretation making a Lovecraftian monster seem intelligent can be a trick. Having them speak won’t work as it makes them to human. So think about your creature. How did it get to your story? An alien must have come in a ship. A creature from hell must have escaped and if it has always been here it had to avoid being discovered.

The final and perhaps the most important key to writing a Lovecraftian monster is the reaction of those who see it. In a Lovecraft story a common reaction is often fainting, but it can be fear, revulsion or babbling incoherence and random actions. What matters is the strength of the reaction. It will also help if you’ve built up your character first. A hardened soldier who has fought battles across half the world who runs away in panic at the first glimpse of your monster will have more impact than some random person doing the same. It is also important to remember that seeing the unspeakable horror of something truly Lovecraftian will leave a permanent impact. The character doesn’t have to become a gibbering idiot, but they shouldn’t want to go back in that room.

Another way to show the effect it has on humans is to give human followers. In Lovecraft the monsters are often connected to cults. These may be doomsday cults trying to awaken an ancient monster that will destroy the world or perhaps they have a powerful leader who thinks he can control it. This serves two purposes. First it shows the range of reactions to the creature. Some people break and run away while others break and worship it. It also gives your protagonist something he or she can fight. Stopping a cult from waking the monster or even just sacrificing themselves to it will let him interact indirectly with the abomination.

What makes a Lovecraftian creature so interesting is that it doesn’t fit into normal conventions of human understanding or storytelling. This can be used to great effect, but it takes time and practice to do right. Because more than in any other writing the creation of a Lovecraftian monster has to be a collaboration between writer and reader.