Worldbu orldbuilding ilding 101: Strange Str ange New Worl orlds ds Jason Erik Lundberg, facilitator Creative Arts Seminar Sec 2/3 Worksho Workshop p
Workshop Description Speculative fiction often takes place in otherworldly settings, such as Tolkein’s Middle-Earth, the planet Pandora in the film Avatar , or a slightly different version of the world we know. know. The details de tails that go into the imagining imagi ning of a fantastical setting allow the writer to both ground a narrative in reality and challenge the notions of that reality. This workshop will give participants the skills to be able to create their own strange new worlds as the backdrops for their fiction.
Who Am I? • Writer • Editor • Publisher • Instructor
From n00b . . .
. . . to published author
Why Setting? “Science fiction and fantasy offer one distinctive and significant element that is lacking in mainstream fiction: the creation of an imaginary setting. The reason many readers choose speculative fiction over mainstream is because they want to leave the cares and concerns of everydayy reality behind and be transported to a everyda completely different world..” —Bruce Boston
Why Setting? •
In mainstream fiction, setting is often used only as a backdrop for action and characterization.
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In speculative fiction, setting is intimately related to plot, character, theme, and the story as a whole.
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While story comes from character motivations, motivations, character must come from setting, and will be informed by it on every level.
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One setting can inspire an infinite number of stories of an infinite number of characters.
Why Setting? • • • •
Example: 1984 by George Orwell The world is in a state of perpetual war, even Outer Party members live in squalid poverty, Ingsoc and Big Brother insist on totalitarian control down to the level of thought, life is bleak and sterile. Winston Smith is complicit in this system, yet remembers the world before the rise of Big Brother and wants to return to that world; this informs every one of his actions throughout the novel. Place Winston in any other setting, and he would be a completely different person.
Worldbuilding • def.: Process of constructing an imaginary world, usually
associated with a fictional universe. It describes a key role in the task of a SF writer: writer : that of developing an imaginary setting that is coherent and possesses a history, geography, ecology, and so forth.
• Macro-setting: the overall world in which the story takes place (1984 eg. Air Strip One / Ingsoc / Big Brother)
(Tolkein olkein); ); Ank Ankh-M h-Morp orpork ork,, • Middle-Earth, Lord of the Rings (T
(Pratchett) chett);; Tatooine atooine,, Star Wars (Lucas); Pandora, Discworld (Prat Bas-Lag,, Per Avatar (Cameron); Bas-Lag Perdido dido Street Station (Miéville); Ambergris, City of Saints and Madmen (VanderMeer)
Worldbuilding t he • Must be a believable setting (note: “believable” is not the same as “realistic”) “realistic”)
• In science fiction: climate, physics, geology must be consistent with what we know of the universe
• In fantasy: enough analogous details to the real world even if magic exists, so as to not throw the reader out of the story stor y
(mimetic) ic) • Easiest type: The Real World (mimet Next-easiest easiest type: The Real R eal World But Slightl S lightlyy Different Dif ferent • Next(magical realism, near-future SF)
(secondar dary) y) • Harder type: Invented World (secon
Worldbuilding Avoid oid “Used Furniture” Fur niture” (Bruce Sterling) • Av • “Use of a background out of Central Casting. Rather than
invent a background and have to explain it, or risk reinventing the wheel, let’s let’s just jus t steal st eal one one.. We’ll set it in the Star Trek Universe, only we’ll call it the Empire instead of the Federation.”
estern:: The grizzl grizzled ed space captain swaggerin swaggeringg into • eg. Space Western the spacer bar and slugging down a Jovian brandy, then laying down a few credits for a Rigelian hooker.
Worldbuilding Examples Leaving there and proceeding for three days toward the east, you reach Diomira, a city with sixty silver domes, bronze statues of all the gods, streets paved with lead, a crystal theater, a golden cock that crows each morning on a tower. All these beauties will already be familiar to the visitor, who has seen them also in other cities. But the special quality of this city for the man who arrives there on a September evening, when the days are growing shorter and the multicolored lamps are lighted all at once at the doors of the food stalls and from a terrace a woman's voice cries ooh!, is that he feels envy toward those who now believe they have once before lived an evening identical to this and who think they were happy, that time. —from Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Worldbuilding Examples
• “Beluthahatchie” by Andy Duncan • The Scar by China Miéville
Spectrum of the Real Myth/ Legend Fantasy
Science Fantasy
Slipstream
Science Fiction
Steampunk Near Future SF
Realism
Slice of Life
Writing Writi ng Exercise Exercise •
First, take a few minutes to think about your macro-setting; this can be one you’ve already used before in your fiction, or can be completely new. Close your eyes if you need to.
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Next, on your paper make a list of the things that differentiate your setting from the real world. If magic exists, does it have a system of rules, or is it taken for granted?
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Finally, take 10-15 minutes, and write a half-page description introducing your macro-setting macro-setting (in the style of the previous Calvino quote). Don’t just rattle off your list; describe the setting as if a visitor encountering it for the first time.
Micro-Setting •
The more specific places where each scene takes place (1984 eg. Winston Smith’ Smith’ss apartment in Victor Victoryy Mansions, his cubicle in the Ministr Ministryy of Truth, the Chestnut Ches tnut Tree Café Café,, Roo Room m 101).
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This will be what you will actually include in your story; your macro-setting details will never be explicitly stated, despite the exercise you just did, but should be kept in the back of your mind as you write.
Micro-Setting •
In mainstream mai nstream fiction, I can say “museum” or “American diner” or “hawker centre” and a reader with enough contextual knowledge knowledge will get a picture of that place without needing too much detail.
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In speculative fiction, however, because your setting departs from the real world, you will need to use concrete telling details to both give a sense of that difference and to infer or hint at more large-scale implications of the macr macro-setting. o-setting.
Writing Writi ng Exercise Exercise •
Keeping your macro-setting in mind, brainstorm for a few minutes about the possible micro-settings in which a scene could take place (café, spaceport, high-rise apt, jungle glade, etc.). Make a list of these on your paper.
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Next, choose the micro-setting that seems most interesting to you and with the most potential for narrative conflict.
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Finally, take 10-15 minutes, and write a half-page description introducing your micro-setting. Try to use as many of the five senses as possible to bring the setting to life.
Plant & Animal Life Let’ss start star t with the easiest way to populate your worlds: flora • Let’ and fauna
• Think about your macro-setting • On your paper, make two columns: one for plant life, one for animal life
world,” think about the part of • If your setting is close to the “real world,” the world in which it is set; for example, Singapore is very different climate than Alaska.
• Take 5 minutes and list as many things as you can in each column
History • You don’t have know the entire history of your world (like JRR
Tolkein, who plotted out thousands of years of backstory), but you should at least have an idea of the past few decades (at least) before your story takes place
• For science fiction, this will help your reader to recognize the
changes that have taken place between now and the time of your story
• For fantasy, it will deepen the verisimilitude and believability of your setting
History • Take 10 minutes and brainstorm on some key macro-size events
that took place in the recent past before your story starts; write these down on your paper
• These events should have some bearing (whether directly or tangentially) on your main character’s character’s life
• Remember, these are big societal events (like the invention of medical nanobots, or a regime change in one’s home country)
Culture and Religion • We can’t escape our culture and our beliefs (whatever they might be); they inform how we act and think
• Think about your own core Singaporean values, and compare these to what you know about the culture of California, Stockholm, Stockh olm, Amsterda Amsterdam, m, Johannesb Johannesburg, urg, etc.
• There are of course many micro-cultures in each of these
examples, but the denizens of these cities all share cultural commonalities as well.
Culture and Religion • The same goes for religion; Singapore is proud of its multi-
religious “melting “melt ing pot” (Buddhism (Buddhism,, Taoism, Islam, Christianity Christ ianity,, Hinduism, Sikhism, Bahá'í faith, Judaism, Jainism, folk religion, atheism, agnosticism, secular humanism)
• eg.The “Buddhism” practiced in Singapore is often conflated with
Taoism and folk religion (ancestor worship, burning of joss paper)
• Your “world” (which may only be the scope of one city) could be like this, or could have a large majority of one religion (like Northern Ireland or Indonesia or Bhutan)
Culture and Religion • Take 15-20 minutes and write half a page to a page of cultural/ religious backstory for your setting
• Don’t worry about trying to cram all of these details into a later story; some may not even be applicable, but it’s good to at least have them in your head, as it will inform how your characters act, interact, and react
Final Thoughts • Write your story ; with a solid setting, create your characters, and flesh out your ideas into a complete narrative
• Keep writing ; it’s easy to get discouraged, but if it’s something you love, you must persevere
• Read widely : in, out, and between the SFF genres Reading: Turkey City Lexicon • Further Reading:Turkey
Final Thoughts Website: jasonlundberg.net jasonlundberg.net • Website: Also o on Fac Facebo ebook, ok, Twit witter ter,, Goo Goodread dreads, s, etc etc.. • Als
• Discounted copies of my books for CAP attendees: • Red Dot Irreal : $15 (reg. $24) Botany : $10 (reg. $15) • A Field Guide to Surreal Botany • Both together: $20 (50% off reg. cover price)
Bestt of Luc Bes Luck k to You All
