annastan

When we talk about world-building, many people think it only applies to fantasy. But my newest project is actually realistic fiction and there's still a fair amount of world-building involved. Since this is a topic that's very much on my mind right now, I thought I'd share a guest post on world-building that I did a while back for Alisa Libby's blog. Enjoy!

World-Building Through Character

One of the main things you hear about writing fantasy is that you have to spend a lot of time world-building, i.e. creating the rules and characteristics of your fictional world in order to make it vivid and believable. In her essay on world-building, Holly Lisle gives this important bit of advice: Build as you go. I would take this one step further and say: Build as you go, allowing your characters to lead you.

Here are some specific things to consider when thinking about how your characters' problems and relationships intersect with the world of the story:

Power
Who has the power in this world and where does your character stand in relation to that power? Is she a queen who is expected to lead her people into war to defend an ancient tradition? Or is he a peasant who isn't allowed to enter the palace? Once you know where your characters fit into the social hierarchy, you'll have a clearer sense of the restrictions and expectations that rule their lives.

Safety
What threatens your characters security? What would put him in danger? Perhaps the peasant boy mentioned above has a sister whos disappeared; he has no choice but to go into the palace looking for her. Where will he be taken after he's caught? And what happens to law-breakers in this world?

Abilities
Does your character have any abilities or traits that give him an advantage in this world? What if the peasant boy can sometimes see flashes of the future? In one of these flashes, he sees the outcome of the queen's impending war. He uses the information from his vision to buy his freedom and to find his sister.

Rules
When magic is introduced into fantasy with no clear rules about how it works, it can be frustrating to the reader. How come the boy's vision warned him about the queen's war but not about his sister's disappearance? Perhaps the visions only come when he's frightened, or the visions might be so vague that he can only guess at their meaning. Whatever the reason, it needs to be consistent throughout the story so that we understand when the magic works and when it doesn't.

Consequences
Not only does magic have to adhere to strict rules, there needs to be a price for using it, e.g. every time the boy has a vision, it drains him of his strength. The greater the price for using magic, the more difficult the character's struggle will be. What if the boy is the only person in the kingdom to have visions? Not only are there physical consequences for using the magic, there are also social ones. The boy knows others will use him for his ability so he's kept it hidden, but when his sister disappears, he has no choice but to divulge his secret.

Ultimately, world-building should give us a realistic sense of the story's setting as well as help shape the story itself. In this unique world, the characters go up against obstacles that can only be found here. The story becomes an intersection of character and place, so that the world helps propel the action forward and define what your characters must do in order to succeed.