Worldbuilding. What an intriguing word. Just the sound of it makes me feel omniscient, all-powering, and well, a bit goddess-like.
When I think of worldbuilding, I tend to think of faraway planets, lost galaxies, and lands lost in a different time. But worldbuilding isn’t restricted to those places. In fact, worldbuilding can exist in the present. It can mean a world built within our own sometimes boring world.
For instance, I write paranormal erotic romance. Most of my books are set in the here and now and based in contemporary time with today’s verbiage and surroundings. But I’m still worldbuilding.
What’s the catch? I take the world and flip it on its side. Is it still happening right now? Yes. But is it worldbuilding? You bet.
Consider a world where shifters walk among us. Although they may bump shoulders with a normal human on the street, they are a part of a subculture, a hidden society, a world all its own. Do they live in our world? Or do they inhabit a world I created for them? The answer is both.
But let me ask you. Don’t all of us build our own worlds for our lives? People join specific groups and, thus, form another world, another reality, within their regular world. My worlds include the worlds that include my life as a wife and a mother. Yet one of my other worlds is the one where my wife-mom world gets put on the backburner, sometimes even forgotten, as I step into the world of writer. The only difference between the worlds everyone creates and the worlds created by writers is that writers get to make all the rules. Of course, that’s the part I enjoy the most!
So, tell me. What are your worlds like?
Beverly Rae
P.S. - Take a moment to visit my world at www.beverlyrae.com
1 comment:
You're so right about the multiple worlds we inhabit and the need for worldbuilding in "real world" or "close to real world" settings. Nothing kicks me out of a story faster than the sense that the writer ignored the rules of plausibility which must apply, even in fiction.
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