Creating Worlds
One thing that is fun about writing is not only do you get to create your own people with their foibles and strengths, if you write science fiction you can also create your own worlds and societies. You can posit certain conditions and then think about how would people (we’ll assume humans to keep it simple) handle that environment. It’s not like there aren’t endless examples of how we’ve done it on earth. Cold and icy – what kind of clothes and dwelling? Hot and steamy – what kind of lack of clothing and dwellings? Dry and arid – where does the water come from and at what price? And if it is an Earth normal kind of place, tilt for seasons and all, maybe a moon, what kind of societies would the various environs create. You can almost crib-sheet the earth…just saying.
When I started writing the “Tienna’s World” books I started at a point where humans had been there long enough that they didn’t realize they came from somewhere else. And in the first two books it didn’t matter that we/they didn’t know that. It was science fiction/fantasy (more the fantasy) without dragons but with REALLY BIG BEARS and telepathy, at least in some inhabitants. As I went forward in their time line I ended up going backwards, if that can make sense. A few of the children from those first two books discover their ancient ‘roots’ when they find a colony station set up in their very northern region. Now they have a dilemma as to what to do with this knowledge that isn’t generally known and much more powerful than their bows/arrows/swords and maybe a few explosive weapons. To whom do you give control of that knowledge? And throw in a time jumping agent from another place, things can get interesting.
Then there is the ‘origin story’ books. Of those I have the first one fully formed but unpublished, the second is started but not finished, and the third resides in my head only. I want to refer to them as “Arrival”, “InterMezzo” and “Departure”.
And between the arrival ideas and the first books I wrote, Tienna’s World has histories and cultures that can be explored; four thousand years in my estimation. Long enough to have lost memories and technologies and develop others.
And each environment has produced an adapted culture, The Riders on the open Grasslands that are nomadic and move with the seasons, The Sailors along the coasts and the more reactionary Bachern cultures in the northern parts where life is not as easy and hanging on to the ‘old ways’ is more adaptive.
As a result I have so many different ideas of what stories there could be. I’ve just got to settle down and write and not jump from one to the other.
So far, 2 and 1/2 have been published in Amazon. “Dream Warrior” (the first that started this whole rabbit hole thing), “Uptimers” (where my husband said, “Can I borrow a couple of your characters for a book idea I have?”) and “Bait” (which is what happens after you’ve bought into your husband’s time jumping world). The 1/2 refers to “Uptimers”, which is not purely my book.
What’s next? I have a couple of books somewhere between “Dream Warrior’s” time and the beginning that might be ready to publish. Sort of the ‘middle ages’ for Tienna’s World. So many stories and possible cultures to create. And I really need to return to the ‘origin’ stories and finish them up.
If you know your world and your people, it is almost inevitable what will happen next and suggestions of how they got there in the first place.
And of course there are always the plot twists, lol.
