Writing: World Building

 From Writer's Digest: 10 Tips for Building a Realistic and Vibrant Fictional World

 1. Ask yourself how you wish to build your world.

Some authors build the entire world first, then they write a story set in that world. Other writers develop their world as they write the story.

There is no one correct way, but:

The "but" is what to do if the world comes first or if the story comes first. While in prison, I told stories of things that had happened in Indiana and was told I needed to write them down, and I did. Except that I felt the need to put them somewhere else other than Anderson or Muncie, and so I created the City of Jackson, county seat of Webster County. I even drew up a map, which has since disappeared. Thing is, there are hazy parts of the city because there I did not set any of my stories.

 2. Consider the big picture of your world.

Is it on this planet? Is it in the city you live in? Is it a fantasy realm? Knowing the wider outline of your world will help you make decisions about more detailed aspects and give you a solid foundation on which to stand.

I guess I can claim I did this, albeit without thinking of it as the big picture.

3. Who is going to live in your world?

Everyday people? Shapeshifters? Witches? The undead? Creatures we think of as monsters?

To be realistic, your world must reflect the necessities of its residents.

In the beginning, the City of Jackson/Webster County was meant as a container for my stories of modern life in post-industrial Indiana. Not so hard to put a Muncie landmark in my town, or an Anderson landmark, either. Thing is by the time I started on "Chasing Ashes" among the citizenry were Edgar Allan Poe and Captain Ahab. You might say I am a bit beyond mere realism.

4. What are the inviolable rules of your world?

Putting limits on your world makes for a stronger and more potent story. Even if your world has magic, that magic should function within a set of rules. E.g. If a warlock casts a major spell, he’s then unconscious for an hour. Suddenly, you have a built-in source of tension.

Er, I have not thought about this other than geography and history and all the limitations of humanity. 

5. Consider the weather in your world.

You can set the tone of an entire story with it. Dark and grim with a constant drizzle versus golden sunshine and warmth versus hard artificial light and cold. All of these evoke very different worlds.

Well, yes, Indiana is its foul weather, but I may not have used it enough.

6. Consider the flora and fauna of your world—but only what’s necessary to add meaning to the story.

While every writing style is different, some more lush, others more spare, think before you describe the seven different varieties of mushrooms you’ve created or researched. Because unless one of those mushrooms is a murder weapon, your readers’ eyes may well glaze over before the next chapter.

Corn to the left, soybeans to the right, equals Indiana. But many of my stories are quite domestic and internal. Understanding the locale, includes the natural, the rural, but I think I have avoided overwriting on the topic.

7. Continuity, continuity, continuity!

From simple things like ensuring that the physical structures in your world remain a constant (unless the change is explained), to big-world impacting events, strong continuity, in world-building and otherwise, is what makes a powerful book—and series.

I picked up, from comic books and movies, the idea of continuity. In prison, I learned the downfalls of not keeping good notes. Do not let loose of your material - especially if you decided to intertwine your stories!

8. Timelines are critical to world-building and help with continuity.

From tracking a pregnancy across multiple books, to figuring out what season it is—it’s important to keep:

This I did not do. I did figure out the ages of some characters and bent my chronology to those dates. I might have done better with a chronology. I might also have done better not to have improvised the whole thing. 

9. Read widely in the genre you wish to write in…

…not only so you can learn the beats of the genre, but so you’re aware of what’s already out there. If you want your world to be distinctive and memorable, it can’t be a carbon copy of a hundred other worlds.

 Well, yeah. Duh. Joel C. said to me that to know how good your writing is, you need to read good writing.

10. Most important of all, love your world.

My imagination fails at someone working at any writing they do not love.

And here I end this post. I cannot stop trying to learn and then checking my learning against an article like this. This I did in prison, This is how I taught myself to write, again. Having neither the funds nor time for writing classes, I must still work at educating myself. I commend all this to you.

sch 9/21/22