Creator's Workshop: The elusive mystery of documents.
Have you ever heard about the Voynich Manuscript? If you haven't, you should seriously read the Wiki article, because it's interesting as hell.
The Voynich Manuscript, considered "The World's most mysterious manuscript" dates to the early 15th century. Written in vellum, the ponderous book comprises about 240 pages and it's divided into six sections: Herbal, astronomical, biological, cosmological, pharmaceutical and a collection of recipes.
The detail: Nobody knows what does it say.
The manuscript is written in a strange, unidentified script, which is not consistent with any extant language at the time. Statistical analysis has shown distributions similar to those of natural languages, and the flow of writing is smooth, but unusual things, such as triple graphemes and lack of obvious punctuation, has led some scholars to think it could be a hoax. In fact, one of the best hoaxes of all time.
Authorship is disputed. Some say Roger Bacon is the author, given his skills on practically everything and mysterious personality, others say Voynich himself fabricated the whole thing. At the moment, we don't know much of the manuscript, and investigation continues, which in short means we have no idea of what it could be, where does it come from and what purpose does/did it serve.
Let's suppose it's all a hoax.
Fabricated artifacts aren't uncommon. You'll find them everywhere, in any culture, religion and place in the World. The skill required to make them look and feel authentic is of otherworldly nature, but doing so gets easier with time. They serve the purpose of filling historical gaps and taking advantage of the reactions caused, but, what about using them for creative purposes? In your world, they could be real if you want to.
You could add flavour to a fantasy story by creating an old codex, maybe add some mystery to your detective novel with an unusual letter or create a whole new religion for your world with a sacred text. The possibilities are infinite.
Fabricated documents add a great extra value to your writing, and sometimes can be the basis of your whole work. The Whalestoe Letters by Mark Z. Danielewski is the perfect example of a companion to an already great book, and Bram Stoker's Dracula, one of the earliest examples of epistolary novels, is made up of almost every kind of fabricated document.
Documents can also create interest for your work, sometimes other than literary. I call it the Dan Brown effect (sorry if you don't like his works, but the guy surely knows how to create convincing artifacts). Many works have attained the status of legends after people started using them as guides to crack cyphers and solve mysteries.
So, go ahead! Create your documents and artifacts. It doesn't matter if you write a New Earth Galactic Bible or a single-page encrypted letter, make it fun, but remember, there are things you should consider:
Even though writing can be just done without planning and still be awesome, when creating an artifact or document for your writing, planning ahead is advisable. What purpose does it serve? Why is it important to your story? Unless you want your work to be based on the document, knowing how to fit it into the story is vital.
The great thing about documents is that they have personality. Letters are written in a certain way, with details, medical histories have the signature style of the physician who examines the patient, codexes (like the Voynich manuscript) have details that make them curious. Take time for design.
Be careful with the timeline:
It'd be silly to read a document of old written the same way a new one is written. Language changes, even in fictional universes. Style and redaction too. Also, don't give future or present info if that's not the purpose of the document.
The rest is up to you! Who knows, maybe you could write a +1000-page encrypted novel and leave it in front of CIA HQ, The Pentagon and the White House. Can you replicate H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds impact? Try
