World Building 101
World building, or making up the rules where your fictional characters live ], in an important and fun part of planning your novel. I've changed my mind about what I want to write next month, so I have to change my world building.
Here in general, are your options. Write about a world we would all recognize. This may be a stylized version of the life you live, here, on Facebook, on Twitter or Instagram you get the point. Your readers will recognize this world immediately because they live in it too. So everyone has cell phones, internet etc. You don't have to think too much about it because you are living it. You don't have to worry about getting the details right. This is where my next novel takes place. Or you make one up. For my last novel it was set in the future on a Martian colony. So I had to invent a world where that could take place.
Obviously I needed my reader to relate, so it had to be a world similar to this one, with all of the vices and virtues of this world. It's really important to make sure your world is realistic. It can't be all rainbows and sunshine, even if it is a MLP fan fic. Something goes wrong, lessons need to be learned. The older the audience you're gunning for the more imperfections your world needs.
In the Roanoke case, the world was very small. A commune like existence where the bonds of friendship are formed a bit more closely than they frequently are here. It's a small town community but more so. That makes vices MUCH harder for my characters to hide and it raises the stakes on being discovered. So how to do this?
I already knew I was putting my colony at risk. I also knew that the team I would be sending would essentially be "The Calvary". If the group who had colonized Mars to begin with were in charge these would NOT be the men they would choose. The "Martians" made some interesting choices. For instance there are no guns on Mars. This has to do with what the scientists thought about the puncture risk projectile weapons posed on planet where there would be no foreseeable outside threat and few internal threats. It is not a political statement on my part, but I thought it to be dishonest not to put the rule when I know that as much work as went into planning a colony on Mars that they would allow something to come in the way. I'm not saying a future colony from our planet would make the same choice, I have no way of knowing that, but I do know the risk assessment would be done and a decision made based on that risk assessment. Of course this is controversial in our country, so there is a member of the new team who spends time complaining and countering this decision even though it is not his to make. He has a hard time living with it. And perhaps he is so motivated to break this rule.
I also had to make sure there was some internal conflict. A high stakes games of vices and each crew member has their secrets. Most of them have a criminal background. The leader is a confessed murderer who took great pride in his kill. (If you want to know why you have to read the book!) So these decisions are important. And just like no two people are the same, no two worlds are the same, even if they are created by the same author. And worlds are living, organic creations so remember that every change that you make to your characters changes the world they live in, just as your actions do in real life.
And here is your chance to have a lot of fun because you can suspend any rule you want in your world. Want a world where stealing is consequence free, then do it, but you have to think that all the way through. There won't be any jealousy in that world. And how will someone react to having their stuff taken? Your reader wants to believe you so your world needs to make sense. Want a world where up is down, that might be a little more fun. Want a world where people who overindulge in vices meet terrible ends? Now you're talking my kind of book.
Have fun!
Love,
Melanie
In the Roanoke case, the world was very small. A commune like existence where the bonds of friendship are formed a bit more closely than they frequently are here. It's a small town community but more so. That makes vices MUCH harder for my characters to hide and it raises the stakes on being discovered. So how to do this?
I already knew I was putting my colony at risk. I also knew that the team I would be sending would essentially be "The Calvary". If the group who had colonized Mars to begin with were in charge these would NOT be the men they would choose. The "Martians" made some interesting choices. For instance there are no guns on Mars. This has to do with what the scientists thought about the puncture risk projectile weapons posed on planet where there would be no foreseeable outside threat and few internal threats. It is not a political statement on my part, but I thought it to be dishonest not to put the rule when I know that as much work as went into planning a colony on Mars that they would allow something to come in the way. I'm not saying a future colony from our planet would make the same choice, I have no way of knowing that, but I do know the risk assessment would be done and a decision made based on that risk assessment. Of course this is controversial in our country, so there is a member of the new team who spends time complaining and countering this decision even though it is not his to make. He has a hard time living with it. And perhaps he is so motivated to break this rule.
I also had to make sure there was some internal conflict. A high stakes games of vices and each crew member has their secrets. Most of them have a criminal background. The leader is a confessed murderer who took great pride in his kill. (If you want to know why you have to read the book!) So these decisions are important. And just like no two people are the same, no two worlds are the same, even if they are created by the same author. And worlds are living, organic creations so remember that every change that you make to your characters changes the world they live in, just as your actions do in real life.
And here is your chance to have a lot of fun because you can suspend any rule you want in your world. Want a world where stealing is consequence free, then do it, but you have to think that all the way through. There won't be any jealousy in that world. And how will someone react to having their stuff taken? Your reader wants to believe you so your world needs to make sense. Want a world where up is down, that might be a little more fun. Want a world where people who overindulge in vices meet terrible ends? Now you're talking my kind of book.
Have fun!
Love,
Melanie
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