Dear O'Abby: How do I do better world-building in my book?

 Dear O'Abby,

I just got my MS back from a group of readers and need some help.  All of them liked the story and the characters and the overall structure of the book, but they all mentioned that they felt the world-building was weak.

Now this is confusing because my book is contemporary and is set in an imaginary, but very typical modern, western city.  Think anywhere from London to Chicago to Sydney.  Any of them could be the setting for this book.  Or even smaller cities - anywhere with suburbs, more than one public high school, a public transport system etc.

I always thought world building was something that really only applied to fantasy or sci-fi or historical books where the reader needs to understand the landscape, politics etc.  I didn't think a contemporary book set in a place most readers will recognise needed much world building.

What do my readers mean?

Kind regards,

World-weary

Dear World-weary,

World building is talked about most in relation to genres where the story setting may not be familiar, but even books set in the real, modern world need a degree of world building to feel real.  You can assume that the majority of readers are familiar with cities, but I think what your readers are commenting on is a lack of specific details that will make your fictional city feel real.

Things like the weather.  A hot, dry city is very different to one where it rains almost daily.  Something as simple as knowing the weather patterns for your city will affect the way your characters dress, travel and behave.  As will the landscapes. For example, if one of your characters walks or cycles everywhere, the experience will be very different in a city built on hills than one built on the flat.  How the characters spend their leisure time can also be affected by the landscape surrounding them.  If there is a lake and it's summer, they probably hang out there and swim or boat or fish.  The same if the city is on the coast and there's a beach.

Or maybe they don't.  Maybe the beach is there, but your character hates the way sand gets everywhere and the way salt air feels on her skin so she never goes.  

You don't need to tell your reader everything about the city, but a few well-placed details create a world that feels authentic and this makes your characters, who live and engage with this world, more authentic too.  If a character is getting anxious waiting for a bus because they have to get to an urgent appointment on time, you could throw in a mention of the city's re-organisation of the public transport system and how unreliable it has become as a result.  This not only provides added context for the character's anxiety, but also gives depth to the world in which they live.

Other small details that can add texture to the fabric of your world are sounds and smells.  Writers often forget to engage all their characters' senses as they move through stories.  In real life we all gather information about the world we move through by sensing things as well as seeing them.  An interesting exercise is to describe the place you're in, or a place you know well, without using the sense of sight.  How much can you show using only things you can hear, smell or feel?

It's the small details that make the setting compelling, and by focusing on the details your character would be most conscious of, you're not just building a world, but your character's world.  How they interact and react within it also builds the character and makes them more authentic too.

I hope that helps. 

Best of luck with your revision!

X O'Abby

P.S.  Here are a couple of books that might be of interest to you: 

Preparing to Write Settings That Feel Like Characters

The Urban Setting Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to City Spaces (Writers Helping Writers Series Book 5)

#AtoZChallenge World Building

World Building

Hello friends! Our A-Z topic for today is world building. Rather than write another how-to guide (because let’s be honest, the internet is full of them…and I don’t want to write another how-to guide) I’m going to talk about the world building in one of my favorite fantasy series, the SEVEN REALMS series by Cinda Williams Chima.

         

SEVEN REALMS is a YA fantasy series of four books that take place in the Seven Realms (surprise), primarily the Queendom of the Fells. I often use this series as a reference for CPs who write fantasy because I think the world building is full, meaningful, and well-woven into the narrative. Also they’re awesome and I almost brought them to Europe with me but hardcover is heavy.

Classes

There are very clear differences between the lives the main characters experience. Raisa is a member of the royal family, and Han is a former gang member trying to straighten up. The river that runs through the city is highly polluted, a source of tension for Han and something Raisa doesn’t really need to worry about. Han struggles to get medicine for his family when they get sick, but Raisa has the best healers in the realm at her beck and call. Raisa is aloof to the issues her people face on a daily basis, things Han has to deal with or die. When she attempts to fix some of these issues, she’s met with real pushback from people who’d rather see the status quo stay the same.

Even with the obvious disparity between Raisa and Han, there are public works and efforts made to assist those in the lower parts of society. Basic education – reading, writing, history, etc. – is free and open to all. More focused studies can be undertaken at academies, although those require payment of tuition and may not be available to everyone. Ultimately these things act as beacons of hope for the characters at the lowest levels of society, which is something a ruler needs to prevent total breakdown of society. It sounds cynical, but it’s true – and it plays a major role in the plot. Keep in mind that, in a fantasy world, there are hundreds or thousands of civilians and only a dozen members of the royal family, conditions that are ripe for rebellion of the situation calls for it.

Factions

When I was fourteen, I went to a writing seminar Chima held and she gave me the best writing advice I've ever received: Every character should have a goal. This is clear in the way the various factions in SEVEN REALMS interact. Wizards, clans, military, royals, gang members, students, people who straddle the line between groups - there are so many factions, and they're all at odds. Balancing a great deal of goals is a difficult task. Sometimes, you can find a temporary common ground and forge an uneasy truce between warring groups. Those are the best opportunities for back-stabbery (muahaha). Make a clear outline or list of what each character wants, and what their faction wants. When those things are at odds, it creates excellent internal conflict.

Magic

The magic system in SEVEN REALMS is, in my opinion, exceptional. Magic is inborn, passed down through magical lines of heritage. All wizards have a magical “aura,” a sort of glow that can be seen and identified by other wizards, but not by non-wizards. This aura is the magic being exuded by the wizard; if the wizard does not store the magic in an amulet, it can overwhelm them. Amulets store a limited amount of magic and gradually fade in power over time, requiring the wizards to return to the clans for their amulets to be recharged.

Spells require study to master. The difficulty of a spell – whether it’s the distance at which it’s cast or the amount of work it does – determines how much magic it requires. A wizard who completely drains their amulet and the magic in their person can find themselves incredibly weakened, possibly to the point of being unable to stand. In addition to wizards’ magic, there’s also “green magic,” which is centered around the earth and living things. It’s not as powerful, but it can still accomplish many things. These limitations make the magic seem real.

Having a magic system with well-defined limitations sets the stage for conflict, whether it’s between characters or between characters and the magic system itself. There will always be those who want to test the limits of magic, like Voldemort or Morgoth, which can introduce a great source of tension and mystery. Defining your magic system also makes sure that your characters don’t become gods who can magic themselves out of any sticky situation, bring someone back from the dead, or change time. Without limits, magic becomes a game where anything goes.

Weather

I’m including this because it’s something I often forget about in my writing. In SEVEN REALMS, the characters have to contend with harsh weather like the snow and bitter cold of mountain passes, or rain that echoes so loudly on the roof you can’t hear yourself think. The first book even starts with a mountain fire. Not every day has to be that dramatic, but consider how much weather affects your daily life – it’s probably more than you’d think. How many times have you brought an umbrella, only to not need it? Weather and climate should carry the same weight for your characters.

Trust

The later books get into a mess of political dealings. Han and Raisa struggle to balance allegiances, debt, assassination attempts, and a lot more. I mention this because so often, I see characters who have stabbed one another in the back and then a few pages later turn around and become best friends again. Characters in these books take time to rebuild those relationships. They need proof of loyalty before trust can be given again, which for some characters takes the span of an entire book. Keep this in mind when characters break one another's trust. You can't just pick up the broken pieces and put the glass back together again.

Things are just…real

Same-sex relationships aren’t unusual. One of the characters is a teenage single mom. Characters deal with the difficulties of being biracial. There are characters with physical disabilities. I’m not saying all of these characters are represented perfectly – I certainly can’t speak for all of them – but the fact that they’re there speaks to the diversity of the world and the realness of the people, and ultimately that speaks to me.

Thank you for reading my fangirl thesis, I'll be here all week.

'Tis the Season

While the setting may seem like a simple part of the story, it can actually have a huge impact on what is going on. Some stories have more pronounced settings than others. In some books, the setting is more of a subtle background, the stage on which the actors play, while in others, the setting is almost a character in and of itself. Either way, the setting is a very important part of a story.

The events detailed in The Scarlet Letter, for instance, either wouldn't have happened or would have happened in a very different way with a very different outcome if the story had been set someplace like the farthest frontier outpost or a Native American village or in the southern states...even during the same time period. The setting of a story, not just the physical location but everything about it (time of day, season, outside (forest or beach) or inside (and what type of building if inside)) can greatly impact the success of a story.

This is something that I've been paying particular attention to recently because of my current WIP. It's a road trip romance that I had initially set in during the winter. But, my editor and I got to talking the other day. This book will release in the summer - and we just weren't sure if people would be interested in reading a book set in the winter when they were laying on a beach somewhere or finally reveling in a little warmth after a long, cold winter.

So, I am currently in the process of changing winter into summer (just wish it was this easy in real life) ;-) And I've been a bit surprised by how many tiny little details I sprinkled throughout the story that have to deal with the weather. From my character's clothing to descriptions about the sky and landscape to whether or not my characters can see their breath when they speak - even details about how the react and interact with each other. Bundled in snow suits they can only speculate what the other may look like with less layers. Stripping down to the bare minimum because of the heat leaves little to the imagination.

In the long run, I think we've made the right decision. I'm really enjoying the different scenarios I've been able to pen because of the season change. And I actually need to get back at it because this book is due in two weeks and there is still a lot of work to do ;)

I am curious though - how do you feel about reading books set in a different season than what is going on in real life? Would you want to read a winter set book in the middle of summer?

I hadn't thought about it before this, but honestly...I think I do tend to gravitate toward seasonally parallel books. I don't generally pick up a book with a snow-covered picture on the cover in the middle of summer. I never realized that before :)