Please welcome a good friend and fabulous guest author Chaeya!
She'll be giving away one free ebook copy and one free print copy of her latest
release, Srae Iss-Ka-Mala, to two lucky commenters, so leave a comment to enter to win!
Most people hear the term "world-building" and
they immediately think of other planets or dimensions. However, you don't have
to be a fantasy or sci-fi buff to appreciate the art of world-building right
here in third dimensional, planet Earth.
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World-building occurs in every story regardless of the genre
because it not only creates the setting and backdrop for your story, but it can
also be used as a tool to further describe your characters. As people, we are
all walking universes unto ourselves. Our world involves the city we live in,
our workplace, the street our homes are located, and our home itself. Imagine
your favorite movie and how the setting can seem almost a fantasy contained in
its own world. Movies set in small towns have a knack of doing just this, and
can sometimes seem the only place existing on Earth.
What we can learn from these movies is how authors can
utilize the following elements to imbue more life into your stories and
characters. A writer can relay much of the characters' personalities just by
how they are placed in the scenery. So, in essence, building an effective world
can participate in character development, resulting in less telling and more
showing.
The City. I know we have continents, countries, and
states, but to make it less complicated, I'll focus on cities. The city where
your story takes place is the universe of your story. It is the cosmos of all
those walking stars that populate it. Whether it be a small town or big city,
the description will create the backdrop of your story. For instance, if you
want a dark setting, you'd want to focus on the color gray and the mass of
concrete, etc. If it's winter, you could describe the grit-covered snow in the
gutters and parks filled with pale grass and leafless trees. Perhaps people
pass by one another facing forward and not interacting. When they bump into
someone, they don't pardon themselves. This sounds like a real hospitable
place, doesn't it? NOT.
The Workplace and The Home. I would call a job or
home the galaxy of your story, depending upon how much they feature in the
setting and plot. Work tends to be a more popular setting than home. You can
tell a lot about a character or characters simply from the décor of their
office. I've worked in the corporate world for over 25 years, and I've been in
many different types of offices. Is it a small dump filled with second-hand
office furniture two decades late? This sounds like the firm is either cheap,
or running on a shoestring budget. To describe a character's office as having
rich, cherry wood panels, a big executive desk, and a wall filled with awards
and degrees might portray a man as being successful, intelligent, and maybe a
bit arrogant. One of the attorneys I work for has a row of little wind-up toys
on his desk, signifying his playful nature; while another has a paper pile two
feet deep on his desk and the floor surrounding it. He also has a sign taped to
the wall for the cleaning crew that reads: Don't touch my mess! Everything I've
written here can be used to describe a character's home, and applied in the
same fashion.
Your Characters. Not many people mention characters
as part of world-building, but they are an essential part of it. They are the
suns, the planets, and the moons in your galaxy and your universe. Everything
they wear, what they see, and how they interact with things and people around
them participates in creating and completing the world you see that you wish to
bring across to your readers. How does your heroine walk down the city's
street? Does she look around at what's going on about her, or does she look
down when she walks? If she looks down and walks slow, maybe she's depressed,
or maybe she's an oddball who likes to see if she can find loose change on the
ground. Does she fall in line with everyone else walking around her, or does
she hang in the back, away from everyone else? These things can show the reader
more about your characters' personalities.
It's true that people don't want to be bogged down with too
much detail; however, all you need are a few sentences to get your point
across. I’m sure many of you as writers know all of these elements and how to
employ them; I only wish to give you another way of looking at world-building
and some tricks on how to apply them to areas where you are challenged. By
changing the way I looked at world-building and how to apply it to my own
writing, I was able to be more patient in areas I wasn’t too fond of working
on, such as time, place, and setting. It also allows me to plot better, when I
decide to work on my universe or galaxy. However, let’s not forget the most
important feature of world-building and that is: have fun.
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Chaeya is a storyteller, songwriter, musician, poet, and all
around daydream believer. When she isn't being domestic with her husband and
two daughters, she fancies herself the Empress of Ev*A*Dream as the leader of
the band "Chaeya and Her Dark Secret." She performs often around
Southern California.
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