OPWA: Episode Nine

Overpriced Writing Advice
Where you can learn the stuff I paid thousands of dollars to have taught to me, for free.

World Building
(Or "The 5 Category Method to Setting Research")

After my last post, I was kind of wary to carry on the topic of world building. The primary reason for this is it’s just such a broad topic. I feel that every setting requires different areas of special focus, so it’s hard giving advice about how to build a world. If you’re doing a present-day setting, you might feel it necessary to look at entertainment news and current events to get a better idea of how to shape your story’s society? What are social and political movements that are hot? That you think might become hot? If you’re doing something futuristic, you’ll want to take a peek at the latest technology and medical news--what breakthroughs are being made that could lead to more advanced tools and methods in the future? What are futurists predicting our lives will be like one hundred or two hundred years from now? What’s the most dominant theories in the astronomy community?

You see? It gets complicated. The needs change for every situation.

At a loss, I went back to my folder for my Developing New Worlds class in Full Sail University. I looked at the first assignment for week one, and this was the gist of it:

After analyzing the trends, concerns, and systems of my specific setting, I needed to come up with FIVE CATEGORIES to research. Each category needed to have THREE INTERNET SOURCES, and ONE HARD COPY SOURCE (in other words, a published book.) So that’s five categories with four research sources each for a total of twenty sources.

How very college-y, right?

I was kind of irritated reading over the document, because it felt too… academic? Like, duh, of course, I was in a degree program, but I mean-- I wanted something that I could make easy to digest for YOU guys to use for writing fan fiction. Not to say that your horse words can’t be as good as best selling novels, but I’m trying to be realistic. That’s something I’ve tried to keep in mind since the first three posts in OPWA, because I realized that no one is going to do interviews for MLP fan fiction. At least, most of you won't.

...But that’s the thing, isn’t it? You guys MIGHT use this for something more serious. More ambitious. Or maybe you will be ambitious with your pastel ponies? There’s nothing wrong with that! Art for art’s sake is fun and freeing and wonderful.

So after arriving to this conclusion, I decided to open up my document for this assignment… and wow! I mean, not to toot my own horn, but it’s not a bad example of how one can go about building a setting. I’ll summarize my work, but you can read my assignments here and here. First document is a list of my sources and my justifications for using them. The second document took all of that information from those sources and made it into a setting summary.

This setting was for an original fantasy series that I worked on for several years. The first book is published on Amazon. This assignment was doing work for an area my characters wouldn’t be getting to till close to the end of their epic journey. It was an independent city-state named Akii. It was located in a desert area, but I wanted it to be more than just some lazy copy of real life Middle-Eastern peoples. I really wanted it to feel thought out and unique. To move away from falling into stereotypes regarding desert culture, I drew on Hopi, Roman, and Moroccan societies to come up with something that felt different.

After really thinking about my setting (I jotted down notes, did mind maps, wrote freewrites) I decided on these five categories to do research for:

1.   Government
2.   Geography
3.   Regional Beliefs
4.   Fashion and Cultural Style
5.   Wildlife

The thing I kept in mind was that nothing during my brainstorm session could be concrete. I had to be willing to discard ideas that didn’t fit well after a “stress test” via freewriting, or superfluous stuff that just bloated my setting as made evident in my mind maps. When trying to identify the major areas of research for your setting, remember to challenge your ideas. Question everything. Don’t settle for easy answers.

The reasoning behind my five categories?

Government and geography were obvious choices. Government, because in a medieval fantasy setting ignoring the way a foreign government operates can get you killed or imprisoned pretty quick. Geography, because my heroes had to travel through a lot of wilderness to get to the city-state to begin with. After that? Regional beliefs. My story has a great emphasis on various belief systems that can sometimes conflict with each other. The heroes were going to have to get local help to find what they needed in the city-state. You can’t do that without at least understanding (if not respecting) the regional beliefs. Next was fashion and cultural style. It was a hurdle that came fast during freewriting because I realized I had no idea how people in such a climate would dress, and I needed to describe them in some detail. Wildlife seemed a logical choice for the same reasons researching geography was.

One tip my instructor provided for this research process was to come up with a list of 7-10 keywords for each of the five categories. I don't think I did that back then, but you might find it helpful.

You can also use my research tips if you feel internet sources and hard copies are still not giving you enough information.

If you are worrying that your setting could still be improved, why not share it with someone else? A second (or third!) opinion can bring to light questions and concerns you may not have realized on your own. Just be sure to do the work first! It isn’t anyone’s job to write your story for you. You also tend to get better feedback for work that is organized, polished, and streamlined. Think of it as a pitch. You want to have your ideas understood as well as accepted. Make it appealing! People giving feedback will be less intimidated by (and more accepting of) a document with visual examples and well constructed paragraphs than a glob of chaotic notes and pages of rambling text.

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As I mentioned, world building is a very unique process for each story. The above method is fairly general, but it really requires the author to identify the needs of his world and to prioritize accordingly. Aside from sharing this thing I learned in college, plus providing my own work as an example, I’m afraid I don’t feel like I can give much else in the way of guidance. Hopefully you guys can still take something helpful away from this episode!

Comments

[Cynewulf]

Ah yes--one of my favorite things.

:D

This series has been a good read over all.