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While I doubt many of us will ever reach the detail of Tolkien, I find world building an exciting part of writing and often surprise myself with the detail that goes into it that no one will ever know abut because it doesn’t make it into the book.
A few examples: Phoenix serves 4 meals a day rather than the traditional three (in the US at least) because smaller portions over the day reduces over eating and obesity. Both Ana and Alaya are control freaks and would go into this level of detail for something they care about as much as the orphanage.
The U-turn lane. Nevaeh, the capital, has U-turn lanes. Having just test driven a car and missed several exits resulting in three U-turns to get back to the dealership, I was once again grateful for U-turn lanes. For those of you who do not live in Texas, a U-turn lane is a designated lane to the far left of the access road to the highway whose sole purpose is for people to get off the highway and avoid two red lights otherwise required for left turning and going back down the opposite direction on the highway. They didn’t have these U-turn lanes in Kansas City where I went to college, and boy did I get lost. GPS is a wonderful, life saving invention, without which I would be unable to drive.
How do you build the world for your stories? Do you write it down or is it all in your head? How do you decide what makes it into your book and which parts only you will ever know?
-Eliabeth
Ermilia 
I write a lot of fantasy with characters that travel around so I usually draw a map and mark out all the places.
I can’t keep all the details I need in my head bexcuse I know I’ll forget it. I wrote everything down. It comes from being a compulsive list maker, lol.
I’ve had to turn into a compulsive list maker for certain things, certain character’s superstitions, birthdays, invented holidays. We tried to create a map of the island, but despite Ermisenda’s graphic design skills, it wasn’t pretty. I hope yours came out better. Do you have anything published? I’m behind in my new to me authors challenge and I’ve read enough non-fantasy titles to justify another fantasy novel in the near future. I’d be happy to provide a review if you’ll donate an ebook to my collection.
I’m exactly the same. At some point I will always draw a map, I think they are critical to helping you understand the geographic influences that will effect the story. Also it acts as a great visual way to draw someone into your world.
Ermilia, I don’t think you have to make your map super pretty, at least not to start with. You can always draft a Cartographer in later on to make it pretty for you. If you think of how simple the old pirate maps that you see in many films. Just start with squiggly lines and symbols.
A couple of map’s I’ve drawn are up on my DeviantART profile http://worldbuilding.deviantart.com
Though, I must confess that I do get rather geeky when drawing my maps and place tectonic plates, wind movements and climate zones etc. etc.
all the best,
Nate
The World Building School
Wow your maps have tectonic plates? O.O Our entire story is confined to a single island (other places are mentioned but aside from the very beginning of Leo’s volume, none of the story happens in the outside world) so that’s far more detailed than we would ever need to get. Your attention to detail is stunning.
I’m afraid even the pirates had better maps than us, but it was helpful when discussing climate and appropriate clothing for different seasons, what would be in view from different angles etc.
Geeky is wonderful, glad to have you stop by and share. Don’t be a stranger 🙂
Haha yep, can’t beat a bit of geek 😛 and I see you’re point if your story happens mainly inside. For me I first sketched out a rough world map then zoomed in to a collection of islands and now I want to focus on building a city and make it as detailed as possible.
A lot of great stories happen with in a single city or even neighbourhood, Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter etc – but I think that is something many fantasy writers forget. We look at the epic fantasy adventures such as Tolkein’s and get a little power drunk on being able to build a whole world. So we head out and build it all. I’ve certainly been guilty of this in the past.
Nate
The World Building School
Hahaha; indeed. I knew better than to try and create a whole world with languages and all that jazz. I shall leave that to Tolkein. We decided against even creating our own currency and decided that since the US is the largest trade partner, and only country with a direct route into the country, that we would use USD for currency.
With few exceptions, the worlds for my stories are already built. I just travel there and write about what little of them I see, kind of like the blind men and the elephant.
I keep my share of hidden details, usually only writing what I feel is necessary for the story.
Ermisenda and I have talked about that for the second series. We want an excuse to travel on the company’s dime.
I confess I only think hard about world building when it comes to my more out-there sci-fi short stories. But then, getting the details right are what really brings the place to life – even if they are only mentioned in passing! I like to think about things like the way that the light feels, and the sound of the place, (and the smell if appropriate – although a native might not notice it) as well as geographic details.
I think that’s a great way to do it. Having had no sense of smell for most of my life, I often forget to include that. If you haven’t read Farsighted by Emlyn Chand, I recommend it. Reading through the perspective of a blind character in first person with no visual cues gave a unique view of the world.
Thanks – I’ll give that a go!
It simply lives there, and seeps out onto the page. What more can I say?
I think I said that… in about five times as many words… as usual. 🙂
That’s how I feel about my characters. I do my best to capture them rather than trying to write them. If a scene ever feels off, sometimes an entire idea has to get thrown out.
Alas, world-building is one of my weaknesses when it comes to writing which is especially terrifying when you consider I like to write fantasy-type fiction. My worlds require many post-it notes on the wall and some serious thinking and planning after the first draft. Fortunately, once I simplify my ideas, they work (usually) … my biggest flaw is that I tend to overcomplicate the worlds I build. I find that once I focus on key points and simplify the “rules” that exist in the world, the rest falls together. Coffee also helps.
Who all’s up for a FRPG starting with “Coffee also helps?” Max 5.
HAHA, love it!
I should know this, but it’s morning. Please define FRPG so I can smack my forehead and go “duh” later.
fantasy role playing game
I got RPG fine, the F was throwing me…
I just had the image of Peanut (Jeff Dunham) doing his “coffee coffee coffee” thing surrounded by little faries shaking from withdrawl.
🙂 In my last story, coffee was an elixir that reveals the secret of eternal youth, obtained from a man over a hundred years old of course. It would be fun to build a world centered around coffee… wait, that would be non-fiction.
ROFL!!!! Love you Anne, just love you.
Oh coffee, you speak my language. That and the post-its, heaven forbid you and I ever share an office, there would not be an inch of free space and many damp post its with coffee rings. Ermi and I write urban fantasy, so while there are rules, I don’t think it gets anywhere as complicated as the other fantasy subgenres. It’s a hard genre to write if you’re not good at world building, but it sounds like you found a system that works well for you.
I am writing Bible based fiction, so my world is already built. But, I don’t know much about that world. I try to research as much as I can but I have to make up parts too. I don’t think I could write fantasy but maybe i will try my hand at it some day.
I could never write historical fiction and I admire those who can. I don’t have the patience or desire to do the research required for that sort of writing; I much prefer to create my own. 🙂 I admire your willingness to research for your time period.
I love to research things. I can spend hours just researching some interesting topic. I can’t imagine life without books to read and research things with.
Me neither. Even though I don’t enjoy research, I’m a firm believer that those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it.
It depends. For me most of my fantasy settings are set in real places because I love mixing the worlds of fantasy and reality together. But when it come to places unseen I usually have most of it in my head and then take the rest from pictures and images I have seen
Sounds like you write urban fantasy too. 🙂 I like the bland of familiar and new.
World building has been one of my favourite activities since before I even knew what it meant! When I was a kid, my family got our first computer, a Tandy TRS-80 and we had text adventure games with it. While somewhat primitive, those games were just like interactive books to me, and I still love them. I started to write my own when I learned a bit of programming as a kid, and while those were INCREDIBLY primitive, my favourite part was drawing maps of all the rooms and dreaming up what was in each room and what creatures this world would have, how magic worked, and so forth.
I like the idea of being sure to focus on parts of the world that only I will ever know. That’s the glue that can hold it all together, and make it believable. As well as hopefully make the readers thirsty for more!
BTW, I’ve nominated you for a Sunshine Award! 🙂 http://cheyennehill.wordpress.com/2012/05/11/spread-the-sunshine/ Enjoy!
Oh my goodness, thank you Cheyenne. I agree that the more you have set up, even if you’re the only one who knows about it, makes your world more realistic because you’re less likely to make a slip.
It’s usually all in my head, springing from various sources like myths and movies… or even advertising. Everything I see. But then I choose only parts of my world I really think will go along the story I’m writing.
My world has been building itself I’d say since I’m 5 if I remember well. It has a history background, ancestors, battles, and now there lives my modern and actual story characters. It was named ‘Imagination world’ when I was really small, but now it bears the name of ‘Jadyland’ 😛
I know I’m crazy. I guess all writers are.
All fiction writers probably 😉 “Imagination World” sounds like something I would have called it. I was never any good at naming things. It took both Ermisenda and I to come up with Edaion (No Idea).