Where Do I Start?

I had a friend ask me this weekend where he should start. He has an amazing idea for a book but no idea what to do with it. I realized I had never actually thought about it like that. I don't even remember where I started, I just know where I'm at. I thought it was worth it to write a blog post with the information I told him.

I have an idea. Now what?

My friend said his idea was a postapocalyptic story. I have no experience with this so I tried to equate it to my process with fantasy writing. Hopefully it will be applicable to everyone.

Forgive my metaphor but it is the one I used when talking with my friend. God built a world before he created man. World building should be your step one. You can't have a story without characters and you can't have characters without a place for them to live. What are the requirements for survival? Shelter, then water, then food. Give your characters shelter.

World Building

We'll start here. Now, world building is so much more than just a world. It's a climate, sure. It's landscape. But it's also history. It's society. It's culture. It's religion.

I want you to imagine a ball of clay. Look at this ball of blue clay in your hand. You can mold it and shape it into anything. You are the creator. There are some rules of course. If you want more colors you need to add something to the blue clay to either change the color or to add other clay of a different color. You probably shouldn't eat it, but I can't tell you how to manage your gut health. You get the point. There are laws of physics, but when you're writing a story it's important to remember some rules are made to be broken--responsibly and stylistically of course.

When deciding on your world, I want you to think about the type of story you want to write. Lets go back to the postapocalyptic story idea. I'm assuming you'll still be on earth. Your globe is already formed, your solar system, your laws of physics. They're already in place. So look deeper. How far after the apocalypse is it? What did the apocalypse look like in your story? What still exists, what has been made moot? Is there any kind of technology that still works, or has your world gone Y2K and all electricity is gone? Forget about the people for now. Just focus on what the world looks like. What does the wildlife look like? Plants, animals, pollution?

Once you can fully visualize this world, what problems exist on it? Are there monsters roaming the lands? Are there cults or gangs that are fighting for power? What does power look like? Is it money? Resources? When the world ended, what was left?

I am going to place my hypothetical world a few years after the end of the world so my peoples are all established well enough. There have to be new rules of society. Is there a barter system in place or is it a free for all? Is there some sort of currency? Are the people nomads or do they band together for survival in numbers?

If you start broad (say a solar system) and then work your way down (solar system, star, planet, continents, countries, cities, townships, streets, houses, family, individual) you'll be able to get a better feel for what your character's motivations are.

Culture Building

Now that you have a physical shelter for your character focus next on their surrounding culture. What are the components of culture? According to a quick Google search it is:

Values and Beliefs

Norms

Symbols

Language

Rituals

Social Structure

Economy

Some of these concepts may not be applicable to your story. That's okay. It's better to be over prepared than under. I read one author talk about a "parking garage". While she is editing her books she will take unnecessary information from the book and instead of deleting it she parked it in a "garage" or a document for lost parts. Come back to it later. It may be necessary further down the road or might even make for nice bonus material. If anyone else remembers the original "Pottermore" it was where JKR put a lot of her bonus material. You could wander Hogwarts and select certain objects and receive insider knowledge about them or the story. There are so many options for how you can use this "extra" information. But you need to know it. You need to know how it affects your characters. You need to know how it affects your story.

A Word on History

I'm not telling you to write a history book for your novel. I'm not not telling you to write a history book for your novel. What I'm telling you is history matters. I live in America. History is every bit a part of me as it is a historian. I'm a member of a religion which focuses a lot on heritage. I know stories from several generations back, from grandparents I never met. I know the history of my religion. I know (generally) the history of my country. I know the history of several wars (or at least the history the victors write, which is another thing altogether). When I say history I don't mean your character has to have conversations about it. I don't know the last time I talked about WWI. I don't know the last time I talked about Thomas Edison or even Shakespeare. But I know history. Your character will, too, whether it's necessary to their day or not.

But my book has nothing to do with religion.

Look. I thought this, too. When I first started writing Pulchra I had no religion involved in it whatsoever. Now the published version? Magic comes from the gods. Trust me when I say that completely took me by surprise when I was rewriting the book. It happens. In My World of Glass my character Sabrina is very devote worshiper. She's a side character. Her religion isn't really talked about. I couldn't even tell you what church she belongs to. But religion makes stories richer because it makes them more real. Your character may be agnostic. But how does the rest of the world handle death? And if the world is agnostic, what do they do with the bodies of their dead? Religion affects a lot more than just what god does someone believe in. It usually has a hand in society morals or traditions somewhere along the line.

Don't take my word for it.

I know I am no expert. As much as I wanted to go to higher education for creative writing I went down the criminal justice path instead. There are thousands of people online (and in person conferences) who will tell you where to start or how to go about world building. Remember, one size does not fit all when it comes to fiction. My go to is Pinterest. I will search world building there and I usually take from multiple sources to find questions to help aide in the process of world building. I also know that Brandon Sanderson has posted lectures on YouTube, and I'm sure there are loads of TedTalks or other podcasts which talk about it. Just search up World Building or Fictional World Building and I'm sure you'll find much deeper explanations. My purpose here was simply to help you realize that your story is so much more than the characters you name or the cities you name. You are a creator in your own right. You have so much more to consider than you realize. And enjoy the process! This is what makes writing enjoyable--create your escape.

World Building Like Mandy

I have considered making my own lecture and possibly recording it and putting it online or making supplemental guides. This is something I really enjoy, so let me know if you are interested and I can work on that!