A couple years ago, a writers’ organization asked me
to conduct an online six-week class in worldbuilding for them. (And yes, they
paid me.) I haven’t used the material since then, so I thought I’d share some
of it here. I’ve decided to focus on Worldbuilding for Different Genres. (If
enough of you like this, maybe I’ll share the other five weeks of material here
as well.)
Caveat: My sections on Worldbuilding for Romance, Westerns,
and Historical Fiction are a bit thin compared to the others. While I’ve
written stories in those genres – and have some advice to pass along – I’m hardly
an expert in them.
Okay, let’s build some worlds!
Common Worldbuilding Considerations for
All Genres
· No
one can truly recreate the complexity of a world on the page, nor would they
want to. We shouldn’t strive for realism but rather verisimilitude – the appearance
of being real.
· One
of the ways to do this is to blend different details and to spread them
throughout your story. Use a sight, a smell, a character’s reaction or
recollection, a bit of exposition, a line of dialogue, to create a mosaic
effect, replicating the way humans experience reality.
· Another
way is to use the telling detail. Instead of providing many details about your
world, one detail can speak volumes and hint at so much more. For example, if
in a science fiction story you write “The door irised open” or “Bob stepped on
the slidewalk,” you give readers delicious tidbits that communicate information
about your world and intrigue them, making them want to learn more. Readers
read for the joy of discovery, not to have information force-fed to them as if
they’re a computer.
· Avoid
expository lumps as much as possible. Don’t lecture readers about your world.
You can get away with occasional expository lumps in novels because of how much
space you have to work with, though. Just don’t use too many and try to keep
them as short as possible. Avoid having a sequence of expository sections, one
after the other, too.
· No
matter how interesting your world is, your world isn’t the story. Your
characters are your story. Your world can be a featureless white room with no
windows, doors, and furniture, but as long as there’s at least one character in
that room, you can tell a story there. You can have the most detailed setting,
but without any characters to inhabit it and deal with problems, there’s no
story.
· You
don’t have to include everything about your world. Use only the details
necessary to tell your story, and include them at the exact point in the story
when they’re important to a scene.
· Avoid
writing a travelogue instead of a story. If there are aspects of your word you
want to show readers, make sure they’re important to your plot and that
something interesting happens to the characters there.
· The
old maxim “Less is more” applies to blending details about your word into a
story – especially short fiction, where you have so much less room to work with
than in a novella or novel.
Mythic/Idealized/Heightened Worlds vs
Realistic Worlds.
· Westerns
are a good example of this dynamic. A mythic Western takes place in a Hollywood
action-adventure version of the late 19th century West. Good guys vs bad guys,
with little or no mention of the gritty realities of this world, such as
racism, sexism, poor hygiene, poor health . . . A mythic Western is a setting
for a fantasy to take place. A realistic Western will have more ethically
nuanced characters. No white hats or black hats. Elements like racism and
sexism along with poor living conditions will be included, along with realistic
details about farming, ranching, weapons, and characters will suffer injuries
the way humans do in the real world – no getting shot and continuing to fight
on for another ten chapters, as might happen in mythic Western.
· Decide
from the beginning whether you want your world to be Mythic, Realistic, or a
combination of both. Back to the Future III is a good example of a blend
of mythic and realistic Western elements, with clear Good Guys and Bad Guys and
adventure-type action, but also cloudy well water, buckshot in rabbit meat,
horse manure in the streets, etc.
· In
Fantasy, Lord of the Rings is mythic, while Game of Thrones is
more realistic.
· In
Mystery/Crime, Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple stories are mythic while Joseph
Wambaugh’s fiction is more realistic.
· Since
Romance incorporates so many other genres and story types, it ranges across the
spectrum of mythic to realistic, with the HEA (Happy Ever After Ending) being
the ultimate mythic element, regardless of any other story element.
· In
Horror, H.P. Lovecraft’s stories are mythic while Robert Bloch’s Psycho
is more realistic.
Common Worldbuilding Elements for Any
Genre
· Whether
your world is small (a family home, a neighborhood, a small town) or large (a
city, a country, a world, a star system), there are common elements all worlds
have, to greater or lesser degrees.
· Location
· Geographic
features
· Flora
and fauna
· Weather
· History
· Culture
· Government
· Military
· Religion/Philosophies
· Economics
· Social
makeup and social issues
· Professions
· Conflicts
· Technology/Magic/Supernatural
Elements
· All
of these elements can be addressed whether your worldbuilding is on the micro
or macro level – or both.
Micro Worldbuilding
· Let’s
work through the elements of Micro Worldbuilding. We’ll imagine our story
focuses on a single family.
· Location:
Two-story house built in the 1960’s. House is located in Greensburg,
Pennsylvania (which is a real city). A hilly area. House is located lower down
on the hills in a lower-middle class area. (You can also design each room in
the house, the yard, the neighborhood, etc.)
· Geographic
features: We already have hilly area. Houses and buildings are set close
together. Small yards. Roads are narrow and winding because of the hills.
· Flora
and fauna: Large older trees. Normal Pennsylvania wildlife. (Here you’d need to
research Greensburg and the surrounding area to get more specific.)
· Weather:
Hot and humid in summer, cold, snowy, icy, and miserable in winter. Fall and
spring are the most tolerable seasons, with fall being the more pleasant of the
two.
· History:
You could research the history of the town, but most important would be
creating the history of the family and their relationships.
· Culture:
Five members: Mother, Father, Grandmother (mother’s mother), two adult children
in their twenties, one male, one female. Family members are emotionally distant
from one another, and while they don’t get physical with each other when
they’re angry, they all have cutting tongues.
· Government:
You can research the city government, but you need to also create the family
government. Mother is the boss and the daughter is her chief “enforcer.” She
always backs up the mother and tries to get the other family members to toe the
line.
· Military:
This might not apply to the family, although you could make a member active or
former military, or have the member work as a police officer. Maybe one of the
members works for a crime organization or a gang. If the family is mixed up in
crime, maybe one of the members is the one who uses force to achieve the
family’s goals.
· Religion/Philosophies:
City’s religious makeup, but also family’s. They claim to be Christians, but
they don’t attend church, know little about the bible, and don’t behave in very
Christian-like ways.
· Economics:
The city’s economic situation is a huge factor, of course, but there’s a mico
economic situation for the family as well. The family lives paycheck to
paycheck and is in debt. The father, the son, and the daughter work, but they
all make little more than minimum wage.
· Social
makeup and social issues: Again, the city’s, but also the interpersonal
relationships and conflicts among the family members. The family member’s
different attitudes toward larger social issues would also come into play here.
· Professions:
Important industries in the city, as well as the specific jobs the father, son,
and daughter have. Father is a machinist, son sells furniture, daughter works
at a pet store. The daughter also deals drugs as a side hustle.
· Conflicts:
Conflicts in the city of various kinds and between the family members and
anyone outside the family.
· Technology/Magic/Supernatural
Elements: The city would have common 21st century tech, but for the family, I’d
replace this element with Skills. What skills do they possess? These can be
individual talents – such as always being able to tell when someone is lying –
or skills learned during the course of their lives.
· Health:
For a family, I’d add the element of health. Mom’s a diabetic who’s lax in
taking care of her condition. The son has anxiety disorder. The grandmother has
failing kidneys, etc.
Macro Worldbuilding
· Macro
worldbuilding is for creating larger worlds. This could be for an imaginary
world, but it could also be for imaginary elements in our world, such as a
crime or spy organization you invent for your thriller novel.
· Let’s
invent a fantasy scenario to run through the different elements of
worldbuilding.
· Location:
The land of Aramar on the fantasy world of Xhin.
· Geographic
features: Desert, like in Arizona or New Mexico. Not like the Sahara. A large
river like the Nile cuts through the land.
· Flora
and fauna: Desert plants like cacti, animals similar to those that exist in the
desert on Earth. Maybe some giant insects, like beetles and scorpions. Giant
predatory birds.
· Weather:
Same as in the deserts of Arizona of New Mexico for the most part. I’ll add
giant dust storms that are sentient demons which seek to kill all life they
encounter. (They’d be a fauna/weather hybrid, I guess.)
· History:
Aramar was once a verdant paradise until a powerful sorcerer-king attempted to
ascend to godhood. Enraged, the gods turned him into a rodent and turned Aramar
into a desert for ten thousand years, after which, it will supposedly return to
its original state. (The gods, in a merciful gesture to those who followed them
faithfully, left the Nile-like river intact.)
· Culture:
I’d research ancient desert-dwelling peoples and cobble together this world’s
culture from those details. I’d have slightly different cultures for different
tribes/groups. This is where I’d add other sentient races too, so I’ll add the
S’chara, a race of humanoid armadillo people, strong warriors who only fight
when absolutely necessary.
· Government:
Various nomadic tribal groups. A central “kingdom” whose reach doesn’t extend
very far and which isn’t recognized by the tribes. It’s an old ruined city
without a name. It’s the only city in the land, so people just call it the
City. The king/queen is determined by battle. Anyone can challenge the current
ruler at any time. The ruler must accept all challenges or be killed by
his/her/their own guards.
· Military:
A small contingent of fighting men and women who are mostly mercenaries drawn
from different tribes (and even a few S’chara). They have little to no real
loyalty to the ruler.
· Religion/Philosophies:
Most people are either atheists or hate the gods because of the curse they
placed on the land. There’s a pantheon of gods, all equal in power. They don’t
have specialties like the gods of myth in our world. Their individual names/identities
are unknown. They’re just the gods. Some tribes still worship them, as well as
some lone individuals. Worshippers are often hated by others, hunted and
imprisoned, enslaved, or killed.
· Economics:
Barter system. Different tribes often specialize in certain wares, such as
woven cloth, certain animals they raise, etc.
· Social
makeup and social issues: I’d create different societies for each tribe (and
the S’chara) and have intertribal issues as well as issues between tribes and
between tribes and the City.
· Professions:
I’d research professions of ancient desert societies on Earth. I assume there
would be animal herders, farmers, craftspeople, hunters, guides, mercenaries,
thieves, sex workers, magic-users etc.
· Conflicts:
These have already been covered in Religion and Social makeup. I’d add new or
worsening conflicts to serve as the plot engine for my novel, though.
· Technology/Magic/Supernatural
Elements: The technological level would be the same as ancient desert people on
Earth. Magic comes from the gods, and it’s granted seemingly at random to
people at birth. Different people have different magical talents. One can read
minds, one create illusions, one change shape, etc. Since anything connected to
the gods is anathema to the people of Aramar, magic-users are hunted and killed
or enslaved and forced to use their powers for their masters. Because of this,
most magic-users do their best to hide what they are.
· Health:
I’d create one or two new diseases – maybe of mystical origin – for this world.
Exaggerated Worldbuilding
· Exaggerating
different elements of worldbuilding can work well for mythic stories – warriors
that seem to never tire, horses that travel farther and longer than any horse
should be able to, gunfighters who never miss – but it also works well for
humorous stories, regardless of what genre they belong to.
· Readers
are willing to suspend their disbelief even further if the story makes them
laugh.
· There
still needs to be a strong enough element of reality that serves as a core for
readers to hang onto.
· In
a Bugs Bunny cartoon, the core might be Elmer Fudd is hunting Bugs, and Bugs is
constantly taunting Elmer while trying to avoid getting shot. They also stay in
one limited environment, such as a forest. Other than this, all sorts of
surreal, unrealistic things happen, and we’re willing to believe them, because
they make us laugh.
· You
can exaggerate one element of your world or all of them, as in The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
· You
have to be careful not to get too serious at any point in your story or else
the exaggerated world you’ve created will collapse for readers.
Worldbuilding for Specific Genres
· Consider
the tropes (recurring character types, settings, story types/patterns, images,
ideas, etc.) in your genre. Many readers enjoy genre fiction for its sameness.
They read for the comfort of the familiar. But at the same time, they want a
certain amount of variety. So if you want to use the trope of a powerful dark
lord who wants to conquer a fantasy land, or an hostile alien species that
wants to wipe out Earth, or an abrasive genius detective who lacks people
skills, try to find ways to put a slightly different spin on those tropes. BUT
. . .
· If
you put wildly different/original spins on tropes when worldbuilding
(especially when writing a novel), you might write a wonderful story, but you
risk confusing agents and editors who don’t know how to pigeonhole your novel
to make it easier to market to readers. Or if you indie publish, you might have
a difficult time labeling your work so that readers can decide whether or not they
want to buy it.
· Each
genre has many subgenres, and certain types of worldbuilding suits some
subgenres better than others. As always when it comes to writing, be well-read
in your chosen genre/subgenre so you have a good idea how to build worlds
within it.
· You
decide how to build your worlds. If you want to do so with an eye to the
market, fine. If you want to focus solely on your own artistic satisfaction,
great. If you want to do some of both, wonderful. It’s your choice.
Worldbuilding for Realistic/Literary
Fiction
· Drawing
details from your experience – even if you tweak them – can give any type of
fiction greater verisimilitude, but it can work especially well for
realistic/literary fiction.
· Don’t
feel too bound to real life. Shape your story world in whatever ways will make
the best fiction.
· Be
careful to not work out your story world in minute detail. You’ll be tempted to
put all those details in the story and bog it down.
· “Real”
realism or heightened realism? Much literary fiction isn’t strictly realistic.
Characters are often people of high intelligence, uncommon emotional
sensitivity, and incredible observational skills who live through common
experiences with keen awareness and self-insight. The setting is filtered
through their perceptions, resulting in a heightened world. “Real” realism can
have more varied characters, and the worlds filtered through their perceptions
will be more varied too, at least in terms of the way they’re presented.
· Character
tends to predominate, especially in literary fiction, so the character’s
immediate world is often The World in the story. So develop the character’s
immediate world in great detail.
· But
Place can be extremely important in literary fiction well, so consider
developing the overall setting in great detail, even if the overall setting
plays only a small role in the story.
· Develop
the . . .
· Character’s
past.
· Character’s
family, friends, lovers.
· Character’s
living space.
· Character’s
job/profession.
· Character’s
town/city/locale.
· Character’s
psychological landscape. Places mirror the character and vice versa.
Worldbuilding for Science Fiction
· How
much actual science should you use? Hard SF is scientifically plausible and
well research. “Soft” SF relies on genre tropes – such as faster-than-light
travel, robots, laser weapons, etc. – without worrying about making the details
scientifically plausible.
· If
you’re writing Hard SF, make sure the scientific details of your tech, worlds,
aliens, etc. don’t overwhelm your story and slow it down. Avoid expository
lumps.
· If
you’re writing adventure-focused SF, consider giving at least some general
explanation for things, such as Star Trek’s dilithium crystals which
make warp drive possible.
· Be
careful not to become so focused on the details or your world(s) that you fail
to develop your characters enough.
· Creating
advanced technology: You can use genre tropes or use current tech/research as
inspiration.
· Designing
star systems: You can use actual star systems for inspiration, or you can avoid
too much specific detail to avoid getting the science wrong. Your star system
may have ten planets, but you don’t need to figure out the exact distance
between them, their exact orbits, etc.
· Designing
planets: You can base your planets on actual ones or make them more or less
like the ones in our own star system and tailor them to your story.
· Designing
aliens and alien cultures: You can research what scientists imagine aliens
might be like. You can base alien physiology on Earth creatures. There’s a wide
variety of biological types on our planet. You can base alien cultures on human
ones, especially older ones, and you can mix and match elements from these
cultures. You can base your aliens on mythic beings from Earth culture as well,
altering them as necessary for your story.
· Be
careful to avoid racism when creating alien races. For example, in Star Trek,
all Vulcans, all Klingons, etc. are generally the same. Sentient beings aren’t
interchangeable clones of one another. They’d be individuals just like us, with
some commonalities but differences as well in terms of personality, abilities,
beliefs, fears, etc.
· Designing
alternate worlds/timelines: Regardless of the change in the timeline you decide
on, the new world that’s branched off needs to be extrapolated logically.
· For
example, a couple years back, DC comics was toying with publishing stories in
the Linearverse – a world where Superman and Batman started their careers in
the early 20th Century and are still relatively young and active today. (This
is to explain why they’ve never seemed to age in the comics from their start to
now.) The change in the timeline is that people live a very long time in this
world, perhaps centuries. This premise has a lot of problems, though, which is likely
why DC abandoned it. For example, logically, many figures from history that are
dead in the early 2000’s would still be alive and active, just like the
superheroes. That would have a huge impact on this world’s history. And what
about population control? Do people still breed at the same rate? If so, the
world would be massively overcrowded. And what about other biological entities,
such as animals, insects, etc.? Do they live for a long time as well? That
would have a dramatic impact on the ecosystem, etc.
· Designing
a future world: The farther into the future you set your story, the harder it
is to imagine what Earth and humanity will be like. You can research what
futurists extrapolate what the future will be like for inspiration. You can let
your imagination go wild and not worry about making your future 100% plausible.
You can also stick with a near-future world to make your story more believable
(and easier to write). You can research historical events, rework them, and
base future events on them. As for humans, we’ll likely remain the same core
beings for a very long time, unless something interferes with/alters our
development.
· Planetary
and galactic governments: Again, you can research current and past governmental
structures and base the ones in your story on them. You can expand Earth
government types to a system-wide or galactic-wide scale. Consider mixing and
matching different governing systems to make your galactic civilization more
interesting and realistic. How many different types of government has Earth had
its history?
· Economic
system: Again, you can base your world’s economics on current or past Earth
economic systems.
· Utopia
vs Dystopia: SF often tends to be set in worlds that are one or the other, but
it’s more realistic to make your worlds a combination, even if they lean more
heavily one way or another.
· Religion:
Same with religion. Research past and current human religions. Don’t assume
that everyone in the future will be atheists. Humans may carry religion with
them to the stars, and those religions may change because of it. Or humans may
create new religions. Perhaps they’ll adopt an alien religion. You can base
alien religions on human ones which you can alter or combine in various ways.
Worldbuilding for Fantasy
· Contemporary
fantasy: The story takes place in our current world with some elements of
fantasy intruding from another world or elements which are native to our world
but have been hidden.
· Alternate
world fantasy: The story takes place in a completely imaginary world.
Traditionally, these worlds have been based on Medieval Europe, but it’s
becoming more common to use other time periods or cultures for inspiration. Be
careful not to appropriate another culture’s myths or history, though. Use
elements of other cultures/time periods as inspiration, but alter/mix and match
them. (Don’t appropriate them wholesale, – especially if a culture’s belief
system still exists today.)
· Portal
fantasy: Someone from our world is transported to a fantasy world and has
adventures there.
· Designing
the world and “The Land”: You can use Earth myths for inspiration, as well as
base your world on actual Earth geography. Be careful not to place glaciers
next to a desert, though. Be realistic about how geography works – unless
there’s some magical reason for geographical anomalies.
· Other
races/cultures: The advice for doing this in SF applies here as well –
especially the avoiding racism part. In traditional fantasy, elves are all
mostly the same, so are dwarves, orcs, etc. Imagine writing a realistic story set in the
present day where the people of a particular ethnic and racial background all think,
feel, and act the same. That would be obviously racist. It’s the same for SF
and fantasy.
· Government:
The same advice as creating SF governments applies, with the addition that
existence of magic or direct intervention in world affairs by god or gods might
have an impact on how a government is structured.
· Religion:
Again, the same advice for creating religions in SF applies, except now the
gods may be real and directly or indirectly intervene in world or individual
affairs. And different religions may have different actual gods who are in
conflict. Gods may aid people, hinder people, manipulate and use people, punish
people . . .
· Economic
system: Same advice as for SF, but since imaginary fantasy worlds tend to be
based on past Earth cultures, using older economic systems as models might work
best.
· Magical
creatures: Like magic itself, the rarer magical creatures are in your world,
the better. They’re more special that way. You can use creatures directly taken
from myth, such as dragons, satyrs, centaurs, etc. You can alter myth creatures
to make them seem fresh/different. You can base your magical creatures on
little known or exotic Earth lifeforms, especially ones with really cool
abilities.
· Magic
system: Magic can be learned or be an inborn talent or a combination. Magic can
be an alternative technology with specific rules and conditions that anyone can
use, but magic tends to work best if it’s rare, difficult to achieve, and
exacts a heavy price. Be careful not to give your magic-users godlike powers.
The more powerful a character is, the duller they are. Characters in fiction
need to struggle and overcome adversity, not defeat a foe with a single blast
of magic power.
· The
price of magic: Having magic take a toll on its users raises the stakes in your
story, creates tension and suspense, and it keeps your magic-users from
becoming too powerful.
· Examples
of the price of magic: Casting spells temporarily weakens a magic-user. Casting
spells takes time off a magic-user’s lifespan – small spells may cost only
minutes of life, but bigger spells might cost years of life. A magic-user must
sell his/her/their soul to a powerful being to gain the ability to wield magic.
A magic-user must drain others’ lifeforce to power their spells. Each time a
magic-user casts a spell, they lose a little of their sanity until eventually
they become completely insane. Each time a magic-user casts a spell, they lose
a bit of their humanity, and eventually they’ll become a sociopathic monster
who’s a danger to all. Feel free to use any of these or come up with your own.
· The
Big Bad: If your story has a Dark Lord (or the equivalent) consider having
he/her/them/it stay offstage for as much as possible. In The Lord of the
Rings, Sauron isn’t a character. He’s a force of nature that causes bad
things to happen but who never appears or directly interacts with characters as
a character himself. Keeping your Big Bad offstage like this makes them a
stronger, more sinister presence – like an evil deity that remains a distant,
unseen but very real threat.
· Imaginary
world Fantasy has a great deal in common with Historical Fiction.
· It’s
important to know why and how things work and why people do what they do. For
example, horses are not cars. If you ride them nonstop, they will die.
Characters in enemy territory won’t build a fire at night because the light
will alert their enemies. Characters won’t use modern words such as electric to
describe something. They don’t know about electricity.
· It’s
important to know what historical-based societies were like. For example,
throughout most of human history (and still today in many places to one degree
or another) women and children were the property of men and had no rights.
Woman often died during childbirth. Children often died young. Adults often
succumbed to one health condition or another and died young. Adults did very
hard physical labor which often crippled them. Rulers and royals were divine
and commoners were little more than animals. Brutality was all too common.
You’ll have to decide how much realism to use in your world and how much you
want to sanitize it for your readers.
· Immersion
in your world: Fantasy readers, especially those who enjoy epic fantasy, often
read for the pleasure of immersion in a different world. Thus, they like a lot
of detail. So working out a lot of specifics about your world and including
them in your story can work well. But as I’ve cautioned before, don’t allow
details to overwhelm your characters or story.
Worldbuilding for Romance
· The
personal/emotional worlds of the two protagonists are the most important and
need to be developed in detail.
· Develop
the main characters’ hopes and fears regarding romantic relationships.
· Previous
romantic relationships will play a huge role in creating the characters because
they can serve as obstacles for the new relationship that’s forming (even if
the previous romantic interests remain offstage for the entire novel).
· Develop
the characters’ pasts, family, friends, previous romantic relationships, jobs,
living spaces, locales for each. There will likely be overlap in the locale
where they live, but not necessarily. The plot may put them in the same locale.
· Develop
the area of connection between the two protagonists. Do they work at the same
place? Are they working on the same story problem from different angles? Has
circumstance or chance brought them together?
· Develop
obstacles to the characters getting together. These can be psychological/emotional
– for example, a previous lover of one of the characters died, and now they are
afraid to commit to anyone else because they never want to feel that kind of
pain again. Or they could be external. For example, an old flame that insinuates
themselves into the burgeoning relationship to derail it.
· Since
Romance can be combined with any genre, follow the worldbuilding advice for
those other genres, but without allowing any other genre concerns to get in the
way of the two protagonists’ developing relationship.
· Make
sure to have a HEA ending! It’s the very definition of the Romance genre.
Worldbuilding for Mystery
· Like
Romance, Mystery can be blended with any other genre, so if there are
additional genre elements, follow the worldbuilding advice for those.
· The
locale where a crime has been committed usually serves as the entire world of a
Mystery story. Thus, it needs to be well developed – especially if you have
intentions of making it the setting for a series. You can use a real location,
base your world on a real place, or cobble it together from aspects of
different places.
· Your
locale needs to be suited to the type of Mystery you want to write – noir,
hardboiled, cozy, humorous, procedural, etc. It needs to be a place where it
feels natural for a specific kind of story to be told. Although having a
hardboiled story in a cozy setting might make for an effective humorous story.
· Mysteries
are centered on the detective character, and like any character-centered story,
the protagonist’s personal world – friends, family, allies, foes, etc. – plays
a huge role, especially if you’re planning a series. Giving your protagonist
personal problems unrelated to the mystery ups the pressure on them and
increases conflict overall.
· Your
detective character needs a believable reason for investigating crimes if
he/she/they aren’t a police officer or private detective – although cozy and
humorous Mystery readers are more accepting of amateur detectives than some
readers. Common detective types: The genius sleuth, the professional, the
amateur, the accidental detective. These types can be blended, but try to avoid
cliches when creating your detective. Do your best to make them fresh.
· Mystery
worlds – at least as they’re revealed as the story progresses – tend to be very
detailed in order to mask clues so they aren’t so obvious. This means you need
to be careful not to get too caught up in those masking details (similar to
Literary Fiction) to the point where you lose a story’s forward momentum.
Worldbuilding for
Thrillers/Suspense/Action-Adventure
· Thrillers
can overlap other genres too, especially mystery and stories that are close to
SF in terms of technology, etc. Those genre concerns should be addressed in
worldbuilding, but not developed to the point that their details slow down the
forward-moving action.
· Characters
in Thrillers can be ordinary people or people with specific training or
abilities that will help them deal with the story problem.
· The
story scope and threats can be smaller/more intimate, such as in domestic
thrillers or they can be larger/more far-reaching, as in political thrillers.
You’ll create different story worlds depending on the scope of your tale.
· Thrillers
are most often set in the real world (or a version of it), so you can base your
story world on the
· real
world as much as you’d like.
· The
Threat is perhaps the most important element of a Thriller. As in Fantasy, the
more offstage and mysterious the Threat remains, the harder it is for your hero
to deal with and the more suspense is generated. Try to make your threats more
developed than “terrorists” or “serial killer.” Try to make them more
interesting and fresher.
· In
Thrillers/Suspense/Action Adventure, the protagonist is often isolated from
help to make the story problem harder for them to deal with and to increase
suspense. Build opportunities for isolation into your story world/plot.
· Some
Thrillers are slow burns, just like Suspense novels. As the story threat
mounts, readers read faster to find out what happens, so the pace doesn’t don’t
feel slow.
· Some
Thrillers are like Action-Adventure – fast-forward narratives where the events
that occur are more important than any other story element.
· Develop
your Thriller story world so that it works with whatever style Thriller you
want to write. For example, a slow-burn thriller needs to have reasons why the
threat doesn’t immediately manifest to take out your character. Why would a
killer wait to kill your character? Why would terrorists wait to set off a
bomb?
Worldbuilding for Horror
· Horror
stories most often take place in the contemporary world, but historical horror
occurs within the genre, as does dark fantasy, which overlaps with
imaginary-world fantasy or contemporary fantasy. The advice for building
Historical Fiction and Fantasy worlds applies to these subgenres.
· Horror
can encompass any genre or subgenre of fiction, and the advice for
worldbuilding in those genres applies.
· Suspense
and Thriller are the closest genre cousins to Horror, so the worldbuilding
advice for those genres is important in Horror. Horror novels often have an
investigatory aspect to them, so some aspect of Mystery worldbuilding might be
important for your story.
· Literary
Horror is a popular subgenre, and the advice for worldbuilding in Literary
Fiction applies here.
· Loud
Horror vs Quiet horror. Quiet horror is more subtle and relies on a slow
building of tension. It tends to avoid overt violence and the results of that
violence. Because of this, Literary Horror tends to also be Quiet Horror. Loud
or Extreme Horror doesn’t shy away from violence and its aftermath and is
usually more entertainment-focused. Elements of Quiet and Loud Horror can be
combined to create your Horror world in whatever proportions appeal to you. The
Haunting of Hill House is Quiet Horror. Richard Laymon’s Beast House
is Loud/Extreme.
· Intimate
Horror vs Wide-Scope Horror: A person being haunted by an evil spirit that’s
trying to possess them is Intimate Horror. One threat, one victim, in one
contained location. Wide-Scope Horror affects a number of people and a larger
area. Zombie apocalypse fiction is a good example of Wide-Scope Horror. In
Intimate Horror you’d use more character-centered worldbuilding, while in
Wide-Scope Horror you’d use more Science Fiction of Fantasy worldbuilding
techniques, depending on your specific story concept.
· Horror
stories are nightmarish. Even if the threat is a realistic one, such as a human
serial killer, the world needs to feel nightmarish, as if reality is distorted
in disturbing ways. This effect can be created through writing style and
specific story events, but it can also be created through worldbuilding.
· Silence
of the Lambs takes place in a world suffused with dark
psychological states and their effect on all the characters contrasted with the
rational mindset and procedures of criminal investigation. Alien takes
place in what’s basically a haunted house in space – a setting of isolation and
the unknown. Poltergeist takes place in suburbia – the perfect
middle-class family life attacked by what literally lies beneath the surface of
its veneer of normalcy and perfection. Twin Peaks takes place in a small
town filled with dark secrets surrounded by mysterious forestland where the
normal rules of reality don’t apply.
· Horror
worlds are often psychological landscapes that mirror the type of threat and
type of storytelling.
· The
threat in a Horror story – whether realistic or supernatural – tends to be a
singular predatory force of some kind which may have an understandable
motivation or which may act from an unknown motivation.
· The
threat can be one which is embodied in a physical presence which has clear
rules and ways to defeat it, or the threat can be like Sauron in Lord of the
Rings – a powerful, enigmatic, unseen, malign, and above all deadly
presence.
· Whichever
threat you choose to write about, your Horror world needs to be created to
reflect it.
· Threat
onstage or offstage, blatant or implied? Quiet Horror tends to go with having
the threat offstage. Loud/Extreme Horror tends to go with having the threat up
close and in your face.
· A
huge aspect of Horror is the unknown. Well-used and perhaps overused genre
tropes lose their power to affect readers, especially in horror. So if you’re
going to use known genre tropes, try to put an original spin on them. Instead
of writing about werewolves, you might write about people who are possessed by
murderous spirits once the sun sets. This way you keep the power of the
original trope – humans turned bestial killers against their will – without
having to deal with any baggage the werewolf trope might carry.
Worldbuilding for Historical Fiction
· Readers
of Historical Fiction love to be immersed in a past world. They have this in
common with readers of epic fantasy, and much of the same worldbuilding advice
for creating imaginary fantasy worlds based on real-world history applies to
Historical Fiction as well.
· Research
is paramount here, obviously. You’re trying to recreate an actual historical
setting as much as create a story world.
· Don’t
forget to research the way people in your chosen historical period viewed the
world. They weren’t people with modern views who happened to live in the past.
Their worldviews were very different. You’re writing for a contemporary
audience, though, so you may need to make some choices how much of their
worldview you incorporate into your story.
· Racism,
sexism, brutality, lack of rights for most people, etc. will likely be part of
your chosen historical period. If you’re writing Mythic Historical Fiction (a
story based in a real historical setting but a more sanitized version for a
modern audience) you might be selective in your choice and presentation of
unpleasant details, especially if your aim is for the reader to have fun with
your story. If you aim is to write a realistic story, you should include the
unpleasant realities, even if sparingly.
Worldbuilding for Westerns
· Because
Westerns take place in a specific historical setting, much of the same
Worldbuilding advice for Historical fiction also applies here.
· Mythic
Westerns: These are fantasy adventures in the sense that they have clearly
delineated good and bad characters – although bad characters can be
protagonists – and take place in an idealized form of the American West in the
19th century. There are nods to realism, but escapist fun is the main story
goal.
· Realistic
Westerns: These can still be fun adventures, but the characters tend to be more
complex and morally gray, and the setting hews closer to historical fact –
including dealing with racism, sexism, genocide, etc.
· You
can mix elements of Mythic Westerns and Realistic Westerns, but market-wise,
your story will likely be slotted into one category or the other.
· William
W. Johnstone Westerns are Mythic. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry is
Realistic.
Some Final Advice About Worldbuilding
· If
you do Macro Worldbuilding, you’ll also need to do Micro Worldbuilding for your
characters, as well as for smaller areas such as villages, cities, different
regions, etc. You could call this Tiered Worldbuilding.
· It’s
often easier to base an imaginary world or section of world on real ones on
Earth – whether from the present of the past.
· Same
for flora and fauna. You can base them on Earth plants and creatures but then
give them your own spin to make them seem different.
· The
“price” idea for science fiction and fantasy can be an element in any type of
world, micro or macro. For example, what price did a character pay for marrying
and having children young? What price does a detective pay for his/her/their
obsession with solving a case?
Hopefully, I’ve given you a few more tools to add to
your worldbuilding toolkit. Now sit down at your keyboard and have fun playing
God!
DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
Book
of Madness,
Book 2 in the Custodians of the Cosmos series is Out Now
When Maintenance Surveyors Neal and Gina
investigate a house saturated with Corruption, they expect the job to be fairly
routine. What they don’t expect is for Gina to become psychically bound to a
monstrously mutated woman called the Witch Lady. Nor do they expect the Witch
Lady’s son Randall to come into possession of a dark tome of unimaginable power
called the Insanitarium, which he uses to wreak havoc throughout Ash
Creek. And there’s no way they could anticipate the arrival of Neal’s childhood
friend Donnie – who thanks to the malign influence of the sinister Mortuum
Blade is now the serial killer known as the Ghostmaker, and determined to add
Neal and Gina to his long list of victims.
Add
to this. . .
–
A visit from Gina’s sister Juliana, who might be a double agent serving the
Black Trust.
–
A member of the Multitude known as Bad Jack, who changed the course of both
Neal and Donnie’s lives when they were young, and who now seeks to obtain the Insanitarium
for his own nefarious ends.
–
An extradimensional trip to the deadly realm called Low Town.
–
And the birth of a very special little girl.
It
all adds up to one very bad day for Neal and Gina, but in order to get the job
done, they’ll have to risk more than their lives. They’ll have to risk their
immortal souls.
No
pressure.
Paperback:
https://tinyurl.com/5n8z78fx
Kindle:
https://tinyurl.com/bddetj5u
Audiobook:
https://tinyurl.com/2s3fu6vt
Praise
for Book One: The Atrocity Engine
"Waggoner
offers a fresh variation on the trope of a covert agency combating evil in his
blood-drenched Custodians of the Cosmos series opener."- Publishers Weekly
"The
Atrocity Engine is a wild ride full of entertaining scenarios and scary
monsters!" - Booklist
"THE
ATROCITY ENGINE is a kick-ass cross-genre thrill ride of a novel! Holy moly!
Tim Waggoner is easily one of today's best horror writers."- Jonathan
Maberry, NY Times bestselling author of CAVE 13 and NECROTEK
"This
is edge-of-your-seat Horror Fantasy. It's as if Stephen King wrote MEN IN
BLACK!" —Scott Sigler, #1 NYT Bestselling author of EARTHCORE
"Fast-paced,
cleverly thought-through, and deeply unnerving in all the right places—urban
horror fantasy with a decidedly creepy difference. Don't read it in the
dark!" - Diane Duane, New York Times bestselling author of TALES OF
THE FIVE: THE LIBRARIAN
"The
story is a thumping, genre-bending tale—one part horror, one part fantasy, and
two parts thriller. The pace is frenetic, and the writing delivers. There is an
abundance of action and gore, which, delightfully, is not always blood (big
green snot tentacles or giant serpents made of corpses, anyone?). For readers
who like their tension and thrills to emerge from another Universe, THE
ATROCITY ENGINE is one heckuva ride." - G.A. Rivers, The Big Thrill
Recommends
Terrifier
2: The Official Novelization is Up for Preorder
Titan
Books will be bringing out this novel on Oct. 8th – just in time for
the theatrical release of Terrifier 3! I had an absolute blast writing
this book, and I hope Terrifier fans will love it! Brad Miska of Blood
Disgusting said this about the novel:
“Terrifier
2 is seriously one of the coolest and most entertaining novelizations I’ve
ever read. @timwaggoner absolutely crushed it!”
How’s
that for an early review? Here’s the synopsis:
The
nightmarish Art the Clown returns from the dead to continue his murderous and
mad spree, in this gruesome novelization of the hit horror film.
It
has been one year since the sleepy town of Miles County survived the murderous
spree of demented killer Art the Clown, but little do they know the nightmare
is about to begin anew.
Resurrected
by a sinister entity, Art is back with an appetite for murder and
mayhem—setting his sights on the recently bereaved teenager Sienna and her
younger brother Jonathan. The streets are about to run with blood, and Sienna
must somehow survive this gruesome Halloween night and discover how to defeat a
brutal and unforgiving killing machine from beyond her nightmares.
There's
no stopping Art once his sights are set on you…
Order
links:
https://titanbooks.com/72530-terrifier-2/
SCHEDULED
APPEARANCES
IGW Genre Con. August 17th to August 18th.
Huntington, West Virginia.
World Fantasy Convention. October 17th to October 20th. Niagara
Falls, New York.
Authorcon V. March 28th to March 30th.
Williamsburg, Virginia.
StokerCon. June 12th to June 15th.
Stamford, Connecticut.
WHERE TO FIND ME ONLINE
