Creating a Unique Fantasy World
by CT Adams
I love world building. It’s fun to me. And while working out the details can be painstaking, a lot of it really just makes sense to me. I have this character. He/She does things. WHY? WHERE? There is always a why. And any action takes place somewhere. And the whys and the wheres tell you a LOT about the person, and the world they live in.
When I’m really lucky, it all comes to me in a huge data dump. That was what happened with the Celia Graves stories. I saw a photograph in the dealer’s room. It was of blonde woman with a black daisy in her vampire fangs. I looked at it and knew instantly: who she was, what she was, how she got those fangs, how she felt about it. I even could hear radio commercials from their world running through my head.
I must’ve looked as if I’d been clubbed upside the head because my co-author at that time, Cathy Clamp, looked at me and said. “Go up to the room. Write it down. All of it. Now!”
“But the picture . . . “ I started to protest.
“I’ve got this. GO! Before you forget it all.”
She knows me so well.
The dual worlds of The Exile are complicated because there are worlds plural. Oh, our side of the veil is as it really is, which makes it a bit easier. But Faerie is a complicated place with as many different kinds of animals and beings as we have over here. Think about that for a second. We have how many species here? I can’t even count them all. And Faerie has just as many. And they’re magical to boot. Which means there are not only laws of physics to contend with (Yay gravity!); but also laws of magic too.
As a writer I have to create the laws; know them; use them; and REMEMBER them all. And I can’t break them—not without breaking faith with the readers and losing their belief in me and the worlds I’ve created. It’s a big job, and can sometimes feel overwhelming. But done right it is so worth it. Because the world building in the background makes the story, and the characters, seem real enough to touch, real enough to care about. And that is the key to everything.
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Courtesy of Tor, I have a copy of The Exile by CT Adams for one (1) lucky winner!
Contest is open to US residents only. No PO Boxes please. To enter, just fill out the form below. Contest ends April 3. I’ll draw a name on April 4, and notify winner via email.
ENTER DAILY TO INCREASE YOUR CHANCE OF WINNING!
Good luck!
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