Worldbuilding: Setting & Maps

This is part of an ongoing series about worldbuilding.

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Last time I gave you my personal definition of worldbuilding and mentioned that next I'd be talking about settings (among other things) and processes I've used to develop them.

All right, then so here it goes.

Settings

Before, I've talked about The Importance of Setting in a story.  Where do you get setting ideas?  Largely from the real world, I imagine.

I started off being inspired by how American and European cities might have looked and functioned during the mid-1930s/pre-WWII era, actually.  (I don't think this is an era that gets explored much in fantasy.)  I'm not writing about an alternate history, though, so this era only serves as an aesthetic and practical guide.  I was really inspired by artwork and photographs of actual places, as well.

Then I came up with some names for countries, brainstormed some general ideas about them and just flew off from there.  (Real helpful, huh?)  I'll explain more.

Map-Making

It has helped me immensely to keep track of locations by creating a map, so this might work best if I showed you a couple:

This one basically shows important geographical regions--deserts, rivers, mountain ranges, oceans, etc. in my WIP.  I used Adobe Photoshop to create most of it, though I used AutoCAD, a computer-aided drafting software program, to do the little scale.  (CAD is good for exact measurements 'n stuff.  I often use it to draft floor plans and other similar drawings.)

The compass, however, is not mine.  Honestly, I don't remember where I got it from.  (Does that make me a bad person?)  I could have made one in CAD, though.  Hm, guess I was just being lazy!

Same story for this one, only it focuses more on the city names and more clearly delineates the nations with color.  I separated these things from the geographical regions to keep it from getting too cluttered (though, this isn't all that necessary).

To tell you the truth, neither of these drawings is complete.  I really need to go back and update them with new references I've made in the story.  (I tend to keep a lot of info up in my noggin 'cause I don't wanna have to keep making corrections to everything when I change my mind.)  But still, it was a good starting point.  I know where everything is located and if I need to I can measure approximate distances.  This helps for calculating realistic traveling times, which is important, I think, when you're writing about an aviatrix--or train travel, or any other kind of travel, really.

(That's another thing I've had to do is research typical car and train speeds in the 20s and 30s.  Usually I just pick one car and train model, look up the specs and use those as a starting point.  Of course, it's all approximated.  I don't want to get too anal about that stuff.)

Gosh, I wish I could find that link that got me started on these maps!  Suffice it to say, it's a fairly detailed process that would not fit very well into a little blog post...

OMG!  NEWSFLASH: I FOUND the LINK!

So there ya go.  I would like to go back and try some new things I learned, to make the mountains pop out more, for example (that person's map on the link has way better mountains than I do), but that's something for another day.

What else can you use to draw maps if you don't have Adobe Photoshop?

Well, you can always draw it by hand.  Do a couple of drafts in pencil, trace over the final one with marker on vellum, trace or marker paper for the final version; splash some color on it here or there... (You cand do that on the back side of the paper so it won't bleed/smear with the marker, unless you do the marker last and just use pencil first.)  For color, I have these really awesome (though pricey) art markers by Chartpak that work a little like watercolors, the way the colors kind of spread.  Though, they smell really strong.  You can get a little high off of them.

...

I'm kidding, but they are very strong-smelling.

You could also leave it in black-and-white, which can make for a very graphic effect.  Using different line weights really adds dimension--if you're interested in the more artsy aspects, that is.

If not, that's cool, too.

Ultimately, though, I think maps should be used to help the writer visualize where everything in his story is taking place.  Doesn't matter if they're pretty or not, especially if they're only for you.

Setting As Character

As it has often been said, setting can become a kind of character itself in your story.

I've found this to be the case in Element 7.  The geographical features actually have a direct relationship to historical events which were initiated by certain characters way back when.  These events have effected the present-day geography.  For example, why do you think the deserts seem to fan out from Daemon's Pass, just southwest of the Great Sea where floats a collection of scattered islands?  And why is that region called "Daemon's Pass" anyway?

Hm... The world may never know.  (Especially if I don't finish editing this beast, heh.)

Finding Inspiration

I find that artwork provides a lot of inspiration for settings in my story.  They even give me some scene ideas.  Here's one that inspired my vision for Chandra City, Apexia (which is only labeled "Chandra" on my map, so I better fix that, too):


"Autumn's Glow," by Alexei Butirskiy

(This artist's work is so beautiful.  I'm inspired by most of it, actually.)

I imagine that the area my protagonist Voi lives in looks a lot like this.  She stays in a townhouse of yellow brick and light-colored stone in Chandra City on Blithe Street, where an electric trolley runs by.  Also, it's in the latter half of autumn at the beginning of the novel, so I like the image of there being golden leaves on the trees and sidewalks at this time.  This is exactly where Chapter 1 starts off--someplace peaceful to contrast the psychological horror of Voi's condition.

Her home is her refuge from the world.

In Chapter 1, she is experiencing...what I will call a "private state of heightened awareness" as she soaks in a clawfoot tub, avoiding her meds...just generally being a naughty emelesiac.  Kind of like this:



Original author unknown.

 (But trust me, it's not what you think.  Though, I certainly want you to believe it is.  I'm hoping that the intent behind this scene thrives off reader assumptions.  I'd like to share it sometime, once I've shopped it around a bit.)

Meh, I could mention something about Borellia, too, but you know how I am with words.  I will say, though, that the ancient ruins and antiquity of Italian cities have been a big inspiration for my vision of Borellia, as have French towns with half-timber structures from Medieval times.

And Airships.  You just have to have airships in a 1930s-inspired world.  (This was during the latter years of their Golden Age, after all.)

So that's kind of how I think about settings.  Next time: languages!  (Oh yes.)

How About You?

Do you like to use maps to aid with fleshing out your story?  If so, do you keep them pretty simple or like to deck them out?  Also, where do you tend to find inspiration for the settings in your storyworld(s)?
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A Little Advice?

Hey, peoples.  I was wondering if I could get your opinion on something.

I've been putting it off (my other versions weren't so great), but I finally wrote a presentable "blurb" for my WIP.  Got some perspective and came back to it.  So far it's the best I've managed to come up with.  Here's what I have:

Voi Román is in a pickle.  Suffering from a rare psychophysiological condition known as emelesia, she faces a grim fact of life: By her twenty-fifth birthday, the urche supplements she takes will not be enough to manage her condition; soon, she will need to be admitted to a mental asylum.  Well, she’s twenty-four and a half now, and to make matters worse, her aeroplane tour company, AeroTaxi, has undoubtedly seen better days.

Running on her last drop of optimism, a possible solution presents itself when a questionable government agent visits her home.  He claims there is a cure for her condition, though it comes with a price.  Work for us, and we’ll work with you, he promises.

Tentative at first, Voi embarks on a journey of self-discovery.  Before she knows it, she is swept up in a whirlwind of arcane occult practices, experimental aerocraft technology, aerial espionage, and international intrigue.  It’s enough to make a girl go mad.  Though, Voi’s sanity is not the only thing she risks losing…

It's at 169 words, which I hope isn't too long.  I've got a shorter version that's only a sentence long under my "Element 7" tab, and maybe that one could be a little shorter, too.  Not 100% sure of length guidelines.  (I've heard anywhere between 75 to 200 words for blurbs, at least.)  Anyways, I was hoping to put this one up there, as well, to give folks (and myself) a better idea of the story.  I hope that isn't too preemptive of me, considering I'm still in the editing process (halfway through now, not including rewrites). >_<

Any suggestions? :D

Worldbuilding

Photoshop'd two internet photos of Dubai, for fun.

This is the first in what will be a series of blog entries on the topic of worldbuilding.

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You know, I have this horrible habit of typing W-O-L-R-D at the start of "worldbuilding."  It's annoying.  Does that ever happen to you?

What is worrrrldbuilding, exactly?

I'll give you a brief definition of what I think it is: Worldbuilding is simply the process of constructing (creating) and establishing the necessary background information for a story's world.  And what kind of background information is deemed necessary, you might ask?  Well, that would depend on what you are writing.

For me, I am working a story in a world that does not exist, so I did some extensive legwork on building that world before diving into it because I needed to figure out what the reality of this new world was like before trying to present it to a reader.  (This is probably one of the few smart things I did before jumping headfirst into my first novel, heh.)  I had to develop a thorough understanding of what made it different from our reality then figure out how to render this through storytelling.  Even after exploring the same world for years, I still feel like there's more left to discover--which is part of the reason why I want to write more than one book that takes place in it.

If I was writing historical fiction, though, I imagine my worldbuilding process might involve a lot more research on real-world locations and details and less pulling semi-original invented ideas out of my brain and making them happen.  I think there'd be less creativity going on with the worldbuilding and more trying to get the facts straight.  If I were writing fiction set in an alternate history, my worldbuilding process would probably float somewhere in the middle of these two methods.

In any case, research would still play a role, however large or small.

Worldbuilding As an Organic Process

Like achieving focus in one's story, I believe worldbuilding can take place in both the planning and implementation stages of writing a novel.  During the planning stage its all about the development of ideas; during the implementation, or writing stage it's about establishing, within the story itself, whichever details the writer feels are needed in order to best tell that story.

You can plan 'til your heart's content, but there are some things you just can't plan for.  They just come to you suddenly like a voice from heaven, imparting you with epiphanic artistic insight, and sometimes more like a freight train out of hell (or out of a certain dream sequence from Inception), derailing everything you thought you knew about a setting, demanding that you alter some minor (or major, yikes!) world detail to better fit the developing story.  And not all the stuff you meticulously plan out is going to make it into the novel anyway.   Still, it's good to know your story's environment and history before trying to render it and have your characters interact with it.

That's how I understand it.

So that was all the boring, establish-the-platform stuff.

Now, on to all the fun stuff.  (Note: I'm going to be writing this series in a way that a first-time writer might be able to follow, though I'm aware the majority of my readers have already gone through this process at least once.  Hopefully everyone can get something out of it, though.)

Where To Begin?

Wherever you want to, really.  I started off just journaling about locations I had in mind.  I also collected images and played around with Photoshop for a while (this was when I was first learning to use it) to come up with setting concepts, so that can help sometimes.  I haven't been able to visit all the locations I developed for my first novel, but I at least know they exist.  My characters sometimes make references to places I plan to take them to later on.

At one point I discovered an amazing author named Holly Lisle.  I have just gobbled up all the stuff she puts out there for writers.  I've actually only read one of her novels *guilt, guilt*, The Ruby Key (which was great fun, btw, and the cover art is just gorgeous; had it as a desktop wallpaper for a while), but that's beside the point.  The point is she gives some really helpful advice and offers some great tools that writers can use to help them develop their stories.

Check out her $10 clinics on building cultures and languages, easily downloadable as PDF files.  (She also offers some bundles, which can save you money if you decide to buy more than two or three.)  I've found these to be very useful, actually.  I printed them out and keep them in binders on some nearby shelves for easy reference.

Don't wanna spend any money?  Well, there's plenty of free stuff out there on the internet that covers worldbuilding.  Trust me.

There are a few aspects of worldbuilding I've enjoyed more than others--those being languages, institutions and organizations, magic systems (I don't actually use the word "magic" at all in my fantasy novel, just "elementalism") and locales/settings, so I plan on talking about the processes I've used to develop some of those areas.  Maybe you've used/will use similar processes.  Maybe yours are radically different!

How would you define worldbuilding?

You can find a lot of definitions of worldbuilding on the internet, but I'm more interested in what the term means to you, fellow writers.  Maybe you'd disagree with how I've defined worldbuilding.  Maybe it's too simplified or general.  Perhaps there is even more to it.

So, what are your thoughts about worldbuilding?  What is it?  What is it not?  Is worldbuilding something that every fiction writer should consider doing before writing a novel?

And also, how much detail is too much detail?  How much is not enough?

(Feel free to pick and choose what you want to answer, as always.  I'm just throwing stuff out there.)
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Just a Heads Up:

I've come to the realization that the topic of worldbuliding is far too complex to cover in just one or two posts--not in any detailed and practical way, anyhow.  Though trust me, I tried.  (I mean, what was I thinking?  Really.)

So here's what I'm gonna do: Normally I try to post something only on Wednesdays, but since this topic is so diverse and has so many interesting things to talk about, I'm going to post something each day this week starting on Monday.  Consider it a series on worldbuilding!  It should be fun.

And since I'm on Spring Break this week, I can actually afford the splurge.  (Besides, I've got most of it written already.)

Okay, so that's all for now. :)  Have a Happy Sunday!

-Tiyana

Synergy in Worldbuilding (and Beyond)

"Land of Psychedelic Illuminations," by Brian Exton.

(I must apologize.  My last post wasn't the clearest, as it came to me in several parts.  I think my whole spiel about using the elements in my story was more about worldbuilding than setting...but then again, the elements are setting, in a way, because they represent Nature, which always surrounds my characters.  This was all left too implied... Bah!  I'm just being a perfectionist again.  Forget I said anything.)

Okay!  So today...I'd like to talk about what happens when setting, character, plot, and all those other important storytelling elements come together in holy matrimony, so to speak.  (Or maybe it's more like "holy polygamy," which may or may not be a paradox, heh, but let's not go there...)

Good Writing + Thorough Development + Cohesion Through Compatibility = Synergy

When all the elements of storytelling come together and somehow, in the mind of the reader, manage to transcend the sum of their parts, it makes for an amazing effect.  When you can't remove one character, plot point, or detail of the setting from the story without it falling apart or changing altogether, then you know you've got something pretty tight (in every sense of that word).

There is a word for this phenomenon.  I believe it is called synergy.  Here is Merriam-Webster's definition of the term:

A mutually advantageous conjunction or compatibility of distinct business participants or elements (as resources or efforts).

Origin of synergy: New Latin synergia, from Greek synergos working together.

Everyone loves M-W (right?), so I thought I'd put that one out there; but honestly, I think we can do a little better.  Here's how the American Heritage Dictionary, on Answers.com, defines synergy:

1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.
2. Cooperative interaction among groups, especially among the acquired subsidiaries or merged parts of a corporation, that creates an enhanced combined effect.

Right, so key words are "compatibility," "combined effect" and "greater than the sum of their individual effects."

I love this word to death for two reasons: (1) because it's one of those words that smacks of New Age and just sounds undeniably cool, but more importantly (2) because it accurately describes a particularly elusive effect that is really more of a feeling one gets or an impression one is left with than a real, tangible thing.  It is a quality of relationship between story elements, a kind of organic network of details that give and take from one another to produce something greater.  It is difficult, I think, to attain in a novel and can be hard to pinpoint when it plays out before your eyes, though you know it when you see it.

A story with synergy has just got that "It Factor."

Examples Where Synergy is Achieved

Not too long ago I finished reading Kameron Hurley's debut novel God's War.  It is an exercise in worldbuilding, among other things, and I believe a successful one at that.  She features a style which is now being called bugpunk.  In an interview with Kameron on Mad Hatter, I read about the source of her inspiration for the novel: a time spent living in South Africa where bugs were simply a normal part of everyday life.  She runs pretty far with that idea in God's War, incorporating it into the very lifestyles of her characters.  "Magicians," for example, can call bugs to do their bidding, creating defensive barriers or offensive swarm attacks, among other things.

However, her worldbuilding doesn't stop there.  Bugs are ginormous and scary in Hurley's setting of the polluted and war-torn planet of Umayma, but they also serve an even deeper purpose.  All of the technology in this world runs off bug juice, really.  Bug-based technology allows the protagonist Nyxnissa to ride relatively long distances in her "bakkie."  Bugs also allow Umayma's inhabitants to communicate via radio.  There are many other ways in which bugs are useful in this world, to be sure, but those are some of the most prominent examples throughout the novel.

All of these details, and so many more, just came together very nicely, in my opinion.  It was all thought-out and cohesive.  It just felt right when it was all mixed together.

I could go into the numerous other reasons of why I feel God's War is a success as far as worldbuilding is concerned, but that would make for a lengthy analysis.  I think that if you don't mind ultra-tough female leads and a little head-lopping (for Nyxnissa is a deadly bounty hunter), then you should just go ahead and read it for yourself!

Other Examples of Worldbuilding Done Right

I also admire the worldbuilding of Martha Wells.  I especially loved The Fall of Ile-Rien series from her, which played with the idea of two vastly different peoples: one, the Rienish, for whom wizards and magic were the norm and even used in conjunction with technology; and another, the Syprians, who considered to any and all magic to be pure evil.  Of course, the two civilizations meet face-to-face and are forced into a circumstance in which they must work together in order to survive.

The Death of the Necromancer, kind of a prequel of sorts (from the same author), was also done very well, I think; it was nominated for a Nebula Award a while back.

These may not be the most well-known examples of incredible worldbuilding out there today, but they are some of my favorites because not only are their settings awesome and unique, but they directly contribute to the effectiveness of each story.  In fact, these novels would be entirely different if their settings were altered in any way.

What other good examples of striking settings can you think of?

Not all novels will have settings that especially stick out to the reader, but sometimes you come across ones where they do.  Also, worldbuilding does not necessarily have to involve creating a new world from the ground up.  It could just mean doing the necessary research to render a setting(s) in a realistic way--particularly when the story is set in a real-life location.

With that said...

What are some of your favorite settings from novels?  (Movies?  TV shows?)  What made them special or successful in terms of the bigger story, in your eyes?

Next week I plan on talking more about the actual process of worldbuilding and different aspects that must be considered--particularly when creating a new world.  (And if you think this is the last time you'll be seeing psychedelic weirdness from me, think again--mwahahaha!  It's just one of the many strange things that have inspired the ideas behind my novel.)