(these are the things I think some writers tend to forget about but are not just important, but also kind of fun)
—remember there are more types of government leaders than presidents and monarchs (multiple leaders, religious leaders, Athenian democracies, etc)
—the education system and who is or isn’t allowed to learn and what are they allowed to learn
—essential jobs (garbage collectors, firefighters, medical professionals, or any fictional ones you come up with) and is their work process any different from our world’s version of them?
—which animals are protected by the government and why? (Are they endangered? Are they beloved by the people? Is there any time where hunting those animals is legal?)
—Is there a separation between church and state? (No it doesn’t mean just Christianity, it’s asking if the religion run the country, or do both co-exist without interference?)
—Any fictional laws that are used in just that setting alone and NOT our world? (Magic is banned, no flying after dark, all aliens need a passport before entering a planet)
—Is the election process any different compared to how they are done where you are from?
—higher education and what that means in the setting
I know that some writing advisors tell people that they need to ask EVERY. SINGLE. QUESTION. about their fictional setting/country, but I think plenty of people would disagree. Write what’s important to your plot and to the characters, but sometimes adding in fun little extra details about everyday life can make it feel more alive.
whatever you do, PLEASE don’t dump all of your setting’s past, present and future in one big ten-page rant because it will shatter the mood so quickly you have no idea.
What if as an adventure your character/characters had to delve deep into the earth to reactivate and awaken ancient magical machinery to help restore the land above to an earlier different state so that it may once again flurish with life.
And as they delve deeper and deeper they change gathering ancient and powerful artefacts to help them in their quest.
But as they continue their exploration they come across more and more strange forgot monsters and enemies lurking in the depths, ready to strike with a wide range of strange attacks and varied abilities.
And then after completing their quest and helping to revive their home above, why not have some of those strange and dangerous enemies emerge from the shadowy underground to wreak havoc on the world above, once again requiring the characters to fight .
Real settings are probably the easier ones, especially if you live in the setting you want to use. If you're writing it in a different area than where you live, here are some questions to research (whether you'd like to answer them or not depends on the story and how well you know your setting):
What does it look like there? Where are some beautiful sights? Is it a tourist trap? Why? What has happened because of the tourists? Is the economy designed through focusing on the tourists?
Where are areas you'd like to avoid? What's the crime rate like? How kind are the people? What are the flaws that might force people into crime?
What are areas where people normally hang out? What do the locals like to do? Where are recreational buildings? What are they?
What are the important places? Is the book based in one neighborhood, a city, or a country? Several?
What food do the locals eat? What restaurants are there? Where do the restaurants get their food? How are allergies dealt with?
What animals are native to the place? Plants? Invasive species? What is the food chain like? What is the climate? Is it in mountains, plains, forests? What is the ecosystem as a whole?
What pets do people keep? Does the average household normally have pets? Does the average household have kids? How many?
What is the education system like? What is the grading system? What do they learn? What complaints to the students have? Complaints from parents? Teachers? What are the rules? Dress code?
What are minimum wage jobs? What do they do? What do they have to tolerate on a daily basis? What complaints do the employees have about customers and employers? How are the employees accommodated?
What are the better jobs? What is different between these?
What is the healthcare system like? What can they not fix? what is the death rate? What normally causes death.
This is a basic overview to help you! Don't just stick to it as the only things you should know; find your own questions and answers. If you have some questions you'd like to add on to this, feel free! I'd love to see them.
Hi. So I have a question. I'm going to write about a city I've never been to, New York, do you have any tips on how to do this?
Hello, dear. I get asked this often and 4/5 times it’s about New York City, so you’re getting a resource list so I can just direct people to your ask from now on!
Writing Real-Life Locations
7 Tips for Writing About Places You’ve Never Been
How to Write Creative Nonfiction: Writing about Place
How To Write About Place In Creative Nonfiction
Misplaced: why do novelists disguise real locations?
Basics of Describing Settings
How to Describe the Setting in a Story
Discover The Basic Elements of Setting In a Story
How to Write Descriptions and Create a Sense of Place
How to practice location descriptions
Fictional vs. Real Settings: Which Are Best?
Writing About New York [City]
List of NYC writing links & tips
Humans of New York (for local character/lifestyle examples)
Have fun researching!
+ If you appreciate posts like this one, please consider sending a “thank you” and Buy Me A Coffee!
World building. The setting, the place where the story takes place can be just as influential for the mood and tone of your story as the conflict, characters and plot. There are a lot of other blogs with advice and tips and lists and questions enough to make your eyes glaze over. I'm covering the very tip of the iceberg here.
Becca and I have been doing a lot of world building lately for a project we're working on together. In fact, we're so excited about it, we're talking about creating a blog just give newsy/chatty updates about said project. And a huge part of that blog is going to be about the setting of our imaginary world. It means I've been thinking about it a little bit.
The first thing when you're discussing building a world is to decide your genre of story. The type of story is going to set the framework for how the world works (to a certain extent.) A historical romance, a fantasy, a dystopian speculative fiction and science fiction are all going to play with different rules. The genre is going to partially influence the technology of your story, the government, and the visual appearance.
For example, in the Lone Prospect, I decided that I wanted my story to be a science fantasy. The fantasy aspect of my story is the inclusion of werewolves. I use "science" to determine how werewolves change using the ever popular "it's a virus" trope. (Actually, the first werewolf movie was a science gone wrong movie and not a magical curse. The more you know.) And it's partially post apocalyptic, because it is set in the future after there was a huge war and the entire landscape of the world has changed. And it's has science fiction style technology, floating cars and transports that don't rely on propeller engine. There are 'tractor' beams and anti-gravity fields and computers that fit in your ear and project holographically from a pair of glasses in front of you. All of this was determined by the genre, science fantasy.
Whereas, in the Dawn Warrior, I chose to make it a pure fantasy story. The world is a medieval type world with dragons, fairies, and magic and lots of forests. So when it came to trying to define the setting, it wasn't nearly as complicated as the Lone Prospect's world.
The second thing I try to do is only define enough of the setting as the story needs. I love a complicated world as much as the next person. (See Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.) However, I'm writing a book. I'm not making a movie! (Though I'd love a movie of Heathens, that would be hysterical.) There comes a point where I know I'm writing soft science fantasy (or in the Dawn Warrior's case, low fantasy) and I don't have the room or the words for pages and pages of scenery porn. I don't need to know the complicated levels of government or the entire map or what everything looks like because it's not important to the story. I'm not going to be using that information right this minute. There comes a point where you have to stop poking at the world and write the book. If you know what the setting looks like for what you're working on at that moment, stop and get writing.
(Though for the Heathens universe, I'll admit I do know a lot about the setting, because I'm using a teaspoon to empty out a lake in the amount of stories I want to write for it. Let us hope I don't burn out on werewolves making explosions.)
In some cases, the next thing I try to do is define the visual aesthetic of the story. In the Lone Prospect, I knew that I wanted Jasper to bring back memories of the old wild west/small town turn of the 20th century America. Brick buildings that aren't more than four stories high, covered sidewalks, lots of trees and statues in the town square. Little mom and pop shops and restaurants, chain boutiques hidden with hokey wooden signs. I wanted it to feel familiar to readers now and to feel safe. That Jasper is a haven from the craziness of the post apocalyptic world. It's even set in a valley surrounded by 'hills.' But because of this, Jasper is also as much of a cage and prison as it is a place to be safe. It's easy to get comfortable there and ignore the troubles of the outside world. It's not easy to escape and can be put under siege.
Jasper also contrasts with Rapid City, a place with steel and glass skyscrapers and the City, which as even larger buildings and multiple levels of traffic. I wanted to merge the idea of the Core Words on Firefly, the cities in Dredd and to some extent Coruscant from Star Wars.
The visual look of your world and the way you describe it, whether it's clean or dingy or rusted or gleaming can give the reader in a few short words how they should feel about this place you're dropping them into. Should they feel comfortable or edgy or uneasy.
I am not afraid of using real places to base my settings on. We've got a huge world and there are so many beautiful places in it. By using real places with photographs and visits for reference, you can make the setting of your world feel that more tangible and realistic to your reader. And if your setting is in modern or contemporary times, or even to some extent the past, you can use details of the city and it's history, reputation, interesting facts to add spice to your story.
I chose South Dakota for the setting of the Lone Prospect because I've been there. I've seen lightning walking over the golden plains that are dotted with herds of buffalo. I've been to the badlands. I've seen the Black Hills. I have pictures of it. I have emotional memories associated with the area. I know a bit of the history. I try to use that to make my story better.
Then I try to define my tech. Is it science fiction and may I have lasers and tractor beams and guns that set to stun? Or is it fantasy and I have cross bows and ballista and swords for weapons. If it's a historical setting, what era is it in? When did they get gas in that area or electric? What types of things would they use to wash clothes or bake bread? Did they ride horses or where there the bicycles and automobiles? These will add more interesting details to your story. And depending on how 'hard' your science fiction is, (are you Star Wars/Star Trek or are you Asimov?) will determine how much you have to go into how your faster than light or warp drive engine works. (There is a reason I write soft science fiction.)
When I wrote the Lone Prospect, I borrowed from everywhere I could think of to create my world. Taking things that I hoped were coming in the near future and mixing it with things I'd seen in movies and read in other books to try and make a level of technology that felt simultaneously futuristic and realistic to my post apocalyptic setting. My biggest sticking point with making my technology was say, if I got a television show or a movie, could it be done on a lower budget scale.
With the Dawn Warrior on the other hand, it was a pure low fantasy novel without any major battle scenes that would require me to trot out the big medieval weapons. And since Roxana buys her bread already baked, I didn't really need to think too much about technology. (Though I know a bit about medieval technology.)
Lastly, at least for this world building post, I tend to think about the government. Granted, I don't write dystopian stories. If you write dystopian fiction then the government and how it affects the culture will probably be the first thing you think about, see the Hunger Games, Divergent, or the Handmaiden's Tale for examples. However, I don't write that type of fiction and I need to know what type of government I have in a general sense to know how it's going to affect my characters. Is it a monarchy? Is there a king? Is it a republic or a democracy? Will there be voting? Who can vote? What types of laws are there that my characters may or may not be breaking?
Another instance where knowing about the government is handy is if the story revolves around the government and politics itself. (This is where the prequels of Star Wars went wrong. The story was about politics and the fall of the Republic and we were off watching pod races.) Who are the movers and shakers in the system? What are the political alliances and how are they shown? There are a lot of both political power maneuvering and personal stories and conflicts that can be written if the story revolves around the people in power and the government. Honor Harrington is a good example of how a story can be written around politics.
This is a good general start to building a setting for your story. After this it is thinking about culture and putting in characters. (Culture is probably a post to itself!) I think the most important thing to remember is to only flesh out as much of the setting as you need to write the book. The book isn't going to write itself!
You’ve got your main character. You’ve got your plot. You’ve got a lot of things figured out.
But how the heck are you supposed to get the reader to understand the atmosphere of the town your character comes from?
It can take practice. Consider your own hometown. Plop yourself down in the middle of your hometown, watch for a second, and then start writing about it. Talk about the buildings; how do they come across? Are they austere and reflect the nature of the people? Or are the people very friendly despite the buildings’ appearances? Is it a busy street? Are lawns well kept? Make sure you mix it with the general attitude of the people living in the town. And add your perspective of the town. If you like it, your description of the town is going to appear favorable. If you dislike it, it will be portrayed in a negative light.
Sound confusing? Don’t worry. I’ll give some of my own examples.
From one point of view:
“Miles from the closest city, A--- town sat out in the middle of nowhere. The nearest neighbor was always on the other side of a line trees, leading to quiet evenings without a care for what the neighbor was up to. Lawns were kept only half mown; only businesses near the center of town made sure they looked presentable. The general store on the corner of the town’s one busy road served as the local haunt for the entire town. If there was a story to be told, it would first be told there."
Same town, different view:
“A---- was miles from civilization. Even the closest neighbor was so far away that a battle with eighteenth century canons could take place on the front lawn and no one would hear the racket. People let their yards become so overgrown that children could easily get lost among the grass. Only the center of town where the businesses were kept up any semblance of a good appearance, but it said nothing of the treatment strangers would get inside. The general store in particular was the worst of the culprits. It certainly had that unique, old town feel, and if you were from the area, you were greeted like an old friend. But if the people didn’t know your name, it was clear they didn’t want much to do with you.”
When you’ve written your description of your town, take that description and try writing it from a different perspective. Don’t like your town? Write about it through the eyes of someone who likes it. Like your town? Write about it through the eyes of someone wanting to leave. And try to make it sound genuine; not as though you were mocking someone with an opposing viewpoint.
Try this with nearby towns too. Towns and cities where you’re familiar with, and you know the culture of, or the general attitude of the people living there.
Also, carefully read how other authors describe their characters’ hometowns. One example that comes to mind is how Rowling describes Privet Drive in Harry Potter. She describes it as being pristine and orderly, but paints it in a way to make it obvious to the reader that most, if not all, of the residences have an air of being stuck up.
Now, I have been using towns and cities as the example, but like in the Harry Potter example, sometimes a street holds a different attitude than the rest of the town. My examples are drawn from smaller town experience, where the community is a little more connected beyond just a street or drive. However, this is not always the case, and you should take this into consideration as you create your character’s hometown. Maybe your character’s side of town is drastically different than the other side of town.
Remember, this is something that might take you some practice. But have fun with it. Give your description some personality.
