Building Realistic Worlds - Part IV

The Devil's in the Details

For fiction, we clearly do not have time to explore the endless nuances of a created world. There are only just so many pages of text to use when transporting our reader from their ordinary, mundane lives into a world filled with magical robots, or fire breathing elves, or whatever other amazing thing you’ve stuck in your head. We still have to tell the actual story somewhere in there. Knowing what details are noteworthy enough to put on page and which should be left in your stacks of notes is too big a subject for today’s article.

For the time being, I’m going to cheat a little and direct you to another site that will help you flesh out your world in ways you may not have thought possible. In August 2009, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) published an article (really a series of questions) intended to make you think about your world. This thought provoking list brings important details, big and small, into center stage.

Here’s a sample copied directly from the article:

• How long have there been people on this world? Did they evolve, or did they migrate from somewhere/when else?
• Are there non-human inhabitants of this planet (elves, dwarves, aliens)? If so, how numerous? How openly present? What areas do they occupy?
• How do differences from Earth (multiple suns, moons, etc.) affect the climate in various areas?
• How much conflict has been or might be caused by these imbalances in resources? How much active, peaceful trade?
• Is magic legal here? All magic, or only some types? Do laws vary widely from country to country, or is the attitude generally similar?
• What does this country import? Export? How important is trade to the economy? How is currency exchange handled, and by whom? What is the system of coinage, and who mints it?
• What eating utensils are used, if any? Forks, eating knife, spoons, chopsticks?
• What things, while edible, are never eaten (what’s not kosher)? Why? Are some common human foods poisonous to dwarves or elves (or vice versa)?
• How do gestures and body language differ between countries? Between species? Are there things that don’t matter in one area that are mortal insults in another (eating with the left hand, etc.)?
• What will people swear a binding oath by? What do people use as curse words?
• What are the social taboos — what things are “not done,” like wearing a bathing suit to the office? What things are not talked about? What would happen if someone did? How do these taboos vary among the different races?Is population shifting from rural to urban, south to north, mountains to coast, etc.? Why — invasion, plague, gold rush, job opportunities, etc.? What effects has this had on the places being left? The places gaining people?
• What do people at various levels of society do for fun?
• How many people usually live in a typical house? How large is a typical house?
• Are cities generally laid out on a square-grid system of streets, or do they just grow? How wide are the streets and alleys?
• How are farming/food-producing areas divided up between humans/nonhumans? What kinds of conflicts are likely to result? (Example: Expanding human farms encroaching on a forest that dragons or werewolves use for hunting.)
• What is the level of literacy in the general population? Is literacy considered a useful/necessary skill for nobility, or something only scribes/clerks/wimps/bourgeoisie need? How common are books? How are they produced?
• Which days are general holidays or festival times? What do they celebrate? Are there any that are only celebrated in particular countries, cities, or regions?

The list goes on and on! I highly encourage you to check out the full article for yourself. If you can answer a significant number of these questions already, then you’re well on your way to master world building. If not, then this should give you something to think about.

Build safe and dream big!

Building Realistic Worlds – Part III

The Influence of Government

Our characters do not live their lives in a vacuum. One thing that influences all inhabitants of any world (including our own) is government in its wide verity of forms and functions. Today, I’d like to discuss the value of this often forgotten aspect of character life as it relate to your fiction.

Some stories center around the politics of government. Dune comes to mind (as it has in previous examples). The political landscape is at the heart of Herbert’s stories. But, most characters in our fiction are not part of the ruling body. They are subjects of it. Even without the character’s direct involvement, the governments that control and lead the masses can profoundly impact the way a character views his world. A lowly thief feels the pinch of hardened constables. South-seas pirates seek the environs of an anarchist hideaway far from the prying eyes of the East India Trading Company. The protagonist wants for something more in life but is held back by his caste/station. The list goes on and on.

Government has two sides, those who support its current form and those who oppose it. Most citizens fall in-between these extremes to varying degrees. It’s up to us as we create our characters and our worlds to consider the political landscape and how this affects our characters motivations.

Each society within the story has a form of government, whether the ruling party or a secret cult. Someone must be in charge, and someone will oppose them. It’s the nature of the beast that government creates conflict – and a perfect opportunity to bring that conflict into your story. Most governments, and those who control or benefit from them, oppose change. Many people who feel trod on by their government reject the ideals and fight back (subtly or openly).

Here I’ve given a list of governmental forms. When creating a society for your story, this may give you a starting point for the complexities that are possible. As an example, for my current WIP, I chose at random, since the main character would not be directly part of the government. I let fate decide the forms of government for each major society in my fantasy story. For one, I even randomly selected two (Matriartical and Magocracy) to create a country controlled by female mages. There are endless possibilities… this is just a starting point and a place to gather ideas.

This list is not all inclusive and the specific forms of government are not mutually exclusive. There are, of course, many subtleties and sub-sects of governmental forms. Often there is cross-over of power where more than one “pure” government is merged with another to create something entirely unique.

I highly encourage you to look further into any of these that interest you. The Internet is full of information! For now:

Click here to explore the list of government possibilities.

Building Realistic Worlds - Part II

Grounded Imagination
In last week’s blog, I discussed the merits of using reality as a basis for constructing fantasy worlds. We took a quick look at several memorable story worlds and how the authors used realistic, though far from mundane, details to ground their readers in fact. This week, we’ll look closer at some of the imaginary creations from two of these authors.

I also discussed the “5 whys” concept of drilling down into detail. This technique is used in the corporate world when determining the root cause of problems in order to formulate solutions that will nip complicated setbacks in the bud. It applies equally well in many aspects of fiction from building unique and richly layered worlds to character creation to developing plot twists. Continue to ask “why” and you will discover things about your story that you never knew were in there.

One thing I thought noteworthy: Terry Ervin, author of Flank Hawk, was kind enough to point out our efforts when creating this kind of depth are often never represented on the page. So WHY go through all the trouble? As we write, many subtle details come out in the story as subtext. To put it simply, subtext is the words used to portray a theme or idea in a passage without directly stating it. Subtext is used to create mood, reveal motivation, hint at mystery clues, foreshadow upcoming plot events, and a host of other things. It really is a topic of its own and we need to stay focused. But, my point is that subtext, the unwritten words, can be strongly influenced by what we already know about a subject - in this case, the subtle details of our story world. I highly recommend Make a Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld for some good examples of this technique. Although the book covers much more than that, the author’s explanation of the subject will initiate you into the delicate art of subtext.

Impossible Worms

In Dune, Herbert’s world of Arrakis is a lifeless, barren world. Nearly every living thing on the planet was brought there by space craft from other worlds over countless generations. Arrakis cannot generally support life because of its arid conditions. “Never a drop of rain on Arrakis.”

The only famous indigenous life of note? Giant sandworms, as much as 400 meters long, endlessly roam the desert where nothing else grown. What a fantastic and wonderful imagination! But how do the sandworms survive? Realistically, a predatory creature of such magnitude must feed in tremendous quantities. So how then do they live in the middle of nowhere and not prey enough in sight to power their massive bodies?

So much time is dedicated into this subject throughout the Dune series (a little at a time) that it would be unfair for me to spend the entire article on the matter to the exclusion of our other example author.

To keep this brief, sandworms survive by eating their young - sort of. Cannibalistic? Perhaps. But the system seems to work fairly well. Sandworms are born, if you can call it that, as billions of tiny microorganisms called sand plankton. How sand plankton are created is never directly stated (that I can remember). These simple celled creatures are consumed by the hundreds of thousands in a single feeding. Those that survive slowly grow to a stage called a sand trout. The sand trout are basically large amoeba. At this stage in their lifecycle, the sandworms are no longer attracted to them as a food source because trout bodies contain more moisture than the worms can comfortably tolerate. Some die and those that don’t go deep underground where they slowly transform, over several years, into tiny (3 meter long) sandworms. The process continues indefinitely.

What moisture the sandworms do need to survive is brought from the planet’s depths, far from the scorching sun, by these microorganisms and baby worms.

Herbert put allot of effort into just this one imaginary aspect of his books. It’s one of the most well known and most read sci-fi stories to date. The author’s hard work and attention to detail make this an incredibly memorable story in the minds of many readers. The series survives with several books published even after the author’s death.

If you’re curious on just how deeply these details go, take a look at the article on Wikipedia.com: Sandworms (Dune).

Smegol’s Wretched Fate

Few characters from fantasy fiction are as memorable as Gollum. He is a creature of malice, mentally poisoned and tormented over the course of 500 years by his one precious possession of value, the Ring of Power - about which The Lord of the Rings centers. Tolkien’s details of Gollum varied from edition to edition of the story. It should be noted that the original Lord of the Rings was reworked for a subsequent publication, which gave the author more time to flesh out much of the missing details in the original story.

Gollum began his life as Smegol, slightly taller than a hobbit and living in a village near the edge of a stream. While on a fishing trip, Smegol discovers the ring and wants it desperately enough that he murders his friend to claim it. He’s driven out of his village and wanders until coming to rest in an underground cavern deep in the mountains. There he waits until the reader discovers him, centuries later. Though we don’t know precisely why, it’s assumed Smegol became ill from the ring’s poisoning effects. He develops a hacking cough that sounds like “gollum” and the name stuck.

So far, we’re forced to suspend our disbelief - magic is real, the ring can allow this creature to live so long, etc. But, Tolkien grounds this make-believe character with some interesting and realistic details.

Gollum’s skin is described as both pale green and sallow (light yellow) - the result of centuries without sunlight. His eyes have grown overly large, adapting to subterranean life. Most of his teeth have decayed or fallen out. (Actually, it’s surprising he has any teeth left at all, given that much time.) His stomach can no longer process “normal” food, and he is forced to live on a diet of raw meat. This last point actually becomes part of the story, because Gollum cannot eat the bread offered to him by Frodo and Sam, which builds tension. His arms and legs are inhumanly thin from lack of nourishing food and exercise since he never leaves his cave. His hair has fallen out save for a few wisps either due to illness or simple age.

Gollum’s transformation is more than just physical. After so many years in the dark, alone, he has lost a fair chunk of his mind. He talks to himself in second person plural (referring to himself as “we”). He doesn’t know how to relate to other people and often mumbles as if no one else is around, revealing his motives and plans. He’s described as rarely seen in good lighting, because he 1) doesn’t want to be seen and 2) doesn’t like the light.

There’s considerably more to this character and allot of time dedicated on the page for him. His outward appearance is a reflection of the madness that’s consumed him for centuries. Tolkien paints us a great picture of what this antagonist looks like, but rarely, does he say precisely why Gollum is the way he is. We just have to make assumptions about what the author’s intentions were during this character’s design phase.  This is an example of what Terry said last week.  By knowing the details, the "why" comes onto the page, sometimes without us even realizing it.

Can we say the same for our characters? Do we show a 10 foot tall ogre without ever thinking about why or how that creature could possibly be so tall? The challenges it faces? And why it thinks/acts the way it does? Robots must be built by someone. Dragons breathe fire, why? What makes one character a wizard and another a bumbling thief?

Just things to think about.
Q4U: What brings a character or place to life in your mind as a reader? What realistic clues does the author use to bring out such a reaction?

Building Realistic Worlds - Part I

I thought it might be fun to begin discussing some of the many details, large and small, that go into creating fictional worlds. Authors of science fiction and fantasy continually strive to build multilayered depth into their worlds so that the setting, itself, becomes a character of the tale. Some story worlds are so profound, so memorable, that they become household names - even amongst people who have never read the book. Tolkien’s Middle Earth and Herbert’s Dune are two such worlds. Non-readers have heard less of these places, but they have heard of them.

So what makes a story world so memorable? That’s what we’re here to explore. In the upcoming weeks, we’ll delve deeper into the art of world building. You may find a nugget of truth in my ramblings, which I hope you can use as inspiration on your current project. Go forth and build worlds that are truly astonishing.

Reality vs. Imaginary

The setting in SF/F, whether a novel or short story, creates a sense of wonder in the reader. It is our objective, perhaps even our obligation, to transport the reader to a place other than the reality they know. Every rock and tree, every person and robot and dragon, every village and space ship - it’s all under our control. Creating an entire world from nothing to act as the backdrop of our stories is a daunting and endless task. It can be quite overwhelming. You start with blank canvas and build mountain and river, forest and town, one at a time until your world takes shape. When choosing a setting, you create realism by combining what truly exists and what is only imagined. It’s that slow build of layer upon layer, mixing real and imaginary, which breathes life into your worlds.

The Real

Real aspects ground the reader in something with which they are already familiar. An oasis in the middle of a desert usually has some forms of plant life around it. Trees tend to grow upright, reaching toward the sun. Ocean coastlines often have sandy beaches or rocky cliff faces where land and water meet. Rivers swell and flood with too much rain. These aspects (and a million others) create a sense of reality that the reader can grasp onto because they know these things subconsciously if not overtly. It makes logical sense to the reader.

If your characters travel over terrain, as often is the case with quest driven fantasies, ask yourself if the location mimics a real place. Allow yourself time to research similar places on Earth and add those aspects that are important into your fiction. Granted, we can’t write every single detail. The poor reader would quickly become board. Still, we seek to bring the reader along on a fantastic journey. Be sure to give them handrails to hold onto during the ride.

Fictional worlds that are truly memorable and stand up to the test of time share this grounded approach. However, just because they are realistic settings doesn’t make them any less fantastic. Here are a few examples.

• In Dune, the entire planet of Arrakis is a desert wasteland where no rain ever falls. One of the unique features is the sky. With no rain, no open source of moisture, the sky is nearly black - day or night. There are no clouds, no fog, no light-blue heavens. It’s a memorable detail.
• Lord of the Rings is known for the painstaking detail Tolkien put into the story. The valley that makes up Mordor, where Sauron the Deceiver builds his war machine, is dominated by an active volcano called Mt. Doom. The smog of toxic gas spewed by Mt. Doom settles to the valley floor with little wind to dissipate it.
• Split Infinity takes Earth’s moon as it’s setting, at least in part. Anthony remembers those little realistic details in memorable ways. Not the least of which is that people on the moon still need to breath. They live under a huge dome - not profound until you consider it’s an entire city and the sheer immensity of the dome itself. None-the-less a realistic detail to make the story believable. Most of the inhabitants walk around completely nude - a byproduct of slaves not owning any possessions and the higher temperature under the dome (no atmosphere to filter the sun).
• In Black Sun Rising, the world Friedman created is on the very edge of the Milky Way galaxy. It sits on the tip of a spiral arm as far from the galactic center as it possibly can be. Along with the sun and stars, there’s an additional celestial body in the sky. From so far away, the galactic core - tens of thousands of stars in a tight ball - hovers as an additional source of light. And some rare nights, the world is positioned just right and the sky is black and pointed into deep space - no stars, moons, or core - what the author calls “True Night.”

The Imagined

The meat and potatoes of SF/F is imagination, or so it’s thought by beginning writers. But even the fantastic must root itself in reality. We want to bring the reader along with us, but if the make believe is unbelievable, then the reader s lost. Everything in your world has its own reason for being. It has an origin, a life cycle, a geographic location, a logic that only you can define. Even if the trees on Jupiter are blue leaved and have purple poke-a-dots, they are still trees and must still have some form of nourishment to grow. What makes those trees grow?

With each imaginary aspect of your world, you can build reality by asking only one question, over and over again. “Why?” Remember playing that game as a child? I asked “why” so often that my mother started telling me the reason the sky was blue and grass didn’t grow on trees was “to make children ask questions.”

Here’s a simple exercise: Take part of your imaginary world, just one part. Let’s think about that purple tree. Ask yourself “why” five times, letting each answer lead to the next question.

1. Why is the tree purple? Because it’s not really a tree. It’s a giant amoeba that only shapes itself like a tree.
2. Why does it shape itself like a tree? To avoid predators and blend in with the forest.
3. Why would predators be after it? Because the giant amoebas of Jupiter are the only source of some special mineral they need to survive. (Note: define mineral later)
4. Why are the amoebas the only mineral source? Because the mineral is in the air and the amoebas are the only ones who can absorb and concentrate it into usable form.
5. Why is a mineral in the air instead of in the ground? Perhaps a big meteor exploded millions of years ago in the atmosphere and Jupiter’s constant winds prevent the partials from settling onto its surface.

Wow, that’s allot of layers for some silly purple tree in the background. You could spend hours and hours on this exercise alone, examining each imaginary aspect of your story. Although that’s pretty time consuming, you should at least consider doing this for the important ones. Notice, too, I did not define “mineral.” Sometimes it’s enough to have a rough sketch of the world rather than all the specifics. If the mineral turns out to be important in the story, a definition of it should be forthcoming at a later date.

 

Building believable worlds is a fun and challenging activity. Next week, well take a look at how the authors above treated the imaginary aspects of their stories and what makes each one unique and memorable.

 

Until then, write on!

 

Q4U: What is your favorite part of creating your own story world? How do you bring reality into your story?