Welcome to another day in the A to Z BloggingChallenge. Find the entire list here. My theme this year is world-building.
Mostly I’m asking questions that I believe need to be considered whether you
creating a medieval fantasy world, a science fiction story or even a
contemporary novel. The ideas I present aren’t in a particular order as I had
to fit them into the alphabetical order needed. And don’t forget to visit the
other blog I’m part of during the A to Z Challenge over at the IWSG. Now onto
your world.Every world has them. Disease can play a big role in a novel. A disease could have destroyed society or nearly so. How does your society fight disease? High tech treatments? Old fashioned herbs. Magic or witchcraft? Is it a futuristic world where all disease has been eliminated? Do all people have equal access to treatments? Are you inventing diseases or using one already known to mankind? Is treating disease the responsibility of certain groups?
Along the same lines, are drugs a part of your world? Alcohol is found in medieval societies in various forms but how about tobacco? More potent drugs? Are the drugs being used for medicinal reasons or being abused? Do they play into the plot?
How long is each day on your world? Earth days? In my Recon Marine series, the novels take place on various planets. Not all planets will have days of twenty-four hours or even regular periods of dark and light. What will the days be like?
Can you name a disease a novel used as part of the plot? Have you read a fantasy or historical novel that used magic or herbal cures for illnesses? Have you read a novel with odd length days?
26 comments:
Off the top of my head, two novels with diseases as plots = THE STAND by Stephen King, and THE THINGS THAT KEEP US HERE by Carla Buckley.
For odd length days = THE AGE OF MIRACLES by Karen Thompson Walker.
Madeline @ The Shellshank Redemption
Minion, Capt. Alex's Ninja Minion Army
The 2014 Blogging from A-Z Challenge
Almost every zombie story relies on disease. Haven't used diseases in my stories yet, but there will be a drug in my next one.
As always, good questions. It's astounding how much must be addressed when you create a world.
I have not used disease in my story yet but I play to for the current WIP.
You bring up really great questions to consider when wold building!
So true... Disease can play a HUGE role in a novel.
One of my favorite classic author's has decease plaguing his story..
Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.
Ohhhhhh. I know I have read many books that center on disease and its effect on a society but am coming up blank now. I have a friend who just read "The Great Influenza" and found it fascinating!
Haven't used disease much, but had a zombie or three if that counts
One of these days I'll write something about disease that doesn't involve zombies. :)
Remember Contagion? There was also Outbreak, Children of Men, good movie.
Great choices for D! Every world should have germs, illness, and diseases. If there is life on the planet, you can't escape them. I have to say... the thought of creating my own diseases for a story set in a different world sounds like fun. Is that weird? haha
My juvenile first finished novel (long buried in a drawer) was set on a world with a 25 hour day, broken into five hour increments. Clearly I was on a numerology kick of some sort at the tender age of 17. LOL
Frank Herbert's The White Plague is a classic about a pandemic that wipes out nearly all the female population. How the plague is spread is particularly ingenious.
Happy A-Zing
Laurel
Laurel's Leaves
Diseases also might have attained their space on earth along with lives.Impressive post.Many a literary work is based on ailments.
If I write about a disease, I use one already known to mankind, for research purposes. I think treating certain diseases should the responsibility of certain groups, like for example the oil companies that accidentally dump in the ocean. As such they should get behind the discovery of certain cures by donating to science. But many cures may be beyond our control. Another great post, Susan.
Silvia @
SilviaWrites
Good choice for D, I don't usually think about disease, but I can see how it would make the world more real.
I'm thinking about making columns with all of your world building topics and seeing how many I can use in the future. Great list.
The odd length day thing is a new one to me; never something I really considered, but it's a great idea.
I incorporate facts from our world into my stories, but give them a twist, including drugs.
Great questions as always!! The amount of details to keep track of is astounding...
I don't think I've used disease but I have used 'drugs' which have usually come in the form of herbs in my fantasies. I also wrote a scifi and researched the whole length of day idea. After all, who's to say every class m planet out there has the same cycle as ours?
Liking your posts :)
I have brief drug use in my first book but that's it.
My next Chase Manhattan book will have the Fischerman Virus unleashed upon mankind. But first a couple stand alone novellas.
Those are important things to remember. I like seeing worlds with different days. So many take the 24 hour clock for granted.
i need to remember diseases when i need a good twist - i use drugs as the prime catalyst in my third Cooper Chroniccles book - lots of research involved!
and for c, clothing is fun to design, but i don't do a good job describing it... descriptions in general are difficult for me... oh well! practice, practice, practice, right?
happy e day!
In my world, I have Guilds. One of them is a Healer's Guild. They have their own gardens with all the herbs and plants they need to keep people healthy. When people are injured or sick, they go to the Healers. And they're sort of like nuns and monks. But they go out into the world to collect what they can't grow.
All great things to consider when world building. The part about day length made me want to play with that idea a bit. Have a story where the day isn't 24 hours, but something else. Might not be ground breaking, but could be fun.
~Patricia Lynne~
Story Dam
Patricia Lynne, YA Author
I love stories that take place on other planets. Just think how much regular people would have to adapt to a really long or really short day.
Random Musings from the KristenHead — D is for 'Defiance' (and Dogs)
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