Creating Worlds (Week 5)
The art of world building and creating realistic characters with emotional depth
Not all authors are planners when it comes to creating their stories (pantsers, for instance, are those who prefer to ‘fly by the seat of their pants’ rather than planning out their stories well in advance). I’d describe myself as a plantser, which is a bit of both. However, all fictional stories need depth in order to make them all they can be and help bring the words on the page to life.
If you create content for your story worlds in advance, or even during the process of writing, it can help you create a rich and detailed setting with more realistic characters. You’re probably less likely to take shortcuts if you take your time world-building, and often that shows through in the story you’re writing. It’s more relevant to some stories than others, for instance it might apply more to fantasy than romance stories, and novels more than novellas.
There are a range of factors you can plan out for your story including species and races, the technology level, environment, settlements, terrain and important locations, infrastructure, languages, history, politics and government, magic systems and mythology. Many of those pieces can come together to help make the world in your stories feel more real and position your characters as real people interacting with things a normal person might. It can help to imagine a typical day in the life of your characters, though the events in your story might differ from that as ‘events happen’.
Then when you’re creating the characters themselves, you could consider whether they’re heroes, villains or somewhere in between, minor supporting characters, anti-heroes or something else. Other details include their appearance, age, name, strengths and weaknesses, flaws, mannerisms, goals and ambitions. Also the expectations of the genre for characters, what readers love to see, and what types of characters work well with your story. They can have a big effect on determining the type of story you will tell.
There are great places to world-build, from notebooks and paper, to software, series bibles, wikis, and just about anywhere else that works for you. I like to take a notebook to the library sometimes and world-build there. There are resources that can help, from books like mini-encyclopedias of information for fantasy or science fiction writers, web sites (such as name web sites, and countless resources for researching history, politics, places and people), and AI (if it’s something you choose to use). You could dictate your world-building if it’s convenient for you.
Some people write down notes when they’re world-building, and others might use drawings and diagrams. I’ve used all three kinds of planning when I’ve been world-building for different writing projects. It’s just a matter of finding what works for you, what helps you create your book more effectively, and what you enjoy the most.
I know these are just some ideas thrown out there but hopefully they’ll help lead you in the right direction - which is the one that works best for you. We’re all different and go about things in different ways, so no one approach is going to work best for everybody.
Author Tip for the Week: Write down what type of world and characters inspire you the most. Which is the kind you most like to see in books and makes you want to keep reading? Could these be a good option for your own books?
Free Publishing-Related Design Resources
This week I’d like to share this set of Rose Gold Glitter Grunge digital backgrounds I made. I create design resources like digital papers, clipart, bookmarks, sublimation designs, mockup images and more. I’m going to share a design freebie in my Substack newsletter here each week. This one’s a little less publishing-related, but there’s nothing to say you can’t use it for publishing-related purposes. I’m making these available for personal or commercial use. You must not sell or redistribute the original files as is, or without significant changes.
Here’s a free set of Rose Gold Glitter Grunge Backgrounds for this week’s Substack:
You can download these for free from my Icedrive account. If you’d like to check out some of my other design resources, you can find them here.
I Have a New Release
I just released Kidnapped by the Faerie Prince today. Check it out here.
Books by Friends and Awesome Writers I Know
Check out Her Damaged Heart by Miranda Martin. You can find it here. It was only released on the 30th September.
Thanks for reading my newsletter this week and also thank you to all the new people who have subscribed. Be well everyone,