Seriously.  It’s a whale.  In power armour.

I know, you’re asking “what’s the point?”  The point is that you should never be afraid to add a little weirdness into your storytelling.  The handsome fellow pictured above is a character from Mechawhales, the absurdly fantastic creation of Hauke Scheer.  You can check out the Mechawhales website to learn more (and see a couple of entertaining animations), but here’s the basic idea from the press kit:

In the distant future mankind has allied itself with highly intelligent psychic whales.  Under the guidance of those wise animals humanity stopped polluting the earth and started to peacefully explore the galaxy. But they were soon attacked by an army of evil marauding aliens. Now it is up to the whales to save the day. With the help of powerful robot armor the heroic Mechawhales fight to bring back peace to the universe.

As you can see, the general idea is fairly standard scifi fare — evil aliens attack Earth, mankind must fight them off.  I’m sure we can all think of at least three movies that use that same basic plot.  I’ll make it easy for you and name two: Independence Day and Battle: Los Angeles.  But what makes Mechawhales so i9nteresting it that strange — some would say batshit crazy — twist in having mankind fighting these aliens alongside our staunch allies… the whales.

Whales in power armour.

There’s an old saying in writing that there are only so many plots out there and it’s your approach to the plot that makes your story unique.  I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ll go out on a limb and say War of the Worlds — the book — was the first alien invasion story.  Everything since then has been a variation of War of the Worlds, each with its own unique twist on the concept.

I remember when Die Hard became such a huge hit that everyone was pitching their screenplays in relation to Die Hard.  Speed was referred to as Die Hard on a bus.  Under Siege was Die Hard on a train.  You get the idea.

But back to the whales.

I bet a lot of you looked at that image up top (a real action figure, by the way — you can pre-order via the Mechawhales site, which I’d be doing if I didn’t already have this to pay for) had a reaction along the lines of “what the hell…?”  But I’m also guessing a lot of you still followed the link to see more of what the Mechawhales thing was all about.  In other words, by embracing the odd, Scheer has piqued your interest enough to make you step a little further into his world.  That’s exactly what you, as a writer, want to do.

Even the simplest of plots can be turned into a compelling story by finding a unique twist, an unusual approach.

So next time you have an idea that you want to work into your story, but are worried that it’s too strange, remember this:

Whales.  In f**king power armour.

Now go write something batshit crazy.

– DW (without power armour)