I want to create several races for my fantasy story, but I want to go beyond elves and fairies and create them myself. Problem is I've never really been good at visualising people and creatures that I've made up myself, and the ideas for them are also very hard to come by in the first place. If anyone could tell me creatures they've thought about or want to see in a book that they think would be cool, share with me and I might be able to develop that idea!
You could always do what Avatar:TLA did and combine real-world animals into one species. They could either be the animal species of the world or have societies and stuff?
My suggestion is to think of it from an evolutionary standpoint. Where does the race live? what is the weather like? what food is there? are there predators? Then think of attributes that would attributes that would form from those conditions. If they live by the water they probably have webbed hands and feet, some sort extra lung capacity or gills, probably carnivorous, their skin would match the colours of their surroundings, so blue or perhaps brown and green. Thing like that can help you come up with a concept and you can work from there.