Just to let you all know, the blog may take next week off. I’ll be vacationing, tra la, and I don’t know if I’ll get to it.
On August 29th, 2011, Charlotte wrote, ….I’ve got the plot set down pretty well in the novel I’m working on, but what I’m having trouble with is the world itself. It’s fantasy, and it’s set in a world other than this one, and I don’t want it to come off quite as modern as our world–e.g. skyscrapers, cars, etc. But there are some modern aspects that I do want to use–e.g. Polaroids but not digital cameras, flashlights but not streetlights, pianos and acoustic guitars but not keyboards and electrics, trains but not cars, etc. And there are also period aspects that aren’t necessary to get into, such as how people wash their clothes or go to the bathroom, which are never significant to the story, but I feel I have to put in anyway because I know I’m wondering how these things work, though I don’t remember ever wondering that when reading any other book.
Is it okay to have only some modern inventions, and even more in the background? Or do I need some major reason why there aren’t highways and a million electric appliances–like how in Harry Potter they explain that Muggle inventions tend to “go haywire” around heavy concentrations of magic, which is why there are no computers or electric lights at Hogwarts?
If it works, it’s fine. If the reader accepts whatever you’ve laid down, you’ve done well. But not so well if your reader starts scratching her head and loses interest in your story because she doesn’t understand why your zebras are plaid not striped but they’re still called zebras.
If you’re writing about a sort of modern world, like ours in some respects, different in others, readers will assume that details not mentioned (toilets, laundry, banks) work in the regular way. You don’t have to haul them into your plot just to show them in operation. Even if they’re different, if the differences don’t influence events, you can omit them. When they’re needed, say in the eleventh volume of your series, you can bring them in. If you’ve set the stage for a world in which mattresses turn sleepers over like pancakes at two am every night, the reader will go with the flow, or, in this case, the flip.
You mention Polaroids as a kind of camera you want to keep. The trouble I have with that is simply the name. Polaroid seems to belong solidly to planet earth, because of the link to Polaroid Corporation. I’d look for a generic term, like instant-image camera. In my fantasy novels I avoid references to our reality. Of course this is impossible to do entirely. Gnomes and ogres, for example, are our invention. Still, we’re not going to meet up with them at the supermarket. In another example, when I write dark-skinned characters I don’t call them African, and I don’t call light-skinned characters European. There is no Europe, no Africa. Dark-skinned characters don’t have to come from a warm climate or fair-skinned from a cold. In my world the effects of sun on skin color are up to me.
It can be helpful, as in your Harry Potter example, if you know why some features of modern life were invented in your world and others weren’t. Knowing can guide your future choices. But it’s okay if you don’t know. In our real world modern inventions come about because people think them up. Sometimes new technology makes the thinking possible, but sometimes someone just comes up with a fresh way to use old materials. I believe post-its are an example of this. Alas, there must be myriad potential devices that could help us that no one has dreamed up so far.
If you do know the reason behind the state of technology and tell the reader, you may enhance her pleasure. Here’s a small detail from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series: The trolls in this universe are slow thinkers, actually stupid. The reason, we discover, is that room temperature isn’t their natural climate. The colder it is the smarter they get. At sub-zero they’re brilliant. I love having that explained.
The Discworld series is written in third-person. Most books begin with a short preface about the world, explaining that it rides on the back of a giant turtle. Once the reader sees that, she’s ready for anything. If this kind of approach suits what you’re doing, you can introduce your world in this sort of way even if the rest of the book is told in first person. It’s a quick way of bringing the reader in.
But you don’t have to do this. I never have.
Still, the reader will have a leg up if you introduce your world quickly. I discuss this in Writing Magic, so you may want to take a look. Your beginning sets up expectations for the whole book. Beginnings are hard because you have to do so much: start the conflict, introduce the major characters, begin to establish the world. You can bring on the fantasy after the first chapter, have your main character borrow Grandma’s pearls in the third and get transported to her sixteenth birthday party. Readers may enjoy the surprise but it’s nice if you can work in a tiny hint that such a switcheroo is possible. The reader will remember the earlier brief mention of culottes and be happy.
I often don’t know what my world is going to need until I’ve figured out my whole story, sometimes after hundreds of pages of looking for signs in a forest of plot possibilities. So soldier on!
As always, it can be helpful to show your story to someone. Based on the comments following last week’s post, some of you are nervous when fresh eyes read your writing. I am too! But it’s usually worth it. You can ask a friend or another writer to read the first couple of chapters while looking only at your world building or only at your technology. You can say you don’t want to hear a word about your plot or your characters, just this one thing, and you’re feeling a tiny bit fragile, so please be gentle.
Here are three prompts:
∙ I sometimes wonder how progress happened, especially early human progress. For instance, how did somebody realize that metal could be extracted from ore? How did farming start? Who invented shoelaces? I once read that in the Middle Ages buttons were purely decorative, sewn on clothing just to look pretty; they didn’t fasten anything. How did buttons migrate from decorative to useful? Imagine how something was invented without looking it up. Who was there? What was the dialogue? Was there an argument? Write the scene.
∙ Invent a new imaginary creature, not a fairy or an elf or an ogre. Describe it. Put it in a story.
∙ Consider Rumplestiltskin, who is described by Wikipedia as an “impish creature.” Where does he live? What’s the technology in his culture? How is it that he can spin straw into gold? Write a scene from his backstory.
Have fun and save what you write!
Mary says:
My problem with people reading my writing is that they never tell me the right things. They read it through and all they comment on is grammar or spelling issues even though I keep asking them to comment on other things, too. There are some people that I don't mind reading my writing at all, but these people don't give me enough criticism. So I guess maybe I should start showing it to different people. Also, I love this week's prompts, especially the imaginary creature one.
Clara harpgirl says:
This can be added to the introducing worlds…
In one of my stories, I start by describing the planet, but the rest of the story is in 1st person. I don't like having a third person bit at the beginning with no relation to the story, so what I did was make it be two paragraphs about the world that the character read in her textbook, like I described the world and then put something like, 'I looked up from my textbook.'
Just thought I'd add that…
Dragon-Dudette says:
@ Clara harpgirl – I think that's a really neat way to do it.
My novel takes place on a fantasy planet that's advanced compared to our world, and I throw little hints in the text about that – for instance one character is borrowing his father's car and he goes on a mini-rant about how old-fashioned it is – it still takes gasoline! I did have to put a couple of notes at the beginning of the book, but I wrote those as the author of the book, sort of like a preface.
carpelibris says:
Have a wonderful vacation! I love those prompts.
gailcarsonlevine says:
From the website:
Hi there! Could you please post this on the blog for me? I love, love, loooooooooove to write stories, and have been trying to write one for a year. Gracegirl and I have been doing a remake of "Cinderella(I'm the other rookie!)." Our writing may just be for fun, but on the other side of it, our plots get a little… To complicated! As we write new ideas come surging in and the plot keeps changing! How can we keep a simple yet interesting plot? ~C.J.S
:-D:-D:-D
C.J.S
gailcarsonlevine says:
From the website:
hey there… it's Charlotte from the blog… for whatever reason it's not letting me look at the comments at all, let alone add one!
Thanks so very much for answering my question! I always love how you include several different things to keep in mind in many of your posts… thanks again for that! I'll make sure to come back to this one when I need help…. 🙂
Charlotte
Erin Edwards says:
Ms. Levine – have a lovely vacation!
To go with world building, I wonder if what Charlotte is discussing, which uses some modern inventions but not others, is a little like steampunk and reading some of those might help her? I just recently read my first two, but I would classify them as YA (I know a lot of readers here are MG). Anyone know if any MG steampunk? The closest I can think of are the Far Flung Adventure books by Chris Riddell such as Fergus Crane.
@CJS – It sounds like you and your partner are bursting with ideas and what might help you is – horror of horrors! – an outline. 🙂 Not to constrain you, but to give you a direction to go. You could try taking the 3 act structure or the Writer's Journey to figure out which of your scenes are most important and order them according to plot points.
Lark says:
Another series that is sort of "in this world" but not is the Hunger Games. How do I explain this… it's fantasy enough that we can't imagine it ever happening to us and realistic enough that we relate to it. For instance, there are completely high-tech things (like in the Capitol) but Katniss and Gale hunt for food– so it's both fantasy and real-life. ?? That wasn't the best explanation… oh, well.
@Gail– where are you going on vacation?
@Clara harpgirl– that's a great idea! I might se something of the sort. It would look sort of like a preface or whatever but actually- BAM!- it's part of the story. 🙂
I have that problem with descriptions… I go through my story, tra de da, then realize I'm in a fuzzy world that I have no clue what it looks like. So I add about three pages of descriptions that take away action from the plot, and satisfied, I go on about six chapters before realizing that my world is fuzzy again. So I dump descriptions on my poor readers again. Does anyone have a way of getting past this? Help!!
writeforfun says:
Gail – lucky you! Have a nice vacation!
Thanks for another wonderful post! I especially love the last paragraph of this post just before the prompts.
Lark – I have a way, but you're not going to like it: forget about it! Until you're finished, that is. Then when you edit it, you can sprinkle the descriptions through, a hint here, a detail there. The action will be there already so you'll be able to see what needs description more description and what needs less. Hopefully, others will have more satisfying suggestions:)
carpelibris says:
Writeforfun: Sounds like a great method to me!
Erin Edwards says:
@ lark – Maybe you could try this. Instead of putting three pages of description *in* you manuscript, stop and pull up another document, or a pen and paper, and write away as you imagine your world. Put that in a file, real or on your computer, called "World Building." Then go back to your manuscript and, where necessary as you tell the story, fit in the descriptions. Of course, where you have already put in the three pages of description, you can work that in when you go back and revise.
carpelibris says:
For CJS:
I've been trying to think of some ways you can simplify your plot. Here are some ideas:
When you get a new idea, white it down in a separate file. That way you won't have the worry in the back of your mind that you'll lose a great idea if you don't use it here. You can always use it somewhere else.
Set a maximum word limit. One of my best-ever professors did this, and it improved my writing dramatically,
Limit your case. Decide how many "Speaking parts" your story needs, and limit your major characters to that #. (If one of the newcomers is too fascinating to lose, either boot someone else or combine characters.)
Hope this helps!
KateCoombs says:
"The reader will remember the earlier brief mention of culottes and be happy." This is going to be my new slogan! Thanks for the good advice.
Kate says:
Hey! I really like this blog–it's super helpful. I was wondering if you would do a post about marketing. I've been working on being a free-lance writer (since I'm about to turn 15 and most likely too young to get published), but don't know much about it. Thanks!
carpelibris says:
Kate, there's no age limit on getting published. I can think of at least one market that encourages submissions from younger authors. (Spaceports and Spidersilk, at Sam's Dot Publications. Actually, Beyond Centauri, also at Sam's Dot, does too.)
The tricky part is that it takes time and practice to learn to write for publication. But there's no rule that says you can't try!
writeforfun says:
I know this is a book writing blog, but do you or anyone else have advice on writing audio dramas? I'm a descriptive writer and really not the audio drama type, but I have a wide-open opportunity if I can just get a story and make a script. It's really hard because I can't seem to get an idea that would work with the "dialogue only" way that audio must be told.Advice MUCH appreciated!
Kate says:
Yeah. I'm not good enough yet, and so am trying to do it mostly on my own. XD Thanks!
You could write in where the sound effects go, maybe.
Melissa says:
I haven't been able to look at the comments section on the blog for a while otherewise I would have said this before. I like to write fantasy- with dragons, fairies, castles and things. Whenever I get stuck I get out my little figurines and play with them until an idea comes. It's fun =Þ
carpelibris- What are the titles of your snow white books? I'd love to read them!
Gail- Is your vacation just a break from writing or are you going somewhere? I hope it's fun! Also, kinda random but Ella Enchanted has helped me with my vocabulary tests a million times. I remember reading the words for some reason and with the sentence too. Just today we were quized on the defintion of omit. I knew it because you used it when Ella was writing to Char. It made me really excited…
carpelibris says:
Melissa (Hey, we have the same name!), thanks for asking- that made my day! The Snow White stories I've had published are just short stories (so far!) One was in a magazine called The First Line, long ago, and the other is in Sword and Sorceress 23.
That reminds me of another way of getting ideas. The First Line is called that because all the stories in an issue have to start with the same first line. It's fun seeing all the different ideas people come up with.
I love the figurines idea. It sounds like a fun way to come up with stories.
carpelibris says:
Ok, I've been trying to work up my nerve to ask this question, because I think it's an odd one. Here goes:
Most of my friends claim that their stories are too long. I started by writing flash, so I'm the opposite way. That's fine for short stories, but I'd like to write novels too, and I "think small." Not just in number of pages, but in scope. For example, when I write about powerful people like kings and queens and so on, with the power to make big changes in their world, I still tend to write about changes to one person, or a few people, rather than the whole kingdom. How can I train myself to "think bigger?"
Thanks!
gailcarsonlevine says:
Lark–I'm in Tucson escaping the cold. We love the Southwest, the mountains, the deserts, the muted colors, the warmer air, the sun.
Kate–I'm not the best person on marketing. I probably don't do enough.
writeforfun–Sorry! I have no experience with audio dramas. Anyone else have any ideas?
carpelibris–I don't think you need to think bigger. Change to one character or to just a few can be fascinating. Maybe you need to throw more obstacles in your main character's way.
carpelibris says:
Thank you, Gail and Writeforfun!
The thing that brought this problem to my attention was a book that I've already written (but haven't found a publisher for yet.) I started thinking "Hey, Character So-And So is an Important Lawmaking Person! Isn't the fact that he's got one of The Enemy living in his house going to get some kind of reaction in the larger world?" And I realized that I really don't deal with that. I've just started another book, a twist on Snow White. Her parents are a king and queen, yet once again, I realized that I'm not paying attention to the larger consequences of what happens to them. I focus on the princess and the "dwarves." (Who aren't all dwarves, per se, but I'm ok with that.)
Maybe both stories work in such a way that that doesn't matter, but I suddenly felt like I was missing part of my writer's toolbox.
Or maybe I've just read too many epic novels. 😉
Kate says:
Thanks, Mrs. Levine!
Melissa says:
carpelibris-Thanks!
carpelibris says:
A while back there was a post asking for more good MG/YA author suggestions. Thanks, everyone who responded to that! My workplace is having a book drive for local schools, and thanks to that post I came up with some great books to donate.
Lark says:
Thanks so much!
@writeforfun– I might just have to try that.
@Erin Edwards– this seems more up my alley! I always do little "character sheets" for each of my characters in other files on my computer. This may work as well. Thanks!
@Gail– oooooo! Have fun! Is it a writing escape or an escape from writing?
@carpelibris– You 'think small', right? Maybe instead of working everyone into the story, you could write a series of short stories but combine them into one longer novel. I always find it difficult to deal with 3rd person omniscient, so I write chapters focusing on one character only. Maybe that could be the deal with you. They should all tie in together at the end– maybe a blanket chapter where you deal with 3rd person omniscient once and for all but you can focus the scope of your writing on one character. Who knows? It could make out to be a great piece of work. An example of this is Schooled by Gordon Korman, where he spends a chapter on different characters throughout the book. Another is the movie Hoodwinked (one of our family's favorites). If we just heard from Red, it would be a yawningly short story that we would have to accept as the truth. But it really isn't… that's why Wolf, Granny, and Kirk (the Woodsman) are thrown in. Watch the movie to see what happens!
But seriously, that's something for someone who can only work on a very small part at a time. I know someone who is currently writing a series of short stories about the same group of people, but in different situations… this could work as well.
Does anyone else have thoughts?
carpelibris says:
Lark, thanks! I've actually tried that, and I've gotten some "This is well written, but I just don't relate to the MC" comments. I wondered if getting the MC more involved with the larger world might help (He's the "enemy living in the house" that I mentioned above. (So his species eats people. He's really a sweet guy. ;))
I don't tend to use 3rd person omniscient. I tend to stick to close 3rd or sometimes 1st, because I like to get into the MC's head. (again, small, individual focus. Sometimes good, but I wonder if my vision is TOO narrow.)
writeforfun says:
Carpelibris – your character sounds delightful!
carpelibris says:
Thank you! People either seem to love him or not relate to him at all. Unfortunately, so far all the agents I've sent the book to have been in the second category. 😉
So I've gone back to short stories for a bit. Speaking of which, I wanted to say thank you. I'd been in a slump where I couldn't seem to finish stories. I think hanging out here, and reading about people writing just for the fun of it, and having fun with it, has helped. I finished 2 stories this weekend.
So, thank you to everybody who's posted about having fun writing!
Lark says:
Haha I'm having fun writing! I just got another idea for character development, only it was for a completely random set of characters (Amelia is harboring a not-so-secret crush on her best friend Lewis' older brother, Marty. Except her friends, Evelyn and Denise, fail to tell her that Marty has a girlfriend named Pearl. Extremely complicated, right??) so I'm squishing the new characters with my old plot and the vague characters I had and VOILA! 🙂
carpelibris says:
Yeah! Yay for versatile ideas!
Lark says:
Haha yes I just thought of a great writing trick for writing. Write until you're burned out, cannot think of any more ideas, or just got bored. Say I write something along the lines of, "Amelia is attacked by Danny. Later, recuperating, he comes into her house and screams 'Where is it? Where is it?' while waving a gun around. Will, Amelia's best friend, knocks him out and they escape to the cliffs of Catcall Island. There they refind the door that they had noticed before when searching for Amelia's ring." I give it to my reader (the whole story up until now, not just this incredibly random paragraph). I've stopped writing because I have no clue what's going to happen next. So after my reader finishes, I ask him//her, "What do you expect is going to happen next?" Say they say "They open the door." So it's my job to do something unexpected: Danny follows them down the cliff, and Will and Amelia have to make a quick escape down into the water. Then maybe, they find something pertinent to my story. This is an easy way to make your story have unexpected twists and turns; open up the world of having friends critique your writing; and give you more and more ideas!
writeforfun says:
Carpelibris – that's the spirit! Writing should never be perfunctory!