NaNo2010 > Worldbuilding 2
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Welcome back! How did everyone do with the worldbuilding exercises from last week?
I don’t know about YOU, but I am nowhere near finished with even my most basic worldbuilding yet.
Stained
So far, I’ve got my story set on a large island (small continent?) with two distinct geographically-based societies. Magic users come from the mountain-based society only. I have some rules governing the magic wielded by those people, including boundaries and limits. Additionally, I’ve got a society based around the fact that Stained exist. What does it mean to be a society that periodically produces magically-inclined folk?
I have some religions and a social caste system, as well as an understanding of the trade between the mountain-folk and the lowlanders. How do the mountain-folk survive? What food and goods can they provide on their own and what must they trade for? I also have a primary export and warring factions within the mountain folk.
Additionally, this is just one rather smallish country in this world. Thankfully, I have my husband and roommate to help me do the worldbuilding (and by “help”, I mean they’re doing most of the work. *winks*)
We have a seafaring society, an “alien” society, a vague history with highlights that goes back approximately 10,000 years, multiple other countries and a few different-but-related magic systems within those societies. We had a recent plague in the southeast that’s causing a lot of friction between the human denizens of that area and their warlike non-human parent country.
We also have a growing threat to all of these countries and societies – one that our desert-dwelling folks thought they’d locked away thousands of years ago.
Why So Much?
Why do so much worldbuilding?
A couple of reasons.
- My husband loves to do worldbuilding, and he’s pretty flippin’ fantastic at it.
- The more your world lives and breathes before you start adding characters to it, the easier it is to come up with plots and conflicts. Just based on what I’ve got above, I can think of at least three trilogy plots and one plot that would tie multiple series together into one massive climactic battle.
- Myself, my husband, and our roommate are all planning on doing NaNoWriMo this year. We decided to build a single world and each of us take a fragment of it to write about. Stained is mine, the seafaring society will be tackled by Mr. Moore, and He Who Lives In The Second Bedroom will be taking on the warlike non-human “alien” society.
How Much Will Be Used?
All of it, but very little of it.
Every piece of worldbuilding has affected this world. The addition of the primary export from the Stained mountain society has had a ripple effect on the other countries, peoples, and magic systems on this planet.
I have a rough map of the mountain society – where people live, how their political system is shaped, the specific types of brooches used to identify people of various castes – but my current plan has most of my novel taking place in the lowlander setting.
My novel will likely not even mention most of the other societies we’re worldbuilding for. It may not even mention this primary export, I’m not sure.
But because that building has been done, I know that my world will make sense. I know that my plots and conflicts will be closely tied to the setting. And best of all, I know that this world has MORE than enough room in it for a ton of books. Trilogies, series, the whole shebang. All of it should make sense as it’s revealed because all of it is THERE.
Homework
I’m not ready to move on to character building yet. I still have too many world details that I want to hammer out before I move on.
This week’s homework is the same as last week’s homework. Build your world. Shape it, craft it, mold it, and sing sweetly to it until it begins to thrum back at you. Let it live.
More Questions
Last week was BIG questions. This week is going to be smaller questions.
I have my list of societies. Which of those people are likely to show up in Stained? Which are highly unlikely to show up? Of the ones that might, how will the mountain-folk and the lowlanders react to seeing them? What happens if a Stained shows up in a lowlander country? How are they treated? If my character walks through the gates of a lowlander city, what will she see?
I might even draw out a few rough city maps if I feel up to it. Where do travelers stay? Are there slums? Prisons? Bars? Is there an industrial area? How about residential?
Next Week
Next week, we’ll get started on characters. I’m enjoying the worldbuilding, but I am REALLY looking forward to meeting my main character.
My problem with worldbuilding has ever been the same. I am incapable of starting with it. I met Kaiyu before I knew her story and anything of Feather Path. I met Kate before I had ever written a line of Death’s Door or knew what a sangoma is. And now, I know my character for the next NaNoWriMo before I have any idea of plot or world.
Okay, that is not totally true. I know the world, since it is the world we live in. True to my emerging style, I am going to be going for contemporary paranormal fantasy again, and mixing and matching (and deforming >.>) real practices and mythologies to create something new and mine. Of course, also true to myself, I am not settling for a culture I am familiar with. No way! So what I really need to do for worldbuilding is actually a truckload of research into Irish culture, Celtic mythology, witchcraft and whatnot. And then turn it all on its head.
And just as I was writing this comment, a second idea for a book occurred to me! Another culture, another mythology, and another strong character that just prodded me with a sharp finger, and demanded attention. Can I write two books in one NaNoWriMo, you think?
.-= Iris´s last blog ..Feather Path: Chapter VIII =-.
@Iris
Thats a really good way to go about it though. And if you think about it, all you’re “missing” that way is the little details. Things like transportation for laymen and the like, (horses to cars).
Aside from that, the learning aspect of what you are doing is really no different that what we are doing. It’s just that for us, we don’t have books to learn from, we just talk until things fall into place, until they feel right.
For you, you do that aspect too, just after you get your learning done, when you turn everything else on it’s head.
I really enjoy reading that kind of story, learning the little ways the world is different. I’m not sure why, but alternate reality stories have always struck a cord with me.
@Iris
Ah, but just because you start with a character, that doesn’t mean you are skipping the worldbuilding. My spark for Stained is a character, which is why I’m so excited to get to that portion of the planning process.
Although from the sound of things, you’ve already got a huge head start on knowing what worldbuilding you need to do. Have you started that Celtic research yet? Sounds fascinating!
*laughs* Quick! write the idea down and add it to your Idea Box! I don’t recommend writing two novels at once, but there’s no reason that idea need be lost just because you chose another!
.-= Tami´s last blog ..Return of Warcraft =-.
My problem is I get really caught up in worldbuilding: geography, history, languages, alphabets, the works. I have spreadsheets, graphs, images, and materials up the yin yang, but very, very little in the way of actual stories. I’m getting better at that part. But what I’d love more than anything is to someday have someone else take a look at them. Not there yet. Not there yet.
Gotta be perfect first, right?! :)
.-= Charlie Hills´s last blog ..Against All Odds =-.
@Charlie
Overbuilding is BAD, not good. As you already noted, it’s impossible to ever actually FINISH building, and you can build and build and never actually write your book!
I won’t give Holly Lisle’s advice on worldbuilding, since I know you’re not looking for advice – you want to figure it out on your own. But waiting for it to be perfect will mean you never get to share it with anyone else. Means you never HAVE to share it with anyone else, either, but I’m selfish. I want to read your writing. Even if it’s not perfect. ^_^
.-= Tami´s last blog ..Return of Warcraft =-.
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