When you hear 'person' or 'people' you most likely think 'human'. At least, I usually do. The problem is: there are no humans in my story. There are seven (that I know of) dominant races in my novel. Only two of those are bipedal. The other five are variants of equine, and that's the term I'm thinking of using to replace 'person'. But, after having written the first chapter with said replacement, I realized that saying 'equine' where 'person' would be used definitely affects the fluency of the sentences due to the relative difficulty and lengthiness of the word. Not to mention that there are those two other races that frequently interact with the equine. But I also noticed that using 'person' or 'people' oftentimes makes me think of humans when there are none. I'm considering just using 'people' because of the other two non-equine races. Or, I could use 'equine' and the other races' names separately. I honestly don't know. What are your thoughts?
I'm trying to think of how often I use the term "person" or "people," and it's not very often. I'm wondering if you even need a substitute, or if you can use other words on a case by case basis. As in: Several delegates retired to the atrium for further discussion. By midnight, most of the guests had departed. James was the only one in the room. The school auditorium was crowded with parents and children. The citizens of Smithville paid a high tax rate.
Equine is an adjective. Equidae is the noun. You might do well to take the scientific names for something close to your being types and develop your own vocabulary for the entities. Readers understand fictional beings like elves for example when there is no such thing.
