Thursday, April 21, 2011
World Building. My Way.
First, there was light.
Maybe.
I may opt for water first. But I’m a fickle creator. And wind. There must be wind…
Second, establish rules.
Eh.
I’d rather just dive in and when I’m done, I figure out what the rules need to be and adjust as I go.
Really.
For example, when I created the world of the Kraken’s Caribbean, I knew I wanted a very light bit of rules. I mean, ‘real world’ rules would dictate the place can’t exist, period! I couldn’t make it historically accurate because, let’s face it, no one had Ipods in Tortuga.
Yes, I don’t just ignore history, I laugh in its general direction.
Anyway, world building. I wrote and wrote and wrote with the Kraken’s Caribbean. And as I molded and fashioned this world, I considered a few things I knew I wanted to either ignore or deal with. Weapons of Mass Destruction. (Yup, the kind we didn’t find in TRW.) I didn’t want them showing up in Tortuga. I didn’t even want grenades or machine guns showing up. I mean, when you have portals to other worlds and times, these things could happen!
So! First rule, no WMDs like rayguns showing up to fall under into the hands of some evil mastermind. Now, other worlds connected to the portals don’t have these safeguards. Why does my Caribbean? Well, the Kraken! And other magic handlers make sure things stay period, weapon wise. (Ok, that’s a bit of a rule, right?)
An Ipod isn’t a weapon. Nor is a microwave, blender or refrigerator. (Okay, Leslie could probably make them work that way, but luckily, no Bombays in the Kraken’s Caribbean.)
And I stuck to this rule with one exception. Because I’m the creator, I can make it so. (No, I’m not going into it, pivotal to the next book, so it’s a secret.)
Other rules? Vampires can daywalk. Hey, they are just people with an odd appetite. And super strength and speed and other predatory instincts. (They don’t glitter. Ever.) Werewolves can shift anytime, but it’s easier when the moon is full. Zombies are zombies voluntarily and no one controls them. And they eat herbs and fungi, not brains.
How did I come up with these rulish rules? Well, I finished the book and then asked some questions of myself. And in answering them, I found some rules. My editor asked a few things and I figured out some more rules. With the second volume I’ll raise a few more questions and answer them, along with the questions I never answered in book one. Like how do the Ipods, blenders, etc. get power. (I sorta let the reader think it’s magic. Hint…it’s not!)
I had to throw together some history for the Etwa Universe, where my novellas take place. Not so much rules for the humans, but rules for the Etwa. (You know humans, they tend to resist rules, so I acknowledge that given a chance, the more nefarious sorts will ignore the rules anyway. The non-nefarious are simply good people, so I don’t call them rules. Humans do right just because it’s right, not just because it’s a rule. I believe in people and it makes sense to me!)
I have created a race philosophy for the Etwa that consists of the absolute drive to be of service. Not a religious thing, but a status driven biological imperative. Hence, they serve the humans (no, not a recipe book.) (Anyone get that reference?)
The Etwa derive status for their family group by seeking out and assisting other races. They are incredibly aware of the damage they might do and so are circumspect with how they assist. And in the 500 years from when they discovered the stranded human colonies, they have been instrumental in raising the quality of life for those planets, without interfering in politics or religion.
I am an idealist.
What rules do the Etwa follow? No importation of technology. A planet that has developed technology independently can take part in trade, but the Etwa won’t transport to any worlds that don’t already have it. (Yes, the humans had technology, but by the time the Etwa find them, it’s so long gone no one knows how it once worked. Some know they had it…but that is about it.)
Again, how did I derive these rules and discover the history of the Etwa Universe? By finished the stories and then asking the questions.
Yes, I imagine it’s a backasswords way of doing this. But it works for me! I find if I try to establish all the rules ahead of time all I want to do is bulldoze through them and break them, willy-nilly. Because I can. Because I am the creator.
How do you create your world? Whether it be real or totally imaginary…you just write or you figure it out in advance?
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40 comments:
Chance,
I have to chuckle. When you were talking about rules, all I could hear in my head was the much repeated line from Pirates of the Carribean... "The Pirate code [rules], well they're more like guidelines."
*note in diary* Never play games for money with this woman!
Like my Grand, she makes up the rules as she goes along. :lol:
Must be fun to play God in this way, though I don't think I could do it. The anthropic principle ensures that we exist. Messing with the Creator's rules could lead to disaster. You might no longer exist to write the rules!
I can't really see Adam and Eve chatting with mobiles ... though as long as there aren't too many. :?
Any world that I create will have to conform to Quantum Mechanical rules ... those are quite weird enough already. Though I have to admire the imaginative genius that created Miranda. :D
Suzanne, Even the guide rules are ignored when Chance is on a roll.
I'm reading your book by the way. I like your take on the Wild West! 8)
I haven't really done any world building, well, except for worlds that already exist. So that requires a lot of research, along with the sinking feeling that there's something I probably missed. LOL
This sounds very liberating, being able to create your own world, with its own rules. I think I would do it the way you describe too, figuring out the story and then going back to answer the questions.
I can’t really see Adam and Eve chatting with mobiles … though as long as there aren’t too many.
Q, if it's any comfort, I only have given Adam an iPhone because I'm writing in the contemporary world and they're in Heaven, and I figure in Heaven, they have EVERYTHING.
I have no idea how 2nd's world works, even though she's tried to explain it above. My brain shut down that the machines worked without electricity...or apparently magic--and the part about importing technology-- *blank look of incomprehension*
BUT 2nd knows what she's talking about and that's what matters.
My world building--when I do it (and it's not the contemporary world or a historical setting where I need to do research and focus) is mostly in regards to Heaven. I don't build alternate societies or other planets (since that sort of thing never appealed to me); I don't have characters who are vampires or shapeshift (because I'm not interested in writing about those characters--though I sometimes read them).
You admit you're an idealist (which clearly isn't news to anyone.) You write what you would like to one day see--which I think we all do to a degree. But I write more to understand myself and human nature. I don't so much want an idealized form (except maybe with the whole Lucy story) as I want to understand why we do the things we do. And a lot of why we do what we do has to do with our setting, be it contemporary or historical. There's enough plot and conflict for me in the contemporary and historical settings, I don't need to invent another one. *LOL*
I do like time-travel though--to highlight the way humans don't change in the essentials, but that the differences in society from one time setting to another can throw off a character, takes a while to grasp how to deal in that setting.
Susanne - Well...they are! I mean, sure...I believe in rules though I'd like to think the we'd all do right by each other without the rules. Save for the villains and the occassional lapse in judgement.
But I understand in the the real world, the rules exist to mostly protect idiots from hurting themselves. Hence, wear a seat belt and don't text behind the wheel.
Though rules like that do tend to cancel out Darwin's survival of the fittest concepts...
Q - Being a phycisist, I imagine the rules of phycic... I'm never gonna spell that right this early in the morning... Uh...rules about science are gonna be pretty strict. Though I think you scientists are constantly discovering new ways that things really work and changing the rules as you go... ;-)
But that is one of the things I like about science!
I imagine, when you write, that you're more flexible than you let on...
Donna - I have a contemp in the back of my mind that I'll write one day. And I'll probably reinvent the wheel when it comes to and throw in new 'rules' about how contemporary life really is.
Because, it really is different depending on where one lives. Walk into a shooting range and use an uzi in one part of the country...give out pot on the steps of the courthouse in another... Difference planets, really!
Hellion - Of course Adam needed to have the phone with every concievable bell and whistle. He's a guy. He's the first guy!
Trust me...the machine...well...it all makes sense eventually. Sorta.
As for importing technology, think of it as bringing a pistol to a sword fight. No, bringing a tank to the charge of the light briggade...it would upset the balance too much. In the Etwa stories, humans have already proven that under stress they will destroy themselves and their world, so the Etwa keep things simple... Sorta like the prime directive in old Star Treks.
Sorta like the prime directive in old Star Treks.
And again, you had me and then you lost me. *LOL*
True And a lot of why we do what we do has to do with our setting, be it contemporary or historical. Or in outer space, or in a Tortuga where Ipods work.
;-)
Emily is a bit of a time traveler. In fact, most of the female characters in The Kraken's Mirror are time travelers...who left their time and planets under stress. I like to think of the portals as the ultimate answer to when life kicks you in the teeth and you are truly up against a wall...
At least that is how it works for those who choose to stay. There are some who are just passing through...
I agree, that why people do what they do is always going to play a pivotal part in a story. It does in mine. It's just the stress I choose to submit them to is a bit...on the wild side of imaginative.
The thing about world building is how many panels discussions there are that take a very firm line on how you do it. Some people draw maps, have actual distance guages, map out the entire constitution of what is allowed and what isn't.
I don't. I write first. Figure it out later and even hard and fast rules evolve. Because humans are constantly discovering new ways to screw up...or constantly how anarchistic creation really is. Ask a physicist! Reality shifts constantly!
I just take it a step or two further.
Ah, well...you know, the Prime Directive... They weren't allowed to interview in a planet's natural course of events. I imagine it would be a bit like how a time traveler isn't supposed to mess with the past... Like save Lincoln's life or ... import coffee to the Americas before it's time.
Me? I do things like that but I have meddlesome time travelers...
Hey! New Hyperbole and a Half is up! Featuring her dogs!
(You mean "intervene" and not "interview", right?) And no, I don't know. Never watched Star Trek, have no intention of ever correcting that situation. Esp after one of the guys I went on a date with--the one looking for a LOVE like the Titanic and I wasn't it--he had a scaled replica model of the Enterprise on his fireplace mantel. As soon as I saw it, I was 99% sure we weren't going to work out.
More power to you, Chance. Given the amount of research I put into creating the ordinary, small-town world of my trilogy, I shudder to think how long I 'd be researching if I created an alternative universe--probably the rest of my life. I'd never get a book written.
Okay. I get it. It's Good Friday and everyone is off getting ready for Easter Sunday. Got it. Fine. Maybe I'll go see a movie.
*sniff!
Morning, Janga! I need to get some info from you for the book you won... E-mail you later!
And I don't know, I find working within the confines of reality really restrictive. Even when I do set a book within the RW, I want to mess with things. I suppose it's just my kink...
Someday, perhaps...you'll take a tiny step... Make the grass blue or something like that! ;-)
Sorry, Hel...didn't mean to revisit any trauma from your life...
There are so many programs I don't watch and still manage to pick up bits and pieces of them in the brain, I made the assumption that this was one you may have picked up on. But I have velcro brain...
Yes, I can do the crossword puzzle in the back of the TV guide and answer questions about programs I don't watch. It's a mystery to me...
I also tend to think the Prime Directive sorta morphed into one of those adopted RW things. Like Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics or Arthur C. Clarke and satellites...
My brain...an intersting place to visit and a different reality than the rest...
OOOOH, and you asked if we got the reference above. No, I don't. But for some reason it makes me think of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. (It just sounds like a Douglass Adams remark.) What is the reference?
I have a velcro brain, but it's not with anything handy with pop culture. TV shows, music, fads--pretty much completely lost on me. I remember a harrowing party event where we played Pop Culture Trivia (which was a spin off of the regular Trivia that I might have had a snowball's chance of getting a question now and again) and I knew NOTHING. Less than nothing. It was appalling. And everyone I was with would squeal at questions and go, "I remember that song!" and they'd start singing it. I felt like an alien--a very disgruntled alien who didn't understand a single inside joke or story.
I remember pinching someone out of pure irritation during the game.
This is why you should never play games with me: 1) I'm the sorest loser (and winner) you'd have to deal with and 2) I apparently know jack shit. Ask me something about this job, I can usually tell you an answer and why it is. Anything else, NOTHING. Oh, and 3) I pinch hard.
But I'm not as put out about pop culture ignorance as I am about world news ignorance. Some things happen and I'm like "Where is that place?" and then I'll be like, "I thought that place was call THUSANDSO" and someone will tell me that it was renamed 10 years ago. What? Why wasn't I told? I think people should have to take geography every couple years so they can understand news events more effectively.
You do realize when you referenced Clarke and satellites, that was still pure gibberish. I think the Robotics thing MIGHT refer to I ROBOT which I thought was a very good movie. And there was a Ray Bradbury short story I read in high school that was so good I can't forget it. "There Will Come Soft Rains". It sobers me every time I think of it.
*pat *pat
There, there, Hellion. It's okay!
To Serve Man was a Twilight Zone episode where aliens show up and the world think they are there to help out. And they offer to take a large group of humans for a ride...a bunch of idealist climb aboard the ship when suddenly, a man on the ground who had been working on translating the book they'd left figures it out... IT'S A COOKBOOK!
BWAH HA HA!
Too late for the entrees already aboard.
Arthur C. Clarke first penned the name and idea of Satellites. Asimov created the three laws of robotics which I can't quote off the top of my head, but they have to do with keeping robots from hurting humans.
I generally suck at those sorts of game also, Cap'n. The trivia I know isn't in those games... ;-)
Ewww. That does sound like a Twilight Zone episode. Ewww. *LOL* I cannot watch The Twilight Zone. I still get nightmares from the movie version in the 80s with the gremlin on the plane! *shivers* I get too emotionally involved in movies.
I swear to you every trivia question from that game had something to do with hip-hop or a rapper. It was a miracle I didn't start thrashing on the ground and start spitting green soup at the party group.
See! I'd have sucked at that, too. Got into a discussion last night with the Bo'sun about hip hop...which I get mixed up with rap. Neither of which I enjoy...
That Twiligt Zone was a kicker! It was also required watching in my home...
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
*I ripped this from Wikipedia. I of course have not memorized the laws. But they sound like the laws Will Smith kept saying, which is why I remember them at all.
I thought about going over to Wiki and looking them up...but somehow, I knew you would for me!
I expect, when we start dealing with artificial intelligence as a reality, Asimov's laws will be utilized. Just because it's fiction, doesn't mean it isn't a good idea!
Lots of good ideas come from fiction. :)
OMG...she agreed with me. I'm...the world...it's spinning too fast!
Hee, hee.
I love the shows Discovery Channel had on a few months ago about how Star Trek changed science. As well as Star Wars...sending young scientists off on a quest to figure out if they could do that!
Communicators? Wireless phones.
Computers responding to voices command? Dragon software.
Motion activated doors? Star Trek...
Now, what shall we lift from Willie Wonka and make real?
Off to walk the dog, ya scurvy lot. And maybe see a movie since the lot a' ye have gone awol...
I remember that Twilight Zone episode vividly, Chance. It and the one about Hell being what you want most and nothing else eternally are the two that made the greatest impression on me.
Oh, the hell one!Where some guy has to watch all those vacation videos the couple wants to show him? His hell, their heaven!
Yeah, I dug that one!
I'm here! Better late than never, right?
Slept 'til noon. It was blessedly wonderful. Now I'm waiting on my tree trimmer guy to get here.
I don't build worlds. Not really. First book was set in a fictional, small Ohio town based on my hometown. New WIP set on Ocracoke Island. Reality is reality, I don't change or alter it in any way. So I have nothing to contribute. :)
I did write a very short para/UF type thing once as a challenge for a writing retreat. Had an angel who could heal and some demons and heroine was sort of a demon fighting cop. Only 800 words so no major world building, but I liked the feeling of being able to make rules and give the reason, "Because I said so."
As a mom, that's my favorite phrase.
I watched TZ growing up, but I don't remember details. Just that's dude's creepy voice in the beginning and the end. I did know that a lof of the technology today was born out of sci-fi writings of the last century. Now if they'd just create those hoverers from the Jetsons, I'd be happy.
I was thinking I'd like the nifty nail painter used by the evil genius' secretary in The Fifth Element. Man, I'd change my nail color constantly!
And the make up bot from the Jetsons would be nice, too!
Glad yer up, Bo'sun. A good sleep in so nice now and then!
Though I think you scientists are constantly discovering new ways that things really work ...
That's pretty much how science works. I lurves science.
My world building is a dynamic, evolving process, that begins with a seed of an idea, whose sunlight and water are the world around me. A lot of my inspiration comes from documentaries on PBS. National Geographic is a tremendous source of inspiration. My steampunk WIP was inspired by an article in National Geographic about water scarcity. The magic in The Music of Chaos was developed after reading The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene.
But some of my ideas come from other works of fiction. For example, the idea that vampires were created by elves, was spawned by the scene in LOTR where Sauruman tells his Urukai that the orcs are ruined elves. With The Canvas Thief, the idea that imaginary characters have a life all their own in a world all their own, has its origins in a Charles De Lint novel.
Blah, blah, blah. Happy Friday, everyone!
Pat, we have similiar ways of drifting toward an idea we want to develop! And forming the formless idea into a world!
Bwah ha ha!
It's good ta be the creator!
I'm starting to see some connecting threads here. I have never been interested in Science or Sci-Fi, mostly because I don't have a curiosity about how things around me work. And I don't spend a lot of time thinking about what could be possible that isn't right now.
But those of you referring to Science and Sci-fi seem to have that wonderful curiosity. I'm more like Hellie in that human nature is more interesting to me. Interactions, reactions, growth, and changes. Even trying to figure out why some people are more evil than others. Or delusional.
I guess I'm suggesting that our inner curiosity and interests play a large role in the kinds of books we write and even read.
Well...how people interact when faced with strange circumstances is a bit of what scifi/fantasy is all about. And how it affects how they interact with people as a result.
It isn't all inner/outer, but I get what you're saying...
I’m more like Hellie in that human nature is more interesting to me. Interactions, reactions, growth, and changes. Even trying to figure out why some people are more evil than others. Or delusional.
For what it's worth, a big part of my fascination with National Geographic and PBS documentaries is the human element, the exploration of human culture, geopolitical stuff, etc. Ultimately, it's all human interaction. I love thinking about how the big picture stuff effects the day-to-day lives of ordinary people.
I think Pat and I are twins.
P. - I did love my Sociology classes and I think that's close to what you're talking about. How people lived and what was considered norms and taboos. That kind of stuff really is fascinating.
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