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. And before you get to my post, please visit In Time where Michael Di Gesu has honored me with one of his superb introductions for The Heir of Futhark, the final book in my first epic fantasy series. Thank you, Michael.
What is the history of your world? Was there once a great cataclysm? Is an ancient war still influencing the current situation? Is there more personal history, a betrayal in the past, that haunts your characters? The history could be a driving factor in your plot. Figure it out.On a lighter note, what are the hairstyles like? Do women wear their hair long? Braided? How about the men? Do hairstyles vary by social class or race? What do they have in the way of brushes and combs? Hair ties?
Are there holidays in your world? What do they celebrate? How do they celebrate? With certain foods? Gifts? Sacrifices? Will you include real world holidays in your story or just have the entire plot take place between traditional celebrations?
Do you ever include holidays in your writing? Do you enjoy creating the history for your stories? Did you ever wonder how a character got the tangles out of their long hair after riding with it streaming behind them on a horse?
22 comments:
All of the above :-) I like history.
Brenda
www.AnEclecticAuthor.blogspot.com
Those I did cover! The history especially, as the history of all the races is key in the third book.
And I guess I never thought about long hair tangling.
I love learning the history of a people in books. Sometimes I just have to watch I don't rattle on when I write!
When I learned about holiday building, it changed my writing forever. :)
I write contemporary mostly and if the timeline overlaps with a holiday, I give the celebration at least a small mention - how a character spends the holidays is very telling, methinks. It would be fun to create a new holiday in another universe!
Good stuff, Susan. Even for folks who write contemporary novels, hairstyles and holidays must be considered.
I read something today that said even the things in your purse speak volumes about you.
Maybe I should have said "handbag" instead of purse.
Hmm, I don't usually include hairstyles. That's a good point!
I love creating the history of my worlds, especially holidays. I tend to base them off our holidays, but the original roots of them.
The history is a big one to cover indeed, that one I've got down
It's a lot of fun to create a history for a made-up world. :) I haven't exactly thought of hairstyles, but my fanciful characters always have different hair colors than what is considered normal. (Silver, gold, purple.)
Holidays have been key to several of my stories. I'm particularly fond of Halloween. There are always great things to write about during this season that's so much a part of our collective ancient consciousness.
I like expanding on history. Creating an entire world or universe is fun and complex. If you look at Tolkien, he has books of language, the people groups, names, maps. That's a life work.
Thanks for pointing out some of the less thought of issues.
hopeful for spring
I LOVE imagining the holidays and where they come from. I think they're a powerful reflection on where a society places their emphasis.
Holidays are a good one, because you can show a lot about a culture with that one detail.
World building is one of the best parts about being an author. For that time when I am creating the world, I can visit another place and time. So much better than waiting on warp drive to be invented.
I love world building and I've written entire histories for all my fantasies - lots of work though!
History is so important to any world we create because it's an integral part of what shapes the world.
I'm enjoying your questions so much, Sue. Loving stopping here every day!! :)
The thing I'm learning most from your A to Z series is that world building, especially for fantasy/sci fi, is a lot more complicated than I imagined.
I was at Michael's place yesterday. He did a superb job with your book!
Hi Sue .. I'll be off to Michael's soon .. but first the thought of creating a whole world, hair styles, holidays, travel routes etc - makes me tired to think about .. but as you say so necessary in any story we tell ..
Cheers Hilary
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