A Better World in Birth

I’m a member of a local writers’ group which alternates between critique of each other’s work and exercises. Last Night’s was on ‘world building’.

As someone who writes science fiction and fantasy (among other genres) I do quite a bit of work on building the world in which my stories are set (although I do cheat by having multiple stories in the same world to save time – and also look at the world that has been created from different perspectives).

I’ve never been part of the slide rule school of SF where the setting is the reason for the story rather than the story being the reason for the setting. When done badly that can be unreadable although there are authors who manage to combine accurate science with good characters. Last night’s session encouraged us to think of the characters first and then see what journey they would go on being part of the world we had imagined.

There’s always a bit of a chicken and egg issue when conceiving a story – does it start with a character, a setting or a plot? The truth is probably all three – I will start with an idea and that quickly suggests the elements. Sometimes a story starts with a title (generally a pun) or an opening sentence that pops into my head.

Matthew Pugh (https://www.facebook.com/pughmds) provided us with a template and notes for our exercise which I found very useful in thinking more deeply about a character I already had in mind for a story set in a complex universe I had created for another tale I will probably start with. In particular I wanted a character who would stand in for the reader in exploring the universe from incorrect assumptions that could the be challenged. I especially wanted to use them as an exploration of prejudice against the alien as a metaphor for the ‘little England’ mindset. Fleshing them out helped considerably as it provides an opportunity to enrich the universe so that challenge and transformation can be more acute.

I wanted to write a comedy of manners, using interstellar diplomacy as a way of looking at the way spoken language is a very small window into the soul of the other – especially if e are trying to understand based on our own cultural template. Now I suppose I’ll have to write it.