On World Building

“So many things go into writing a novel, it's easy to forget that with every word you write, you are making a decision”

-Mitchell Bogatz

As the quote suggests, it’s important not to oversimplify word-building. Everything you write has greater implications than even you intend. If your main character enters a nightclub wearing a red dress, rather than a blue dress, this has a score of implications - intentional or not. That said, while the smallest details can’t always be planned, I’m a solid believer in careful, elegant world-creation prior to the writing of the first word. There are two parts to this article, the choices and their implications, and what you need to do to make your world strong.

Real Or Fictional World

A real world is often considered more limiting, but this isn’t necessarily true. For something to be set in the“real world”, it only needs the heart of its universe to function in essentially the same way. Technically, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is set in the real world; despite there being hordes of vampires, demons and other paranormal entities, beneath the layers of story, we are still on planet  earth and our international system of government functions in more or less the same way. By this definition, the world of The Walking Dead is not real, despite it being located on planet earth.

Both have distinct advantages. In the beginning of a story, a real world is more easily relatable. It is also far easier to develop complex characters in a world that doesn’t require quite as much explaining as a fully fictional creation. On the other hand, a fully fiction world, if done correctly, is more immersive and easier for readers to remember (as it is different than what they are used to). Because stories revolve around Ideas or Characters, many stories can work in either setting - it’s just about choosing the one that accentuates your characters or theme the best.

Choosing A Date (Or Level Of Technology)

Even if your story doesn’t take place in the real world, you are essentially always choosing a date. If there are no combustion engines, railroads or electronics, you can be on Xilibrith 2 in the year 7346 - but that’s still essentially the early 1800s.

Choose your date based on how you want your characters to interact. By necessity, most stories with early dates are either character driven or involve an event of a grand scale (typically war or the spreading of a disease). Again, if your date is simple and doesn’t need to be explained very much, it’s easier to focus on characters right away.

Geography

Napoleon was long credited with the phrase, “Geography is destiny”. As a bit of a historian myself, I couldn’t actually find any reference to this phrase in the early 19th century. Personally, I think this quote is attributed to Napoleon because geography played an incredible role in his life. Believe it or not, our modern world is completely different than it would have been if what is now modern day Belgium weren’t a rainy country. In the battle of Waterloo, Napoleon had planned for his attack to begin in the morning, but decided to wait until the evening because it rained; this gave the Prussians time to arrive and stop Napoleon’s army. Think about that for a second. If it hadn’t rained on June 18th, 1815, France might be the largest country on earth today. Russia might not be a super power. Our global governmental system would be completely different… all because of the absence of a few raindrops.

Geography can have as big of a role on your story as you want it to, but I’ll give this warning: don’t wait until you need geography to bring it into the story! If you have a story that doesn’t mention geography for 200 pages, and then suddenly a tornado comes into town and wipes everything away, your audience will cry foul play! If you need a tornado, then fine, have Peggy talk about a tornado she saw as a child in chapter 3 - that way when chapter 33 comes around, the audience believes you.

Small Village Or Megacity

This one ties directly into your main character’s personality. There aren’t a lot of positives or negatives either way here. A megacity is a little more convenient for events on a global scale, and a small village or city might be more convenient when it comes to bringing in lifelong familial figures - but this is far from the primary reason to choose one over the other. I’ll get to that in a bit…

Now that I’ve gone over the different choices, it’s time for some advice--

Choose The World That Creates The Most Conflict!

If your character is a compulsive explorer, put him in a tiny village. If your character wants to settle down in his family home by the lake, put him in a rocketship a million miles from earth! Figure out what type of story you want to tell, and after that, choose the world that makes things the most interesting.

Realize That People Will Not Give You The Benefit Of The Doubt

If you don’t already have a trusting fan base, you need to realize that people will automatically assume that you don't know what you’re doing. This is why Peggy needs to mention the tornado in chapter 3 - to show that you’ve done your homework. If something is important in the story, it needs to be introduced, even if it’s in a very subtle way. (See: Chekhov's gun.)

Don’t Use The “Ignorant Character Motif” Too Often

In many fantasy stories, there just so happens to be a character that knows absolutely nothing about the world he or she is in, so they walk around asking questions and getting explanations through pages and pages of dialogue. Again, if this information needs to come out, do it in an elegant way.

Don’t Over-Explain Things

This ties directly into my post, On Over-Description. Here are two snippets from that post that speak for themselves:

1) If it doesn’t come across naturally, don’t include it.

2) The more you analyze something, the more you invite readers to look for errors …

If your story is filled with asides, it will be frustrating to read! For instance, if your characters are playing a game in the Dharavi Slum in Mumbai, why should you take time away from this interesting scene to explain the rules? If you want to, you can always explain the rules in the appendix of the book!

Communicate Necessary Things Through Their EFFECTS

If we’re walking through the land of Albareth, and we need to know about the devastation caused from a great war between elves and dwarves, the easiest and most elegant way to do this might be through the effects of the war.

I don’t mean that Grills, the hero, should walk through charred land and then have Algernon, his elvish companion explain what happened. That’s just a disguised ignorant character motif! What I mean is that Grills should walk past trees that are cut down and not say a word; that his elvish companion should run into a dwarf who, without specifically saying why, treats him horribly; that dwarf children should run away from Algernon who, upon questioning, remarks, “It’s just a sign of the times”.

Do you see how, without actually mentioning a feud between elves and dwarves, we as the readers are completely aware of it? That is precisely what you should be going for, especially if you are writing in Third Person Limited!

Understand The Difference Between Complexity And Hidden Complexity

In many cases, knowing that complexity is present is a lot better than having to hear about it. Ideally, especially when creating a fantasy world, you want people to feel like there is so much information one couldn't possibly include it all. Feel free to make reference to events that you never explain or to use words that are explained contextually. Hidden complexity almost always makes a world stronger. Typical complexity can actually harm your story!

Creating Characters

I’ve put off writing this blog post for a long while, despite it being one of the more commonly requested topics. I've branched similar topics like How To Add Dimensions To Your Characters, but never quite delved into character creation. The reason being, everyone creates their characters a little differently. Some people prefer to just write and let their characters form - and that’s okay. Others, myself included, prefer to plan everything down to the last detail before they write the first word. Honestly, whatever gets your character on the page is just fine! There are, however, a lot of helpful things to say about character creation - not to mention a few guidelines that will make it easier to sell your manuscript to an agent. So, without further ado, here it is: “Creating Characters”.

Names

Don’t make names long or hard to pronounce. If your main character’s last name is “Houshmandzadeh”, you are losing a lot of marketability!

Also, don’t give your characters similar names. I know it’s tempting, because that’s sometimes how it works in the real world. I get clients all the time who say, “But this story is about Jean and John, my cousin and her ex-boyfriend!” Well, in a screenplay, it’s a little bit more acceptable (though not by much), but in a novel, it’s going to be hard, especially in the beginning, for your readers to get a good image on your characters. If your characters are the same gender, that’s going to be even harder. To put things into perspective, my 2012 screenplay, Unformed, has been rejected more than once on the grounds that the names of the main characters were too similar. For the record, the names are “Jacob” and “Kaleb”. I kept them for that story, but since then, I’ve made a greater effort to vary the names of my characters - in part for the readers, and in part for the agents/producers.

Don’t use the names of real people without written consent. Whether you’re a casual or full-time writer, you’ve probably heard about the kinds of settlements that writers have to pay for this mistake. It’s not pretty.

Minimize alliteration in your character’s names. This is another one that happens sometimes in real life, but for whatever reason, including it in your story hurts your believability. The more you overdo it, the worse it is. If I see “Gabby Gutierrez” and “Sammy Smith” on the same page, there better be some great reasons for me not to put the book down. That said, don’t become obsessed with avoiding alliteration in all your characters. Bilbo Baggins is a wonderful name for a great character - just remember, the other names in Lord of the Rings weren’t Braydon Baggins and Gabriel Gamgee. If they were, the story would have been less believable.

Now, how to actually decide on a name for you characters. There are a lot of ways. I know a few authors who are constantly writing down interesting names for characters. I do that myself when a name really strikes me. Another way is to simply open a word document and keep writing out names until one sounds right to you. I often plan my story before I actually name my characters. As I plan, I’ll write “the main character” or a filler name like “Bob” until I have a firmer grasp on what I’m writing. Try to make it a unique name unless there is a reason for it to be otherwise. The more memorable the name is, the more your character stands out. Think: Neo, Katniss, Frodo, Gatsby et cetera… Also, make sure your character’s name fits your setting. If your character is an uneducated redneck renting half a trailer in Holly Springs, Mississippi, don’t name him Bertold Abberly. Apart from that advice, there’s really no recognized method of name generation. Like choosing the right word in a sentence, most of name creation is in how it feels.

Setting

Setting has far more to do with your character than the color of his or her hair, so omitting it would be misleading. Sometimes settings change the lives of everyone in them. In Tiny Instruments, the Cavanagh school is easily as important as any single character. It functions, not only as a crucible (something that forces characters to remain within the drama of a story) but almost as if it were a character in it of itself. There’s a reason, for instance, why there are so many popular stories set in high school. The more defined a setting is, the easier for the writer to manipulate the lives of the character. Need Jennifer to stay late after school? Give her a band recital or detention. A tight setting also makes chance encounters far more believable, which can be very useful in furthering plot. A person’s life and where they live are intertwined. Setting can come from character, and character from setting. Before you write a novel, be sure to take a little time and think about all the implications of the place they live.

Traits

This is where, as an editor, I see the most mistakes. There are a lot of gorgeous people in both literature and film with no flaws whatsoever, wonderful bone structures and bodies that could make an angel jealous. Yes, there are very few stories where traits serve as the defining element of the plot, but they do exist: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Sleeping Beauty et cetera… The most important thing is that your descriptions work with the character you’re trying to create.

Avoid subjective descriptions like “beautiful” or “handsome”. You're much better off describing your character’s perky breasts or chiseled abs. Too many “tall” and “beautiful” have already popped up in pages of literature. If they’re beautiful, that’s totally fine, but let us see that from how the other characters in your novel react to them. Believe me, if your character is “drop-dead gorgeous”, we’ll find out soon enough. This goes to my second point.

Be realistic. Not every person in the world is a flawless sculpture. Your novel doesn’t need to star Quasimodo to be realistic. Let’s say your character is a beautiful, successful businesswoman in downtown Manhattan… Is there anything wrong with having her put a little cover-up on a blemish before leaving the house? Even the tiniest of blemishes could help you define who your character is. What if she hates a minor pock-mark on her left cheek, and does everything she can to hide it? That could go a long way toward showing her perfectionist nature, or even a small hint of insecurity buried beneath her successful exterior. Now, isn’t that more interesting?

Don’t go overboard. A lot of writers think that, in order to have a successful character, you need to describe their physical appearance in great detail. I completely disagree. I’m a minimalist with my descriptions. I rarely describe what isn’t useful for the story. I could go on for pages about how one character is slightly taller than another, or how another has thin, slightly discolored eyelashes… but honestly, who cares? If it affects their behavior or the way they view themselves, write it. If it doesn’t, leave it out.

Don’t force description. There is no rule that says that you must describe a character the moment they are introduced. If a secondary character is introduced as Robert is running away from a mob of zombies, then, dear God, don’t spend two paragraphs describing his “slightly unstable gait” or his distinguished nose.

Know the traits you don’t include. Just because your readers don’t need to know that Robert is 5’11” doesn’t mean that you, as the author, don’t need to know. Knowing these things makes it harder for inconsistencies to arise. If Lidia’s hair is brown on page 4, then it should be brown on page 204. The traits you should know include, but are not limited to: age, eye color, ethnicity, first language, hair color, hair length, life goals, height, personality flaws (and “none” is not an acceptable answer), make-up use, typical style of dress, style of shoes et cetera… How would they react if a transient stared them down in the street? If they witnessed a mugging? If their boss made an inappropriate sexual comment? You should know all these things and then some.

Give your character a complex personality. In an action movie, it’s okay if all your character wants is to get his daughter back from a group of kidnappers. In a novel, it isn’t. Don’t let one thing define who your character is. People aren’t just “moral” or “goal-driven”, they are nuanced and complex individuals. Occasionally a loving father will notice the body of a 16 year old. An otherwise well-organized person might have a messy car. It is nuance that defines many of the world’s best characters. Neo may be “The One”, but that doesn’t keeping him from doubting himself. Gatsby may be an incredibly loving man, but he was still involved in crime. It’s the alcoholic in charge of a fortune 500 company that interests us, not the pretty boy with bulging muscles who always says the wittiest thing he can say in any situation. Treat your characters like they are human, and your writing will flourish.

Writing Prompt

Send in the planning for your characters, and I’ll help flesh them out!