Aunt Noony’s Five Tips for Worldbuilding

1. Decide in which world you want to set your story. As Xakara mentioned in her post, ANY world in which we write, be it the “here and now” or the “once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away” has its own rules and customs. Once you’ve decided where you want your story to be set, ask yourself some questions on behalf of your main character:

a. How do they make their money? If they are supported by someone else, how do they make the money that supports your character? Are there taxes? Tributes to pay? What skills do they need to make a living?

b. How do they live? Do they have a house in a residential area? Are they on a ship with hundreds of other individuals? Underground?

c. What do they eat? If it’s not set on earth, how does the food get there? Who produces it, and how is it transported from producer to table?

d. How do they deal with the climate? What is clothing like? What are the buildings like? Human beings are fragile creatures but have many ways of mitigating environmental impacts. Describe how your character deals with them.

2. What rules govern relationships? Is there marriage? How does it work? How do kinship paradigms work? In some cultures, for example, adult siblings of the opposite sex are allowed to be friends with one another but with no other individuals of the opposite sex outside the family. What about rules regarding children? How are children treated in your world?

3. What kinds of organizations have sprung up? Is this a simple society with clan and maybe village government? Is this a megalithic society with governments and complex politics? How do roads get built, taxes levied and collected, money produced and invested?

4. As you develop the answers to these questions, it’s useful to create a document that accompanies your work but that can be used as an encyclopedia of rules for you. You can call it what you like, but make sure it includes lists of characters and their details, relationships, government notes, and notes on anything else that you need to keep in mind. For example, if you are building a werewolf society, then you might have a section in your document called “Werewolves” that details who’s in charge, how succession is handled, what colors the wolves are, etc.

5. Do people swear? This can tell you a lot about a society and culture. For example, if you set your world on a planet that doesn’t have a Euro-American Christian majority as the dominant paradigm, then “God” or “Dammit” probably aren’t common swearwords. If you create an Egyptian society, you might use “By Anubis’s teeth” or something similar. It’s useful to come up with several options, from equivalents to the “F” word all the way down to something minor like “crap” or “darn.”

If you’re still stumped, try answering the questions above using your favorite worlds. Some places to start would be Star Trek or Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series.

Have fun!

The P.U.P strategy: Persistence Using a Plan

I. Snowstorm
You may have heard the story about the guy lost in the blizzard. It’s freezing and he’s shivering so hard he can barely walk. Its dark, the snow is swirling around him. He has no idea if he’s going in the right direction. Onward he pushes. On and on. Until he just can’t go any further. Finally, he gives up and lies down in the snow. He’s exhausted and goes to sleep. The next day, they find the man dead. Ten feet from his front door.

Let’s relate that story to writing, since I’m familiar with that. But I think the blizzard analogy has something to say about life too. What’s that? To just keep going, right? Well...maybe.

II. Mountains

Let’s leave the snowstorm. I’m from Tennessee, so I can’t really relate to that much snow.

Let’s go to the Smoky Mountains. Let’s pretend you’ve been dropped in the woods. You don’t know where you are, where you need to go, or how long it’s going to take to get there. So, is the plan to keep walking and walking — simply to persevere?

A. Easy
It could work. There are people who write their first book, and it sells right away. Or maybe they get a great job and climb the corporate ladder with ease. Or they marry their high school sweetheart and live happily for years. Maybe they have a great sense of direction — or maybe they’re just lucky. But most people, like me, you can wander around out there among the trees for years.

B. Stuck
What if, you write one book, or 2-3 connected books. Maybe in a hard to sell subgenre. Is continuing to revise these books, or continuing to send them out, really the way to go?

What about going from one job to another of the same type, always expecting to actually like this one. Dating the same type of guy, but it never works out. Hmm, maybe you’re wondering around in circles and need to figure out the direction you’re traveling in.

And speaking of direction.

C. Direction Changes
How about the person who goes in one direction for a while, decides that might not be working; changes to another, decides something else would be better, and goes in yet another direction. That would be me, BTW. I’ve written nonfiction, science fiction, horror, humor, mainstream, paranormal romance, contemporary romance, romantic suspense, you name it, and I’ve probably tried it. That, plus an “interesting” life, and is it any wonder it took me so long to get published.

It was actually my frustration that finally got me my first success. I’d gotten a few too many rejection letters, and I wrote a humorous little piece about rejection slips coming alive and harassing the writer. I sent it out, and it got rejected—the only time I laughed when I got a rejection. I ran out of places to send it, so I put it away. A couple of years later, I found out about a small press magazine called The Rejection Quarterly, and I thought if there was ever a place for “The Dreaded Rejection Slip” that was it. I sent it in, and it was accepted.

This experience taught me a lesson. You not only have to be persistent have to match what your strengths to what’s available out there. You have to have a plan.


III. My Plan
Let’s to back to the woods. Let’s say you’re pretty sure there’s a road somewhere toward the north. So you pull out your compass. Didn’t pack one? Okay, so you try to figure it out some other way. But you do pick a direction. Then you go in it. And keep going. No matter what the distractions, you keep your focus on the direction you’re going. But you also keep re-evaluating. You need a plan, but it shouldn’t be set in stone.

Looking back, what held me back for so long, in writing and in my life in general, was not dealing with my weaknesses, ignoring my strengths, and not matching my abilities to where I could most effectively use them — in my case the publishing world.

Everybody has different interests, strengths, abilities, and weaknesses. We’re all different, and that’s a wonderful thing! Don’t fight your differences; put them to work for you.

III. Your Plan
Okay, to get out of the woods, you have to decide on a plan and go with it long enough to really give it a chance.

For writers, the first question is romance, women’s fiction, horror, mystery, etc. Then what subgenre. For me, romance, paranormal, action, suspense, that’s what really gets me going. Look at what you read, and at the movies and television shows you watch. While I was busy beating my head against the wrong doors, I was watching mostly action and paranormal type movies and television shows. When I finally tried a paranormal, I loved the writing process, and immediately got interest from editors and agents.

I recommend looking at what you read and watch (television and movies). That should give you an idea of what would be best for you to write, or what area you should be looking for work. Look outside the box. Like medicine but don’t have years to become a doctor? How about lab tech, receptionist at a doctor’s office, transcriptionist?

Still, you may have to write a lot of books, date a lot of guys, and try a lot of jobs to finally figure out where you belong in the big bad world. Just be careful out there.

IV. Conclusion
Do some soul searching. Decide YOUR direction. Then go and keep going for long enough to give your direction a chance. You may decide later that the road really isn’t to the north, and then you have enough information to decide whether to go south, east, or west.

Whatever you decide, I wish you all the best!

Cheryel Hutton
www.cheryelhutton.com