Writing from a nonhuman POV

So I have a nonhuman character whose brain works entirely differently to a human one, and want to write a flashback chapter from her POV. Any advice on how to write Blue-and-Orange Morality? Her kind is a little like The Fair Folk, living in stony strongholds deep underground where they were driven by mankind with their Cold Iron. I want her POV to seem alien and inhuman, but I have no idea how to go about making it so.

Is it only their morality and the way they do things that is different, or is it that their perception of the world differs from ours too?

Because unless their perception differs too, you should write it the same way you'd write it from a human perspective, but simply make them pay attention to different things out of those that we pay attention to because of our upbringing and have them react to various pieces of information differently.

Now, if they actually do perceive the world differently, then it'd be quite a different situation. But in most cases, no matter how much the author wishes their in-story race of species were different enough that their perception of everything was different, their perception is the same from ours or at least close enough that it doesn't change how you write it.

edited 24th Jun '15 3:32:37 PM by Kazeto

It's both their perception and their morality that is different, which makes things tricky. Honestly I'm not going to try make it completely different, but I'd love some suggestions as to how to make her POV seem a little off-kilter and strange. She's also lived for thousands of years, which would affect how she sees the world.

Whether she's lived a thousand years is irrelevant in this case, to be honest. People overestimate their own memory in regard to how it'd far had they actually lived forever or close enough to it that it would matter.

The same about morality. That just changes what they are willing to do and how they react, not how they see the world around them. It can be treated as a filter of perception itself, but it does not affect their perception, merely changes that which is seen after it already is seen, so to say.

And how is their perception different? Because just stating that "oh, it's different" doesn't really make you any different than any of the people I'd mentioned as thinking that but being wrong (no matter how harsh that might sound). So write how it is different, and then we'll see what can be done about it and if anything should actually be done at all.

That's actually a really good question, I hadn't thought of exactly how it was different.

I was thinking maybe they tend to be imperceptive to lying and sarcasm (somewhat of a Cannot Tell a Lie thing), but pick up more on misleading language that technically doesn't contain any misinformation (in a No Man of Woman Born way). They figure out these things through logic, not through body language and tone of voice. Telling a direct lie is difficult for them.

With such long lives, they feel less affection for children and rarely undergo childbirth. In fact they feel affection in a completely different way, to them it is much more like loyalty or respect. In the same way, they find it much harder emotionally to leave a relationship or be in any way disloyal. They are incapable of feeling romantic love.

They cannot hear human music. They can hear the notes etc., but it means nothing to them. It does not register as a melody in their mind, just random noises. Harp music can be somewhat of an exception, as it descends from their music. Their own music is strange and ethereal, considered hypnotic by humans. It is generally felt rather than heard.

Before they lived underground, they slept day and night, waking at dusk and dawn. As such their eyes are adjusted for dim lighting and not midday sun. They see a slightly different colour spectrum as a result.

Honestly I'm not sure if this helps, but it's difficult to try and think from the POV of a nonhuman. Any other areas I could look at?

edited 24th Jun '15 5:48:21 PM by VincentQuill

Perhaps you could change the standard idioms and metaphors in her internal monologue. From the obvious like not using modern tech references to perhaps more difficult in avoiding unquestioned background metaphors. Like "time is money", or "I see" for "I understand".

I hadn't thought about idioms, good call. Actually I could look into foreign language idioms for some inspiration there, and keep an eye out for more literal ones.

Why not just write things normally and then adjust as appropriate when something that comes up which is relevant to their differences?

I suppose I could do that, but I was kind of hoping to establish a kind of eerie/strange tone throughout.

You could have the narration use words against our understanding of their connotations. Have the literal meaning of the words (the denotation) correct but use words with positive connotations when the rest of the narration implies a negative view, or words for animals when talking about people, etc.

You could have the alien default to something besides the default Subject-Verb-Object active voice of English. Describing things in a passive voice, or maybe even verb first, or the really rare Object-Subject-Verb structure (which is how Yoda speaks).

Also play up the different focus of things. Maybe she has single words for concepts we need handful for and vice versa? Perhaps the human they're interacting with is crying. But the alien character is more interested in what the twigs in their hair mean, offhandedly notes a wetness on their cheeks, before wondering if the woman is a seductress to not have calloused hands.

edited 6th Jul '15 5:36:26 AM by Luthen

Very interesting on the sentence structure and syntax. Using the passive voice might be a good idea in situations where we would use the active (urgent situations etc.). Even more interesting on twisting the connotations of words. Playing with the tone/mood generally associated with a word should definitely help make things seem off.

The second part would work well too, except she's mostly interacting with fellow nonhumans. There's still room to play with her perceptions in that way though. She lives underground, so I could focus on how the light falls?

Or how it doesn't, too. Beings that live deep underground and don't get close to the surface generally tend to be more sensitive to light, meaning that they can see with less light just as well as we can with normal light, and they adapt to changes in light level quicker, but they can't deal with strong changes in the light level (so turning on a light bulb in a completely dark room would be a major no-no because that would be painful).

Also, most races have different colour perception, and if the race is explicitly non-human then they might see more or less of the light spectrum than we do due to seeing more or less colours. You probably want to read some stuff about synaesthesia because, though it's not really what they feel, describing someone experiencing something that you have no way of experiencing is easier once you do read that (as it tends to be abstract enough for us that knowing how synaesthesia works makes it easier).

Her race didn't always live underground, but has done so for a few thousand years so I wonder if that's enough for light change to become painful?

Anyway good call on researching synaesthesia, it's exactly the kind of thing I needed. An interesting topic, too. I'd heard of it before but never really looked into it. Thanks!