K.B. Shaw's Blog: Neworld and Beyond, page 2

World Building: It’s in Every Novel

As a writer, when you hear the term “world building” you might think “Oh, that’s for science fiction and fantasy writers. It’s not for me.” But you’d be wrong. There are three distinct kinds of world building. One kind is found in every type of novel—from historical romances to space operas.

1) Created World — The Writer as God

This is the type of world building that most people think of first. Because created worlds do not exist, they are solidly in the realm of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In books featuring created worlds, the world itself is often as important as any character living in it.

One of the best-known and most fully realized created worlds is J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythical Middle Earth. It is a highly detailed world that encompasses the cultures of men, elves, dwarves, orcs, wizards, and, of course, hobbits. Tolkien created volumes of historical backstory, genealogy, and even a written language.

2) Altered World — The Writer as Instigator

An altered world is based upon the real world… but with a change. Altered-world books often fall into the realm of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror fiction, where the author instigates one or more changes to the real world and then asks the question, “What if…?”

Science fiction: In The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick imagines a world in which the United States lost World War II.

Fantasy: Harry Potter lives in a world where magic coexists with the muggle world.

Horror: What classic horror story do you get when you ask the question, “What if a man could create life?” Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

3) Real World — The Writer as Reporter

This is the most common type of world building. No matter what genre you write, if your story is set in the world as we know it, you are limited to the knowledge, social structure, physicality, and technology that exists at the time and place of the stories.

Writers of historical fiction must make an actual time and place come to life for the reader. For instance, Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series is classified as fantasy, but you could argue that it takes place in two real worlds: Scotland of 1945 and Scotland of 1743. Claire Randall begins as a woman with twentieth century sensibilities in postwar Scotland—our first real world. Of course, Gabaldon uses magic as a device to transport Clair to 1745, but once there, the heroine is in the same place at another time. Gabaldon’s challenge was to create two distinctive versions of a real-world Scotland.

Mystery writers can set their detectives in a country manor house, a suburban neighborhood, or the gritty bowels of a city. The California world that Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone lives in is different from Tony Hillerman’s Navajo reservation, home to Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. Robert B. Parker’s PI (private investigator), Spenser, prowls the neighborhoods and social circles of Boston, while Sandra Carey Cody’s Jennie Connors investigates murders in middle-class suburbia and the Riverview Manor. You identify the detectives with the world in which they exist.

So, even if you don’t write horror, sci-fi, or fantasy, your protagonist still lives within the confines of a world you have built. It doesn’t matter if your characters are cops, crooks, reporters, doctors, teachers, spies, or politicians, they come to life in a part of the real world unique to their own stories.

Are You Afraid of Sci-Fi?

“I usually don't read science fiction. I prefer mysteries [or romances, or thrillers, or…]”

That’s not something a writer of science fiction likes to hear—but I hear it a lot.

Are you one of those who are reluctant to read or write sci-fi? You shouldn’t be—no matter what genre you usually like.

Writing sci-fi requires the same skills as any other type of story—mystery (Isaac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel), romance (The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger), adventure (H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine), Western (The Dark Tower series by Stephen King), or thriller (Michael Crichton’s Andromeda Strain). You still need an interesting plot, characters with whom readers can become involved, and vivid settings—a world the reader can visualize. 

Most fiction is set in our world, be it the present or the past—it’s a version of the world as it is or was. Now here’s the single difference that makes a story science fiction: The world is different in some way from the time in which it was written. Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is simply an adventure story—a pirate tale of sorts—set in the world of his time, the 1860s. Verne made only one significant change: the pirate ship sails under the surface, not on top. And this one innovation opens up a whole new world for his readers. If the novel were written today, when submarines are commonplace, it would simply be a pirate story.

In A Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein’s exposé on the human condition, a future Earth is not that much different from ours. Heinlein’s conceit is the introduction of Valentine Michael Smith—the lone survivor of a Mars colony who was raised and nurtured by an alien life form. When he is brought back to Earth, we see ourselves through the eyes of a character who, although human, is indeed a stranger in a strange land. Valentine’s reaction to society and society’s reaction to him reveal a lot about humanity.

In 1920, the Czech playwright introduced the term robot in his landmark play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). His world was set in a factory that produced artificial life forms created to be a working/servant class. The drama explores the idea of what makes us human as the robots rebel, demanding that they be re-engineered so they can reproduce—so they can enjoy the ultimate expression of their love for one another.

To put it simply, the thing that can transform any genre story into sci-fi is the world the writer builds. Writers can introduce a single element into the world—say, a human who can travel through time—or they can create entirely alien worlds with unique cultures and languages. (“Conversational Klingon” is now available on iTunes and Amazon, among others). 

If you set Sherlock Holmes’ “The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans” in an alternate Victorian era filled with fantastical steam-powered contraptions, then mash-up with a little Jules Verne, you get P.C. Martin’s Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus.

It’s easy to change a mystery into a sci-fi story. Take Sandra Carey Cody’s sleuth, Jennie Connors, for example. Jennie’s life is firmly grounded in the real world of Memphis and the Riverview Manor retirement home. Our conceit will be a futuristic drug… A Riverview resident, who has been on life support in a hospital, ambles into the recreation room as if nothing was wrong—bright and alert after a miraculous recovery. She moves back into the residential wing. Three weeks later, she goes berserk, almost killing Jennie, before dropping stone dead on the floor. The story enters into the realm of science fiction when Jennie discovers that an experimental drug had been secretly administered to the patient.

So, would you like to give sci-fi writing a try? Here’s what you do: Take any one of your stories and look at the world you created. Next, find one imaginative way to change that world beyond what exists today. Now let your characters deal with the ramifications of that change. And there you have it: you've moved into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into… the world of science fiction.

RULES FOR READERS #1

Never start reading a fantasy series until the author has actually finished writing it.

RE: George R.R. Martin (Song of Fire and Ice), Patrick Rothfuss (Kingkiller Chronicles),and Scott Lynch (Gentlemen Bastards). C'mon guys, you have a duty to your fans. You can't keep them waiting 5, 6, 7 years between books.