World Building

The other day on my blog we were talking about Setting as Character. As I read your delightful comments, I started wondering how far off topic World Building was. Is that essentially what we were talking about? No. Setting as Character is one thing, but when I started mentioning dystopian novels and paranormal, I began to cross into another topic (or dimension--key weird music).

So let's talk about World Building, albeit briefly, because honestly, can you cover everything there is in one short blog post? I read this someplace else, so I can't give full credit for it (I apologize, I seem to have misplaced the link), but I feel that it really sums up what you need to do to build the best world possible: make your own rules and stick to them.

Of course, this implies that you need rules to begin with, right? Since you're in another world, or a world parallel to this one, or an alternate world to this one, or a futuristic world (etc, etc), that world and the characters in it need to act accordingly. These rules apply to government, magic, geography, marriage, language, rivalries, culture, history, etc, etc.

Implement these rules into the story. It isn't enough to just have these rules and write a rule book about them, we need to see your characters interacting with the rules. What is impeding them? How do they feel about the rules? Is it possible to change the rules? How do the rules effect their journey? How have the rules shaped them?

Based soley on World Building, my favorite books:

• Terry Goodkind: Sword of Truth series
• Beth Revis: Across the Universe
• Julia Karr: XVI
• Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games
• Libba Bray: A Great and Terrible Beauty
• Scott Westerfeld. Anything he writes.
• Diana Peterfreund, Rampant

In other words, anything over on my favorite books list. These authors have managed to weave a story so complex, and yet so easy to understand, that it's impossible not to be sucked in. They have other things going for them of course, but the characters interact with the world so well, you can't help but believe it, and imagine how you would have turned out if you had been in that world too.

Ok, so your favorite books? Based on World Building alone.

And, how much different is World Building from Setting as Character? Can you interchange them all the time? Some of the time? Can you have Setting as Character in a Built World, but not World Building in a Character's Setting?

Any great resources you've found for World Building?

Happy writing!

Setting as Character

At the San Fransisco Conference, I listened to a great panel (Cara Black, Bharti Kirchner, Kemble Scott) talking about Setting as Character. I'd considered this before. In a few manuscripts I felt myself wanting more setting, especially if it was in a city that was interesting. In more manuscripts than I can count, there are faceless, nameless cities and towns that can be interchanged with countless other cities and towns. This isn't always a bad thing (but sometimes it is). In other manuscripts, it made me want to dive in even more, because the writer obviously knew what they were talking about.

So, when do you know setting is a character in your novel? Bharti says that you know you've achieved it if you take the story and set it in a another city and then examine it. Is it the same story? If the story no longer works, then you know you've made setting a character.

Kemble's stories take place in a specific neighborhood in San Fransisco (which means he's also got a built in audience). There is no way he could take the story out of the neighborhood, it wouldn't be the same story at all.

Now, I'm not saying to rush out and make setting a character, so necessary that we learn so much about it we want to puke. But I am saying to reexamine your story. Is there any place that could be made a little more interesting by exploiting the setting?

Dystopian novels are obvious: think Hunger Games. Setting was a HUGE part of that novel. The world, the district, the town, the house, the government, were key players in every scene. Make sure in your Dystopian (or SciFi or post-apocalyptic) novel that the setting is absolutely necessary (and developed, and flawless, etc).

But contemporary novels can work just the same way. I'm thinking of Will Grayson, Will Grayson. The towns that both Wills lived in didn't strike much of a cord with me, but the city they went to, did. There's a scene in which one Will is staring at his distorted reflection in the Bean. Does the artwork mean anything to me? Not really. But it got my imagination going and I started picturing the city as if I've never seen it before.

Thirteen Reasons Why is set in a nondescript town that could be anywhere in America. Thinking back, I can't even remember if we're even told what state it's in. But the town was vital to the plot, while the character is led from one landmark to another.

Historical novels are another great example. A Great and Terrible Beauty really captivated me because it is set at first in India, then England, and then in a fantasy land. Each, no matter how small, was beautifully crafted, small nuggets spread around for our pleasure. It never hit us over the head with historical facts, they just were; they sat there like o ya, that's the way it's supposed to be.

Now, my examples aren't solid examples of Setting as Character (check out the authors of the panel to see how to do it), but my examples do show how to sprinkle in a little flavor.

So whether you add a lot or just a little, make sure you add enough to get the reader interested, thinking, imagining. But don't go overboard and pepper us with lengthy descriptions (it's not the nineteenth century anymore, you'll bore your readers).

What are your favorite books based on the setting?

Happy writing!