A Whole New World
Fantasy can be a dangerous genre for writers. It is incredibly easy to get so involved in world-building that you never get to the actual writing. I find this especially hard, since I love worldbuilding. I’m working on a fantasy trilogy right now and found myself sucked back into the storyline earlier this week, despite the fact that I’m neck-deep in researching the Revolutionary War/War of 1812. Plus numerous bunny trails (for a fascinating read, try Pox Americana, by Elizabeth Fenn, about the smallpox epidemic of 1775-82. Lots of great plot fodder there. But I digress…)
Yes, worldbuilding is an addiction for me. J.R.R. Tolkien once said something to the effect that we are driven to create because we are made in the image of a Creator. I can so understand that feeling.
So far I’ve:
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–Made maps
–Created a language, grammar, and an alphabet
–Charted the phases of the moons (yes, there are actually sources on the Internet for figuring out the effect of two moons on a planet)
–Sweated over a non-seven day week (it really wreaks havoc with moon phases and seasons)
–Redrawn constellations, and made up myths to go with them
–Created 12+ different cultures (including humans, dryads/naiads/oreads etc., elves, and numerous animals)
–Gotten lost in trying to work out all the ins and outs of Dreaming and Singing (two forms of magic in this world)
Um…anything else? Oh yes… Written poetry, songs, prophecies, and a creation story, and drawn floor plans of castles and temples.
That doesn’t even count the usual tasks of timelines and pictures of characters and locations.
And I’m shocked that I’ve only managed to get 40,000 words scattered between the three stories? Gee, I wonder why.
Sigh.
Yup, research in general is dangerous for me. There is an article in the March issue of Romance Writers’ Report on how to “tame the research beast.” My problem is that I don’t always want to tame the beast (especially when I really like the subject, like the American Civil War, or Australia, or cool names from the 17th century, or my own little fantasy world).
Does anyone else have that problem, that they get so enthralled by their research and/or worldbuilding that they have to force themselves to write the story instead of backstory?
February 26th, 2006 at 7:51 am
My big worry is stuffing too much of the research in the story and not in a subtle way.
But what you describe is so very necessary if the tale is not going to have holes big enough for several galaxies.
I like to see imaginary cultures that ARE: with the myths and legends and all the other history a society absorbs. Once you have all that foundation down, you’ll zip, I’m sure.
February 26th, 2006 at 11:20 am
I love the research. I was originally thinking of doing a research degree in my spare time and then decided it would be more fun to write a story than another thesis. I agree with Bernita; really thorough research/worldbuilding is what makes the difference between a story that feels convincing and one that feels thin. I don’t think research is ever wasted, even though only about 5% of it makes it into the text, the other 95% is there in a sort of subliminal way. Did you see the ‘How We Made The Film’ features on the extended DVDs of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings? Things like the costume and armour designers inventing motifs and styles for all the different cultures, even though they know they’ll never be visible on the film. One of them said something like “Nobody will notice it’s there, but it wouldn’t look right if it wasn’t there.” That’s exactly what research does for a book, I’d say.
February 26th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
I can identify with these sentiments! I’ve spent the weekend doing research for my fouth novel…I got so caught up in it, the day was gone before I noticed….and I’m not even an eighth of the way there!