Cindy Tomamichel's Blog: World Building, page 7

World building: Water

Water is the universal solvent, enabling life on Earth, and dissolving the hardest rock to soil over time. It can be the lightest mist, a cloud scudding across a sky so blue it hurts your heart. A mighty torrent of water, tearing giant trees from the banks, washing man and beast before it in a flood to end all floods. A storm that tosses the ships into kindling, destroying the dreams and hopes of an explorer, and sending the sailor’s families into dire poverty. A chill rain with sleet or hail, that shields the approach of a hooded assassin. Or a lazy river where two boys punt a raft down and gossip with all the time that youth possess.

Does your world have all the water it should have? Oceans fed by rivers, swamps in low lying areas, springs or underground reserves? Does your story reside exclusively in one of these worlds? I read many years ago a story set entirely underground, where the people had evolved echo location and infra red vision to adapt to a world of total dark. I wish I could remember the title. Jeanette O’Hagan in her “Blood Crystal” series imagines a world of underground dwellers. Do demi gods dwell in the waters? Naiads, Poseidon and mermaids are just some of the magical creatures people have imagined for water dwellers.

Or is it a far distant planet where water is at a premium? “Dune” is set in a desert world, as is Randall Garrett’s “Gandalara” series where the animals have evolved a way to concentrate urine to reduce water loss. This feature was used to enable the main character to realise he was no longer on Earth. Other imagined worlds are nearly all water, sometimes involving Atlantis. One interesting book on this is the “The Watch Below” by James White. A great writer of scifi, he tells the parallel story of humans trapped in a WW2 ship underwater for generations, and a water dwelling race of aliens travelling to earth in a multigenerational ship.

Another interesting aspect that may be of interest to scifi or apocalypse authors is the past evidence of water, or heritage issues from past industrial practices. The canals of Mars have had a lot of play in novels including Robert Heinlein’s, “Red Planet Mars” and James Blish talks a lot about the Martian landscape and the frozen subsurface permafrost that is a lifesaver in “Welcome to Mars”. Permafrost is also used to preserve food in “Mammoth Hunters” by Jean Auel, where storage is dug down into the tundra. However industrial and agricultural contamination today is a real issue, and already a lot of groundwater is polluted and often unfit for human consumption for many lifetimes. For post apocalypse authors, the finding of a well in even a remote farmhouse by their dehydrated characters may be just the start of their problems.

Water can also be a source of wealth in a land where it is a scare commodity. Does this affect or create a social structure? Or does abundant rainfall on fertile soil make life too easy? What happens when war over runs a peaceful agricultural region? Or desert takes over a mighty civilisation as climate changes? Or glaciation grinds across the planet with a new ice age? There is a great short story, well ahead of its time –   “Cocoon,” by Keith Laumer in Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Dec 1962. The entire human race is in life support cocoons, attached to screens and social media, and ignorant of the impending doom posed by the glacier that will wipe out everything.

So water is important for existence, and can play a focus in a world you build. From ships to drinking water, to navigation to climate change and evolution, water is there, playing a pivotal role.

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World building: Landscapes

Often the favourite part of a fantasy book is the map. A land of the imagination, full of cities with strange names, mountain passes guarded by trolls or otherworldly creatures, deserts of unending pain, oceans teeming with mermaids and sea monsters. Who doesn’t remember the map of Middle Earth or of Narnia? It requires but the smallest particle of imagination to thrill at the words ‘here be dragons’ from maps of a century past. Do the daring questers know what lies ahead? Or is the friendly wizard leading them into doom? What happens when the astrogator dies, and none can navigate the star charts? Such is the power of landscape in a novel.

There are a few map drawing programs online, so it is worth checking a few out.  However, the first place to start is with a pencil and sheet of paper. One fantasy novel I wrote for Nanowrimo (National Write a Novel in November) had a rough sketched map as the entire plot outline. My valiant hero had to battle thru pirate infested oceans, fight sentient apes, while his sister defeated an ancient mage and learnt of her own magic from a forest Druid. But having the map let me play with ideas, and I could see the plot as he trudged and fought through the landscape.

It is well worth looking at some maps of Earth and thinking about what sorts of environments you want. A desert? Tropical forests? Waterfalls? Mountains? Swamps? These don’t just pop out of nowhere, the landscape is a product of a lot of time acting on the underlying geology, which itself is dependent on the atmosphere, water levels, minerals, and the amount of volcanic activity. For instance, the soil of Australia is quite nutrient deficient due to the long period of time of erosion without any volcanic activity to add a layer of fresh rock. The plants have adapted to cope with this, and indeed often die if too much fertiliser is added to the soil. In contrast, the soils of volcanic islands are often deep rich clays that support an abundance of vegetation. Climate naturally plays a part as well in creating these differences.

However, let’s start with geography 101. For Earth, the upper layer containing the continents etc is a series of plates, that move gently over time due to currents within the magma layer they float upon. These large plate move some centimetres a year, and some expand, some grind against each other and yet others exist where one is being pushed below the other. At these edges are all sorts of interesting things such as deep sea trenches, spontaneously appearing volcanic islands, earthquakes and mountains.

Geology 101. There are three basic types of rock. Volcanic, coming from a volcano, such as basalt. Plutonic, the deeper levels of a volcano that cooled slowly to form crystalline rocks like granite. Sedimentary rocks are the first two ground small into pebbles, sand and clay particles and then recompressed into rock such as sandstone. Metamorphic rocks are any of the others, but cooked, folded, twisted or chemically changed by volcanic activity. Each of these types of rock can form different landscape elements, have a different chemistry and hence nutrient level and this leads to different soils and therefore plants.

So take for instance a mountain. It could be an extinct or active volcano, or part of an ancient sea bed thrust high up such as the Himalayas. During uplift, cracks appear, rivers change course, and the rock slowly starts weathering into soil. Pockets of plants, lichen flourish, leading to further rock breakdown, and deeper soil. The rivers erode particles, and the rocks roll against each other, breaking down into sands and mud. Over time these will be buried by more layers, and start becoming sediments. Animals and plants die in the mud sand become fossils.

But how does this relate to fantasy and scifi? A realistic world is one full of plot elements to exploit. Caves, underground water, springs, deserts, forests and their wildlife and even adapted humans can all be part of your story. “Dune” by Robert Hubert used a desert world with spice mines and giant worms. Star Trek spent many an episode discovering strange planets and their inhabitants. Even space itself may be full of surprises. How many magnetic fields, sentient clouds and strange phenomenon did Star Trek find in their five year mission?

We can also delve into the effects of magic on a landscape. Ancient mage wars can lead to strange areas of unstable magic and odd mutations. This is best described in Terry Pratchett and the grounds of the unseen university and the ramtops mountains. Piers Anthony had a large area in the Xanth series where magic was unstable, leading to disorientation and worse. The same can be applied to more reality based stories, with the after effects of wars, ecological devastation, meteorite impacts creating a rich background. Magical portals are another feature much exploited in time travel novels, most often involving stone circles, but sacred groves are another used portal.

Another aspect to consider is the way people interact with the landscape. This goes beyond exploitation such as agriculture and city building, and into the emotional and spiritual connection of people with your World. In our world there are many examples you could use, from Celtic belief in a god or spirit of springs, Roman and Greek gods of pretty much everything, to Australian Aboriginal stories of the Dreamtime that helped them understand and remember the landscape. One fine fictional book that shows the depth of human and landscape interaction is Stephen Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant series. Not everyone’s favourite read, but he weaves the landscape and the people’s ability to manipulate earth power into a tight epic work.

So a bit of basic reading is well worthwhile to give yourself a little knowledge of how our world and then your world works. What stories do your people tell of their land?

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World building : Animals, plants and evolution

Designing a new world with its own creatures and plants is a lot of fun. There are so many resources available online that research can be a bottomless pit. However, this depth of knowledge will shine through in your writing. Just try not to show off your knowledge with vast info dumps, not all readers will be as enthralled with the details of amphibian evolution as you might be. You can always list your references in an appendix, and discuss it at more length there, or mention your fascination in your blogs and social media for instance.

Evolution is the process of change, as mutations in plants and creatures develop. The passing on of these mutations relies on successful reproduction. Success is dependent on the ability to find food and a mate. Much of this then relies on exploiting a niche in the environment that has less competition or developing a tool or method that is more successful than competitors. So, in fiction, the area is ripe for your imagination to populate your world. Goodness knows, there are enough fascinating examples of environmental niches in our world to provide some excellent examples.

Start with the geography. Is it an earth like planet or something quite different? Does it need terraforming? Robert Heinlein in “Farmer in the Sky” did a wonderful job in depicting the job of a farmer on Ganymede, with all the social problems set against the issues of terraforming a moon. If it is a fantasy, is it Earth in the past or a parallel mythical past Earth? Against Earth normal plants and animals you can have other creatures such as dragons, but do spend some time thinking how they would fit into the overall environment. Matthew Reilly in “The Great Zoo of China” used the plethora of earth legends to speculate the existence of dragons, and then used that to craft a full on action novel that makes you wonder if it could be real. Michael Crichton’s “Jurassic Park” series and “Congo” rely on animals, whereas his novels like “Prey” speculate on future mutations from lab experiments.

But mutations can go another way. As many post apocalypse writers have speculated, radiation, chemicals, lab experiments gone wrong, or plagues provide a fine reason for genetic change. H.G.Wells wrote one of the first novels of lab experiments gone hideously wrong in “The Island of Dr. Moreau” in 1896. John Wyndham, “The Chrysalids” is a fine example of post-apocalyptic mutations and the society that grows from it. The Shannara chronicles by Terry Brooks also develops this theme into separate races and societies over an long time span. Conan spent quite a lot of time fighting sentient apes that had been mutated by sorcerers, or remnants of ancient races of lizard people.

Predator and prey relationships are another feature that can be included. Large cats -sentient or otherwise- are popular, and used by Andre Norton in space and fantasy, as well as “The Gandalara Cycle” by Randall Garrett. But predators can come in many variations, with giant worms popular foes in Conan novels, and ravening insects in the terrible schlock horror books of the 80’s. They can be new ones, adapted to your environment , or known beasts with additional features. Giant spiders are a never ending source of horror for young wizards such as Ron Weasley, as well to hobbits like Frodo and Bilbo. One source of inspiration can be the microscopic world, and imagining them to human size.

Plants are another feature of interest in building a world. They are part of the landscape, and can be used to add detail and drama to a scene. David Eddings in “Redemption for Althalus” uses devil weed – a viciously thorny plant as a barricade in a siege and it is also medicinal. Have your hero trudge through stinging nettles, or feel the texture of the rough bark of a tree while their heart pounds watching the enemy. Walk through wild herbs and smell them in the air, or gather them and use them to wrap food in to cook at night, as Ayla does in “Clan of the Cave Bear” Earth Children series. Plants also have their own self defence mechanisms, with the carnivorous plants an excellent area to explore for ideas. There is a collection of short stories by Carlos Castaneda that covers a range of plant horror stories. Excellent, if slightly haunting. The 80’s also did a lot of research into plant auras and responses to voice, music and pain, which might also be a good area to find odd ideas. Alan Dean Foster’s “Midworld” uses plants as almost another character.

So a book can be richly imagined using the lessons of evolution of our planet, and the studies of other planets. The extremes of life on our earth such as hot pools, underground caverns, deep sea trenches and the microscopic world can provide a wealth of ideas. But don’t forget there must be a story. An imaginary world is a backdrop, and let your characters shine against it.

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World building: Creation

Writing is quite a personal thing, with authors each having their own idiosyncrasies and quirks to help them imagine and get the words on the page. Books may start in a dream, but like anything worth doing, take days that may stretch into years to get into the hands of a reader.

 World building will also vary depending on the writer. A writer may be an intense plotter, with character sketches and chapters planned out well before any writing happens. For many, the knowing of the plot in some detail helps them write faster, and with less chance of writing into a blind corner, where the plot fails due to some unforeseen event. For plotters, there is a lot of advice in the form of character interviews, plot outlines, the development of the story arcs etc. In some ways it is all too easy to keep developing the story and plot without really getting to the actual writing of the story.

In the same way, world building from the outside in, or building the world first is quite similar. For fantasy, scifi and historical fiction, much research can be done via the internet, facebook groups and reading, as well as sparking your own imagination. The minute details of a world can be time consuming, and perhaps somewhat self-defeating if there is a whole lot of history or culture that is created, yet not used in the book. Tolkien is a prime example of this, with pages of details on the world and history of middle earth. There would be many writers out there with a similar amount of detail on their worlds.

So nutting out fine details can be a good thing and also a bad thing. In terms of time, you can only pry so much out of the day, and in the end, getting a book finished is a very satisfying thing. Are those minute details really essential? Often readers will skip too much detailed description, or can imagine it themselves. It makes for a slow read if there are pages of stuff about some war three hundred years ago. That’s nice, but you still made it up, so you really need to make people care about it as much as you do. As fantasy, scifi and historical are firmly based in a world, readers will accept and enjoy more detail than many genres, but you do risk making the pace glacial. With attentions spans supposed to be declining, the ability to get away with info dumps on the history of your world is fading.

A detailed world does have many good points however. JK Rowling used hints to past events, piquing audience curiosity and paving the way for spinoff books and movies. Reading a small detail in a book is a rare treat for some readers who cherish little nuggets of information about for instance the taste of chickweed in a Celtic salad, or how heavy a sodden woollen cloak feels, or the flavour of herbs in mead. Devoted readers will want more and more detail, so you will be able to provide that! There is also the sense of security in writing from a point of complete familiarity with the world – you know the feel of the streets, the smell of the tavern or the layout of the controls in the rocket. Remember Samuel Vimes in Terry Pratchett works, where his cheap cardboard soled shoes let him feel the ground, and identify the street by the types of paving? Not only is this a marvellous example of world building detail, it also pointed out social and economic issues, as well as personal memories, financial issues and the character of Vimes himself. A lot of things flower in that description, and one is never bogged down in the details that Pratchett would have had in his head.

The other type of writing and world building is from the inside out. This is where the plot and characters are foremost in the authors mind. This is possibly a technique favoured by writers who call themselves pantsters, in that they write without plans, letting the characters take them along for the ride. Fast paced authors like Matthew Reilly skimp on the detail, preferring to use drawings and the reader’s imagination to flesh out the world. However the use of description is a popular tool for pacing, where a bit of detail can be used to slow the pace and let the reader catch their breath. Michael Crichton balanced it well in novels like Jurassic Park and Timeline, where the world details where needed, but the action never really slowed, but punched through the scene description.

The finer details may be added in during the editing stage. This avoids any slowing down of the writing or distraction of the process of creation. Notes in another file, or *** markers and a note in brackets in the text will aid in later editing. The trouble with this may be that the imagination rides roughshod over facts, and this may cause problems later on.

As each writer is different, so too will the degrees of world building differ. A read of a science magazine may spark a story idea, or a vaguely remembered fact will send you delving into research. Some will need a lot of detail to start, others require very little. Others will write and research at the same time, using new research to create new plot twists or character quirks.

One final thing is worth mentioning. It is worth recording your research sources. Firstly so you can check your memory, but also to acknowledge references to avoid any plagiarism accusations. In these days of ready access to google, readers may easily check a fact, and an incorrect one can make one doubt the whole book. Yes it’s made up, but people do still get annoyed by obviously incorrect details, and they won’t hesitate to tell you so in reviews.

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Book review: Feast of Sorrow

Feast of Sorrow: A Novel of Ancient Rome by Crystal King

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A marvellous book with a tightly woven plot of food, love, money, danger and death. Set in ancient Rome, the novel follows the slave cook to Apicius.

Fans of ancient Rome will enjoy this book. But it is a story first and foremost, and the setting and historical details are used to weave a story that is very hard to put down.



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New Release: 5 Minute Vacations

I have a new book coming out on Feb 9th, 5 Minute Vacations.

It is a series of tranquil descriptive scenes, each written to draw you into the scene, and give you a few moments away from daily stress, or when you just need a break.

Who would enjoy this? Anyone stuck in a commute, tired, stressed or needing a short break away from the every day. I also thought if you know people suffering ill health or in aged care, then this could also make a nice present to read when next you visit. It will be out in ebook, paperback and audio versions.

I am having a facebook event to launch it on the 9th Feb, so you are wecome to come along. There will be giveaways and everyone that attends will get a surprise little gift. Links below.

If you are an author, you are welcome to post about your books after the first half hour of the event. I would appreciate it if you could share the facebook post or tweet in the event page.

A little teaser below.

On Amazon: click here

Facebook event: click here

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Minute Vacations – now on a special preorder price of 99c – click here to order now

 

A sneak peak at what to expect…

Lunch 

You are sitting down to lunch with your best friends, under an old wooden trellis in the dappled sun. Grape vines with their large veiny green leaves offer shade, their rough old bark trunks telling of years of buttressing the trellis. Jasmine tangles through, starry white flowers perfuming the air. It is pleasantly warm, and an occasional breeze through the lawn sprinkler system brings a cooling current.

This is a reunion to treasure, friends once all together now reunite from far distant places.  The happy smiles, the greeting kisses, the exclamations over children gained and weight lost pepper the air, punctuated by the clink of glasses. Burbling gently as a brook is the background laughter of children, another generation of friends finding soul mates, daring each other to run under the sprinklers, or sneak another slice of fairy bread. The table is covered in your brightest crockery, with wine and beer glasses, already only half full glow ruby red and frosty amber in the sun. Baskets of bread waft crusty warm smells towards you, accented by the acid tang of vinegar and oil dipping sauce. A couple of you prepared the food, stumbling over each other after a few glasses of wine, but favourite recipes falling into culinary delights enhanced with the joy of creating food for friends. Salads were tossed with offhand remarks, recent news seasoned the main course.

The compliments flow, and as the afternoon wears on, the laughter grows, old arguments are refreshed, and even older stories are re told. How many times have these stories been told? And with each telling a layer of memory and love is added until they have the glossy patina of a cherished antique, given and kept with love, passed on until the origin is lost. Full and content, you sit back in your chair, watching the happy faces of your friends, and realise that this is a perfect moment in time, a moment to cherish forever, shared with the people you love best. Life doesn’t get any better than this…

(Lunch was first published in “Simple Pleasures of Friendship” by S. Seaton.)

 

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For those that have not read Druid’s Portal yet, here is a link to the first chapter   DruidsPortal

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Author interview: Claire Buss

Today I introduce Claire Buss, a UK writer and author of the recently released book “The Rose Thief”.

What is your current project?

My current project is the sequel to my first novel The Gaia Effect. Previously my characters over came various obstacles and won the day but now we’re heading into Empire Strikes Back territory. My antagonist, Corporation, is angry and fighting back so things look bleak for the good guys. I’m still in first draft stage and haven’t finished that yet so I’m not entirely sure how the book will end.

Plotter or pantser? How do your novels come together? Is it different for a series?

I am a pantser, I prefer to just write and see where it takes me. Often the structure comes afterwards as I go through the first draft finding plot holes. My books tend to grow organically, I don’t know how long the book will be before I start writing or even what will happen to my characters in the end. My current WIP is my first sequel so my first attempt at a series. I plan to get the rough draft finished and then read The Gaia Effect again so I can refresh my memory on character traits and the narrative style of the book.

Who is your favorite hero and why?

I don’t have a hero as such. When I am finding things tough, I say to myself – just think about all the other people who have come before you and managed to get through it all. I admire people who never give up and persevere to achieve their goals in life. It takes a lot of grit and determination sometimes to stick to your guns and get what you want out of situations.

What authors influenced your writing?

Terry Pratchett was behind the inspiration for The Rose Thief but my other books weren’t consciously written in the style of any particular author. I do read as much as possible, my favourite genres are sci-fi & fantasy but I do also push myself to read outside of those and experience as many different styles as possible. Considering my writing is not particularly flowery or descriptive, I do enjoy reading 19th century literature.

What’s the worst writing advice you have heard?

Anything that starts with ‘You must do this’ or ‘Never do that’ because really there are no rules. Sure there are certain types of books you can write that fit a certain formula that will sell but only until the publishing houses move onto the next preferred format. You should write in a style that feels natural for you. That’s not to say you should ignore all writing advice but perhaps listen with an open mind, if you did everything ‘they’ said you’d have no book at all.

If you travelled in time, when would be your choice? Would you prefer magical or technological means of travel?

I’d like to visit lots of different eras, to see whether the scientists got the dinosaurs right and whether historians nailed the cavemen or the romans. But I’d prefer a TARDIS sort of approach, powered by magic perhaps? Can I have the best of both?

  How much time, effort and research do you put into worldbuilding?

For The Gaia Effect I tried to imagine how technology would’ve advanced in 200 years whilst also surviving a near mass extinction event that made much of the Earth uninhabitable. I drew a simple map of the city, trying to work out how to lay out the various buildings but for the sequel my characters travel more so I need to think about roads and landscapes as well as the size of the country they live in. For The Rose Thief I only imagined the parts I was writing about, the rest of the world still needs building which is exciting because I am planning more books in this universe.

Do any of your pets end up in a story?

I don’t have any pets currently. I used to have a tortoise, a hamster, a budgie, a black cat and fish. Although not all at the same time. And only the tortoise is still alive. But he doesn’t live with me, mostly because I have no garden and also because I am too scared to pick him up or handle him in any way, shape or form. So no – no pets immortalised in my fiction, yet.

What is the next project?

After the Gaia sequel, I plan to work on two novellas based in The Rose Thief world. I have several great ideas for new books so I’m a little bit spoilt for choice on my next book. I’m hoping to also release another short story collection to go with Tales from Suburbia and continue to submit short stories to various competitions and anthologies. Basically keep on writing.

People want to know more! Where can we buy the latest book and where are you on the internet?

All my books are available on Amazon. Here are the individual links.

The Gaia Effect – mybook.to/gaiaeffect

Tales from Suburbia – mybook.to/suburbia

The Rose Thief – mybook.to/rosethief

And then I have short stories in the following anthologies:

Tales from the Underground – mybook.to/uground

The Quantum Soul – mybook.to/quantumsoul

This is my website – www.cbvisions.weebly.co.uk where you can find more information about me, my books and sign up for my newsletter.

Here are my social media links:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/busswriter

FB Group: www.facebook.com/groups/BussBookStop

Twitter: www.twitter.com/grasshopper2407

Blog: https://www.butidontlikesalad.blogspot.co.uk

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Claire-Buss/e/B01MSZY649/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16197976.Claire_Buss

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/grasshopper2407/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWrKBeiBMQg_subFM9ot2vw

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-buss-329757134/

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ClaireBuss2407

Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/Grasshopper2407

 

Enjoy this blog? Have a think about signing up via my website or catch them as they fly around the ether on twitter or facebook . They will stay where they are pinned on pinterest .

In the meantime, click and have a read of Druid’s Portal

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Review: The Redemption of Althalus

The Redemption of Althalus by David Eddings

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


An enjoyable read, full of interesting characters and a detailed world.

I am not a big fan of epic fantasy with a large cast of characters, so I found the middle a bit lengthy, however the beginning and end were great. I thought the cat character was well done, and the best part of the novel although Althalus also grows on you.

An absorbing, if lengthy read.



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How to build a fictional world

A book is a wonderful and amazing thing. You hold in your hands the key to another world, a world that previously only lived in the mind of another person. Inside the imagination of the author live the characters, fighting and loving, the world being born and history happening. Wars, evolution, climate change and all sorts of weird and wonderful events. All entirely imaginary, and yet magical enough to first enthral the writer, then drag a reader into that world. Who has not looked up from a book, feeling the real world to be but a pale facsimile? Who would not leap through the door into the world or imagination, or dream about the wonders of another’s world?

    “Which of us had not felt that the character we are reading in the printed page is more real than the person standing beside us?” Cornelia Funke, author of the InkHeart series.

That is the magic and wonder of world building. While I am an author, I was most certainly a reader first, and always. The worlds of others are still as magical and enchanting to me today as my own are.

But what is involved in building a world? I have posted a few blogs on this topic during 2017, and will go deeper into the subject for 2018. I am indebted to many authors for many years of pleasurable rummaging in their imaginations, and the website http://www.well-storied.com/blog/an-introduction-to-world-building/  There are a number of books and blogs on this subject, however I will be focusing on the scifi, fantasy and historical issues, and referencing some classics and some lesser known older books to show you how other authors have delighted in the details of their worlds.

As a taster, world building 101 if you like! The building of a world, and a book for that matter can start from the inside or the outside. Ok, what does that mean? You can start with the story, the characters burning to be written and already conjuring scenes. Then you can craft a world that answers the needs of your plot. This is from the inside out. An example is JK Rowling’s description of seeing Harry Potter in her imagination and then crafting a world to house the story.

The other way, and this may well be a hangover from dungeons and dragons and other role playing, is from the outside in. Build the world in detail, then a plot and characters arise from the world you have built, its history, customs and where the privies are. Tolkien for instance would fit into this category, building an entire language before writing a story set in middle earth.

Which way is for you? I think you probably already know which way you prefer. However, it is worthwhile to consider the pitfalls of both methods. Building the world first may be an absorbing way to procrastinate ever actually writing the story. But it does add a depth of rich detail. Building the story first may lead to a lack of description in scenes, or running into rewrites due to some problem with the world. But the story is written, and you can add in depth of detail later.

            “If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awoke – Aye, what then?” Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 

What aspects of world building would you like to see covered?

 

Enjoy this blog? Have a think about signing up via my website or catch them as they fly around the ether on twitter or facebook . They will stay where they are pinned on pinterest .

In the meantime, click and have a read of Druid’s Portal

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Author interview: Ramcy Diek

Today I introduce Ramcy Diek, a Dutch author writing in English, her debut time travel romance novel “Storm at the Keizer Manor” released in November 2017.

What is your current project?

First a little snippet about myself: Thirty years ago, I fell in love with the United States while traveling around in an Oldsmobile station-wagon with my husband. We are both born and raised in the Netherlands. Together, we visited all the amazing northern states and landed in California where we got stuck for five years.

Eventually, we found our way to the Pacific Northwest. We built up our business and raised our boys into amazing young adults with their own careers. During this time, I made a slow transition from reader to writer of contemporary, enjoyable, laid back, and romantic stories.

Right now, I’m working on my second novel, Eagle in Flight, and hope to publish it in November 2019.

Who are your favorite fictional couple and why?

That’s difficult. All I can come up with are Forrest and Annet, or Alexander and Annet. The fictional couples from my debut novel. J The why is probably obvious? When I finished my book, it was so hard to leave them behind.

What’s the craziest thing you have googled in the name of research?

The last thing I researched on google that is kind of weird was “construction noise”. I was surprised there was little information about it.

What authors influenced your writing?

I would say that was Sidney Sheldon. In my late teens, he was my favourite author, and I think he still is. Maybe because he writes about capable and strong women. The kind of woman I like to be, and write about.

What’s the best writing advice you have heard?

Although this is not only related to writing, I would say it’s probably my father’s advice “to always finish what you start. If you don’t, you will never accomplish anything.” Besides all the support from my editor, his words were probably what gave me the final push to self-publish my first novel.

If you travelled in time, when would be your choice? Would you prefer magical or technological means of travel?

If I had the choice of time traveling myself, I would like to do it in a technological way, so you know how to return. J I would prefer to travel to the future. The past always seems gloomy to me.

If you could go anywhere for your next holiday, where would it be and why?

My favorite vacation is traveling through the United States and Canada with our motorhome. I love the feeling of the open road. After we retire, I would like to ship our camper to Australia and explore every corner.

How did you come up with character names?

In my debut novel the protagonists are Forrest and Annet. When I was pregnant in 1994 I wanted to name my son Forrest, but then the movie Forrest Gump came out and I changed my mind. Annet is the name of my cousin who died far too you from cancer.

Last names I randomly find in the phonebook. They are not important to me.

What is the next project?

My next project is my second novel Eagle in Flight, about a young woman who gets tricked into marrying a gay man.

People want to know more! Where can we buy the latest book and where are you on the internet?

Website:  www.ramcydiek.com. I’m busy as a business woman, writing reviews, and working on my novels. Therefore I choose not to have a blog.

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/RamcyDiekAuthor

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774M22DM/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RamcyDiekAuthor

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16967126.Ramcy_Diek

 

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