Xenofiction

What is Xenofiction?

Xenofiction is all about point of view. It is a term applied to stories told from the perspective of a non-human. This could be an animal, an intelligence animal, an extraterrestrial, or any creature significantly different from a human. This fictional exercise can be very rewarding because it opens up infinite possibilities about literature, ideas, and existence itself.

If you can easily replace the non-human perspective with a human one, it's likely not Xenofiction.

Xenofiction is successful when the perspective is well developed, so much so that it cannot be easily replaced with a human perspective. Stories told from the perspective of a non-human require writers to be very much involved in the character and the world. Writers do a significant amount of research and spend a good chunk of time on world-building--this is done to help not just the writer, but readers immerse themselves in this non-human consciousness.

The quintessential example of Xenofiction is Watership Down, by Richard Adams (though not a Sci Fi example). This novel is a powerful saga about rabbits, told from the perspective of rabbits. Adams creates a world that is wholly rabbit, there is even a note about how the dialogue is translated from the way rabbits communicate. There are many rich details that build this world, like the fact that rabbits can only count to four.

Xenofiction is not a strict Science Fiction sub-genre. Indeed, some works fall more into the Fantasy genre than Sci Fi. Also, Xenofiction is distinct from anthropomorphic.