When the opportunity came about to contribute an entry to Write-On I jumped. And of course, I’m going to talk about my favorite thing in the whole wide world: worldbuilding.
I like to build universes. As a child I would (much to my dad’s irritation) take reams of that old dot-matrix printer paper and draw atlases. On one side of the paper would be maps. On the other side would be data like that one would find in the World Almanac. In the fourth grade I drew a map of a continent for geography class and created a history for it, some of which was derived from the then ongoing First Gulf War. I didn’t think the map was that good, but the teacher thought it was so excellent she not only gave it an A, she hung it prominently in the classroom and gushed over it to anyone who would listen. I was a troubled kid, so this was a huge boost to my self-esteem. Sadly, I no longer have those maps. I really wish I did.
I’ve not stopped. I spend money on my world building now. I collect scientific papers specifically to make my worlds more realistic. I doodle maps during board meetings. I keep databases full of stars and their families of planets and asteroids, and I contemplate the people who live on those planets. I like worldbuilding so much that I neglect my writing.
I thought about then, how I’d write a diary about world-building. I could write a whole treatise on:
How far a planet must be from its star to support liquid water
Working all the various sciences into making my worlds consistent
And so on. I could write a language for the people who live there, or go really crazy and write many languages. I could guess at the weather (and I have spreadsheets that will do this for me to an extent.) I could draw maps of significant detail. I thought I’d give myself a challenge. I basically write science fiction. So let's try something contemporary.
All writers world build. Harlequin Romance writers? They world build. Even EL James built a world, in her own terrible way. Worldbuilding keeps writing consistent. Your characters will like it too.
Let’s say I want to write a story about a detective in a small town in Florida. I could invent a town, and base it on one that exists like Cedar Key, FL. I could use Cedar Key. I’ve never been to small-town Florida unless one counts Islamorada, where I spent many summers in my childhood and I’ve never been to the part of Florida where Cedar Key is located.
So what can we do if we’ve never been to a place that we wish to write about? In the past, one could wing it and hope no one would catch on or notice. Television writers still do this, but one of the most important things in worldbuilding is making sure your worlds are consistent.
I can draw a map of an imaginary town. This is more for me than it is for the reader although the reader will appreciate it. It’ll keep me consistent. An editor and/or a reader will really notice if my detective meets his quarry at Third and Main which intersect but then is chasing someone else down Third which parallels Main. Unless it’s a magic town, but consistency is the key here!
We can put an immense amount of detail into our map of our little town in Florida.
Or, we can use a real town. And now, you don’t have to go to the town to get a feel for the place. One day I was playing in Google Street View after I saw their car drive past my house. It occurred to me that I could use Google Street View to add serious verisimilitude to any story set in any town in the US, and probably more than a few places overseas. And Google Street View incorporates photos taken and uploaded by people living in and visiting those places.
There’s no 3rd and Main in Cedar Key, Florida, but there is a 3rd and D. And at 3rd and D is a grocery store. Perhaps that’s where our detective will meet his client, the mysterious and conflicted Shady Sue.
So I guess the best advice to anyone out there is:
-Have fun! It’s seriously fun for me to build my worlds. No matter what genre, have fun!
-Be consistent- your editor and your readers will thank you!
-Have fun! Yes, I said it twice.
-Don’t make your readers suffer for your research! (That is, avoid the temptation for an infodump. Avoid even your characters doing it. No one likes an “As you know.”)
I've placed a number of things into my Dropbox Shared folder that I've used over the years to aid in my worldbuilding. None of them are my property, and most I've long forgotten where I acquired them. The link to the shared folder expires in about 70 days. my dropbox shared folder link.
Here are some other world building links that I like and use, they are primarily science fiction related:
Reddit has a Worldbuilding community, although it seems to be populated by people younger than 19.
I've bought software from this company for use in drawing maps. I find their cartographer program complicated and ornery and very expensive. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it, but I absolutely would recommend Fractal Terrains. There are lots of fractal planet generators on the internet if you need a planet in a pinch. I've also bought from this company. The Star Mapping program is really really useful for plotting real-life stars. I would recommend it despite its steep learning curve. Also, Auto Realm is free.
You can generate a bunch of planets here, although the science behind this site has advanced quite a bit, and SolStation makes a good reference for anyone wanting a bit of realism.
If you're going to write a language, you can use one of the many generators on the net, or you can get it right and use this guide.
But the best guide? Your own imagination.
The exercise:
Write a scene set in the center of a town you've never visited, using Google Street View. Drop in, if you please, Jasper, the Callow Youth, and the Jewel. And maybe International Superspy James Buns. And some red-shirts.
Google Street view is best accessed via Google Maps. At the bottom right, there's a little gold man. Pick him up and drag him onto the map.
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