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One of my challenges [as a writer] is to make sure that I'm giving the reader details that the character cares about rather than details that I care about. I'd say that's key to world-building.
-Jessica Andersen
The muse in charge of fantasy wears good, sensible shoes.
-Lloyd Alexander |
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Worldbuilding
Last time, I urged writers to keep their worldbuilding mostly out of their novels. This time, I'm revisiting the topic. If last time was What Not To Write, this one is What To Write.
There are two general approaches to worldbuilding: top-down and bottom-up. And there's a whole spectrum in between. The topic is really too big to cover in a single newsletter, but I hope to be able to cover the basics here.
To reiterate my point from last time, little of this should be in your actual story, and none of it should be up front. Whatever your favored technique, the reader should discover your world gradually - after all, we're not born with knowledge of Earth; we acquire it over time through reading, school, and exploration.
The top-down approach is the one I tend to use most for longer stories. With it, you decide on macro-level stuff first. Now, there are many possible settings in fantasy and SF, not just "worlds" - starships, hollowed-out asteroids, entire galaxies, inhabited ring systems, multiple alternate dimensions, and other planes of existence, to name just a few. Or any combination of the above. So that's your first determination in the top-down approach: what's the primary setting?
How does the physics work in this world? If it's ostensibly set in this universe, the physics should be the same as our own. I don't mean you have to go learn about what Newton, Einstein, Bohr, Feynman, Hawking, etc. discovered (though that's certainly helpful in science fiction especially), it's good to know if it's physics we'd be familiar with as readers, or if (as in the case of other planes of existence, for example), there are differences.
From there, well, it depends on the setting. Assuming you're writing about a planet or moon, then you'll need some idea of its age, history and primary or primaries. That is, how hot is the sun? What color is the gas giant your planet orbits? Is it a two-planet or two-or-more-sun system? How long ago did it begin to form (for Earth, that figure is roughly five billion Earth years, for comparison)? What kind of life, if any, exists on it? Are there oceans? How long is its day? Year? Does it have natural satellites? Are they large like our moon, or small like those of Mars (keeping in mind that Earth couldn't have two large moons for very long unless one of them is *much* farther away)? Does it have rings? Is it *in* the rings? Hot or cold? What about seasons?
I could go on, but hopefully you get the idea, which is that in the top-down approach, you're first figuring out the big-picture elements of your setting, gradually drilling down into the details about a continent, perhaps, then a region, then a city. Some writers start with a map, as with Middle-Earth, but you should expect to update the map as you go along. For that matter, don't think any of these details are set in stone once you come up with them - as long as they fit in with the other aspects of worldbuilding, you can always revise if the plot (or the coolness factor) dictates. A map is a good idea at some point, anyway, if only so you can remember the distance between features and how they relate to one another. Eventually, as you fill in the details, you work your way down to a dwelling, maybe, and then its inhabitants.
Conversely, maybe you have a vague (or even clear) idea of plot and characters... in which case you work in reverse, the bottom-up approach. What kind of world would produce such characters, allow such a plot? What city do they live in? Is it part of a large or small country? On an island, or large continent? Are there even continents? What do the characters see in the sky? What color is the sky? If the world is not in some way different from Earth, maybe it's a modern-day SF story, or urban fantasy - or maybe it's not fantasy/SF at all; lots of genres, such as spy thrillers, blur the line (the Bond stories have always incorporated fantastic and science fictional elements, especially the movies).
Somewhere in the middle, for both methods, lies other aspects of world-building. In a fantasy stories, you need to know how magic works. For science fiction, what's the level of technology, and are there fantastic elements as well (as in steampunk)?
And as I mentioned above, it's perfectly valid to combine the two methods. Sometimes you want the details of your world to be a certain way in order to facilitate a certain plot point, and that's fine, as long as they make sense, and are at least internally consistent. Or, heck, it's not like Star Trek writers care about such things, and people watch the hell out of that anyway.
Like I said, I'm not trying, here, to write a dissertation on this topic, but help you think about how you'd like to build your own worlds. I've done more worldbuilding for role playing games than for novels, but the principles are the same.
It's even okay to do some of this during the writing itself - or to revise things based on how things are going. Again, though, if you find yourself doing your graduate thesis in physics in your book, you're probably doing it wrong.
I'll leave you with the best example of worldbuilding I know: Roger Zelazny's Amber series of novels. I have no idea how he came up with the idea or characters, or whether he used a top-down, bottom-up, or hybrid approach, but he ended up designing a multiverse that theoretically could encompass any and every reality, fantasy, SF genre setting, as well as settings for genres that haven't even been invented yet. But in reading the books, you start out in the POV of one single character, and by the end you're involved in an epic conflict between the two poles of all of existence. The point is that he doesn't start the *story* with all the information about the multiverse; it's gradually revealed along the way. |
Since it's October, I thought I'd dig around for some horror-themed fantasy:
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Last time, in "Backstory" , I talked about keeping world-building out of your actual story.
Mumsy  : *grumbles* Yeah yeah . . . thanks for reminding me how much work I have to do between now and November. I think it's time for a nap.
*looks at calendar* WWWWWWWAAAAKEEE UUUUUUUP!
StarGazer  : Thanks for the tips. I am going to write in NaNo and I have never written anything(except the few short pieces in my port). I want to write Fantasy. So I guess this is going to be harder than I thought lol. I don't expect this to be more than a learning experience but still I want it to be great. Can I ask you what you think of my plot?
Yes.
[No, I'm not being sarcastic or rude. I discussed this with the author in email. I try to answer serious questions as best I can, and this one couldn't wait until this month to be addressed. [I answer non-serious questions, too, but you may not like the answers.]]
Joshiahis : LOL...I DIDNT read that whole thing about planet Maximus. I thought your advice was grand. Write it down somewhere. Somewhere that's not the actual novel I has taken years of bad reviews to break me of that habit! I've found that NOT including the backstory in your writing gives the world a realness that makes the reading better. No one cares about why your wizard had trouble reading the Old Tongue from when dragons walked the land, but the fact that he can't learn that powerful spell to save the day because of it gives the story history that makes it feel real (even though it's not) [Submitted item: "Invalid Item" ]
Few of us are born with everything we need to write a compelling story. Most of us learn by practice, trial and lots of error. My working hypothesis is that those of us who like to read fantasy do a pretty good job at inferring the backstory from the novel, and then we think we need to include our own when writing our own stories. I have to curb my own tendency to do so.
BIG BAD WOLF is Merry  : I know that when I made my Animalus stories, I was sort of vague about what had created the Population- humanoid animals- at first it was do to an accident that had severely injured those on board, and that a machine had combined the D.N.A. of humans and animals. Eventual, it changed to that a battle had injured many, and that a machine fused the survivors with Animal D.N.A. and this gave them animal attributes. Then there was the make up of the Original Population- it became a mixture of Settlers, Penal Colonists, Prison Guards, Soldiers, Scientists, and Crew, not to mention family members. [Submitted item: "Planet Animalus Book Summaries" [E]]
Another perfectly valid way to write is to just write and then edit out the boring parts later. Whatever works for the individual. All I'm really trying to say is that too much backstory in a novel induces boredom. While I'm sure some people found the descriptions of whaling in Moby Dick to be fascinating, I did not.
brom21  : It’s sometimes hard for me to do an introduction without info dumping. When a person just throws up a big old spiel it can be monotonous and annoying. I’m trying to learn how to slowly unfold plot and dialog. I personally believe that no one can do justice to the legendary way of Tolkien. Also big prologues can lead to telling not showing. SF writing is hard for me because it involve lots of techno lingo. When I do it just sounds geeky. I find freedom in fantasy.
Like I said, it's a learning process. Sometimes you just need beta readers to help tell you when you're putting in too much info dumpage - or not enough. (And hey, some of us like geeky techno-language.)
And that's it for me for this month - until next time,
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Fantasy: October 23, 2013 Issue [#5953]
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