Other Worlds

[sistermagpie]

I was so sad today to hear John Ritter died. Johnny Cash too, yes, but he's like the end of an era, a different kind of death. I've loved John Ritter since he was on The Waltons--he always seemed to have a good heart. He was practically the saint of Three's Company (according to the E!True Hollywood Story, anyway) as well as being the only thing not totally annoying about that show. (Look, if you'd just talk to each other instead of listening at the keyhole and jumping to conclusions...oh, whatever. I'll catch up with you at the Regal Beagle when this is all worked out.)

A few years ago In Style did a baby issue that had a picture of his daughter, Stella, whose mother is Amy Yasbeck. I'm not that big on babies but this little girl was the prettiest thing I had ever seen. She didn't look real--she had big blue/green eyes and coppery blond-red curls. She was like a painting. I kept going back to look at her picture she was so striking. So I always remembered her for that and also because we (Stella and I) shared the same birthday...

...which is the day John Ritter died. Her dad died the day Stella turned five. Poor, poor kid! I'll bet they were going to have something special for dinner and dessert when he got home yesterday after work. She must be so confused.:(

In other news, I'm been thinking about world-building in writing and how I can't do it and am so impressed by people that can.



Part of what's wonderful about reading is that it drops you into other worlds that are sometimes so much more beautiful/interesting/passionate/fun than your own. You can go to different times too. Some writers are just incredible at building a world--I'd say it was the greatest strength of JRRT and JKR, in fact.

What amazes me is that these authors, it seems, can imagine a world where they'd like to be and write it. For some reason I find this impossible. Like, I've been seeing all these bus ads for Carnivale and can't wait to watch it (even if I've heard some bad things about it). Depression-era circus worlds, especially sideshows, are totally my thing. I'm there. That makes me wonder why that isn't "my world" in my head? Like, why don't I automatically imagine stories that take place in that sort of world? That's not the only kind of fictional world I like, but I have the same trouble with other ones sometimes. I can see the world from a distance but the details escape me.

Building fictional worlds of any kind is a problem for me. I remember the editor of one series I worked on making me go back and put in some physical description--I had none anywhere. People would be in the kitchen with no description of said kitchen. I'd rarely describe anything. I guess I'm like that in life too--I rarely describe what something physically looks like but I might say something it reminded me of, like, "She had this little dog that reminded me of a Squirmles." I've recently been trying to figure out a world because I've been thinking ot a story that takes place Somewhere Else but I get so self-conscious about it. With the characters I can ask myself a question and just answer it instinctively: X's favorite color is the color blue that his Great Grandmother's dress is in her portrait or Y thinks her worst feature is her chin. But with worlds it's like...well, Z is involved in some kind of underhanded dealings on a grand scale but, um, what specifically? Because "vaguely shady dealings" isn't going to cut it.

I'm still casting about. I suspect I'm just going to have to wait until the characters suggest the thing because any world that's going to appear is probably going to grow out of them rather than pop out of the world. I've realized too that every fictional world I come up with is really only one of two places: Pelham or Northampton, aka, the place I grew up or the place I went to college. Only warped slightly as they are in my imagination, a little more magical and a little more gothic because, as a teacher in grad school told me, nothing I write really takes place in "this world" even when I think it does. He was a great teacher, so I take him seriously. He didn't seem to dislike my writing, he just said I probably needed to warn people early on in any piece I wrote that it took place in Oz because eventually that tornado would hit and they'd feel tricked. So I must have a world, my own world, I mean, and maybe it's a good one. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm a natural describer of worlds, so even that may not come through properly. I think I'll surf around some...I'll bet there are some exercises and things on the net to help get better at this. If anybody has any tips, of course, they will be greatly appreciated!

Comments

[shadowluck.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

Hold on a minute:

http://www.sfwa.org/bulletin/articles/baxter.htm
http://www.sfwa.org/writing/worldbuilding1.htm

There's a lot more out there, but I can't remember how to find it off the top of my head.

Out of curiousity, do you have any starting ideas/requirements for this world you're going to build?

*reminds herself to get Yahoo!Messenger sometime*

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links! I am totally going to check them out today--I've unfortunately been without power all day so couldn't do it until now!

I don't have any real requirements for the world...it's more like I have a general idea of the kind of world it seems to be but have no experience filling that out. I don't think it's magic exactly, though there may be ghsots.:-)

[dotsomething.livejournal.com]

Worldbuilding doesn't always have to mean making up a complex socio political, religious, and social background for a comletely made-up fantasy realm, with maps and everything (yes, most fantasy has this but it's not the only way). Have you read any Charles DeLint? Into the Green is set in Toronto. There's tons of worldbuilding in it of an unusual kind.

I think a lot like you--I spend pages and pages working out character backstories, nightmares, motivations, how they relate to other characters. But invent a fantasy world system of government? My own language? A detailed history of every monarch this imaginary world has had since the second cycle of the fortieth age? No way. I've had some experience in this working on a shared universe, but I'm always the one who wants to get right to the dialogue and plots and groan whenever one of my coauthors says "You know, we really need to figure out the system of currency."

Sounds like your Gothic Pelham is worldbuilding. It's got its own atmosphere and set of rules, doesn't it?

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Thanks--I will check out DeLint. I've never read them.

Gothic Pelham really is the kind of world I naturally come up with. I've written children's stories with princesses but they always borrow heavily from regular life, like there's a princess but then there's just the prince in the next kingdom over...because really I think every little girl is the princess of her own house. So I'll have a castle but it'll have a dishwasher or something. A whole world would probably have to be more consistent, though.

[(Anonymous)]

You seem to start from the characters, rather than the world. So let your characters tell you about the world they are living in.

For example (from one of your own comments): People in X's great grandparents time had colour portraits made. Why was the portrait made? Are such portraits still made? Was he looking at a photo? painting? holograph? Was blue a popular colour? Or did it have some kind of significance, social, religious, political? Why a dress? What did it look like? Why is that particular blue his favorite? Does it remind him of his great grandmother, or is there something specific he likes about the portrait? Did she live long enough for him to know her? This leads to all kinds of questions to ask X about how old he is, what age she lived to, her social standing and health, about a society where he'd have some kind of relationship with her (and what then, was his relationship with closer female relatives?) What was her name and/or title?...etc ad nauseum. You can learn a lot about X''s world just by asking him about this portrait.

Leshii

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's exactly the way I'm going to have to about this thing. You've made it sound interesting already, though, THANKS!

[anamirza.livejournal.com]

Well, the other comments have more useful things to say about world-building than I could ever come up with. I will instead attack world-building in writing and how I can't do it, which should read, world-building in writing and how it doesn't come naturally to me. Of course you can do it - it just isn't the thing that is easiest for you. And of course you admire those who do it well - authors who do well the same things you do well don't seem so special :)

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

You got me! Yes, you're right. I'm just letting myself off the hook by saying I can't do it like it's physically impossible. :-)