"Creatures of Light and Darkness" was originally conceived and written as nothing more than a writing exercise in perspective by Roger Zelazny. He wrote it in present tense, constructed an entire chapter in poetry, and made the concluding chapter into the script of a play. He never intended it to be published, but when Samuel R. Delany heard about it from Zelazny, Delany convinced a Doubleday editor to demand that Zelazny give him the manuscript. Consequently, Zelazny dedicated the novel to Delany.