Welcome to another day in the A to Z Blogging Challenge. 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.
Kings, queens, lords and ladies, who is ruling your world? Governments, good, bad, or at war, are always great story plots. Is your futuristic world ruled by committee or is it a dystopian world with no one in charge? Is the government the source of conflict or the answer to it? Do people vote? Are you going to base the government of your world on a modern or historical model? Rolling hills, cloud touching mountains or surging oceans? What is the geography of your world? Fertile farmland or windswept plains? An isolated island? Active volcanoes and shifting continents? Geography can influence government, ease of travel and the welfare of your characters.
Gender roles? In medieval societies in our world, women usually were second class citizens. Will they be so on your world? Will they be of a more ancient tradition where women ruled the village and made the decisions. Will your women have access to education? Can they inherit? Is it a future world where everything is completely equal? What will the gender roles be like in your story?
Do you have a favorite geographic setting? Have you read any novels with interesting, nontraditional gender roles? Have you read or written about any governments that are better than any current ones?
17 comments:
Its a lot of work to research a world, and make it seem natural. Its the most fun I have in writing any novel - even a contemporary world. All world building is unique.
.....dhole
This is a really great blog series. I tend to just write what is happening to the characters first, and you've provided a good resource to return to for building the depth around where I started. Thank you.
Politics didn't really appear in my series until the second book, but they played a much bigger role in the third.
Gods, or those who deem themselves to be, try and rule mine
I've never tried building my own world for a story but if I ever did I think I would like to try one where gender roles are reversed. The ancient tradition of women ruling would be fun to explore. :)
World building sound daunting but also very tempting!
This series has me thinking that there is a reason I write contemporary stuff. It is hard enough for me to write a story with all of these things decided. I cannot imagine thinking each one of these things through...
Great questions, and not easy ones to figure out!
I tend to like dystopian novels, so they usually have something to do with government in it's various forms.
I love the questions you proposed. When I start a story, these aren't the first things that pop into my mind, but they have such a vital role in getting the story to come alive. My current one is a medieval, so I can totally relate to the questions you posed. Great post! Kudos.
this sounds rather difficult but fascinating!
I'm thinking how important geography is to a story. Imagine Lord of the Rings set in the desert! Now there's a story changer.
Government is extremely important, because all worlds are run by someone/thing.
Every time I read another one of your amazing posts, I am surprised that I considered all your questions and I didn't even realize it at the time. I'm good. ;)
SO many thoughts. There are a number of types of governments, and gender roles... It's mind boggling to me the different way societies function based on their gender philosophies. In fact, we watched Emma last night, and I think the kids were kind of surprised by the different expectations for genders during the time period.
I actually did a lot of research on types of government for my scifi; it was pretty interesting reading about the types of government that might be around in the future.
The first thing that popped into my mind was Amazon Warrior Women. I've seen plenty of fantasy or sci fi novels with a strong woman or two, but haven't stumbled across a good society of women ruling their world.
Governments...?
Ha! If I draw on my own experiences, then I could say loads on this topic...
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