Meredith Mansfield, Author

Some more thoughts on world building, today.

For my first novel, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, I have a map and about twenty pages of world building materials (some of which may turn up on this blog, under Worlds, someday).  Most of this is about the various cultures (six in all) in that world.  For these peoples, I wrote out things like:

• How they look–tall/short, fair/dark
• What they wear
• What kind of shelters they live in
• What they eat
• How their economy works.  How do they get what they want?
• How their political system works.  Who’s in charge and how are they chosen?
• What they value.  How would they judge a successful life?
• What are they most afraid of?
• The relative positions of men and women
• Marriage customs
• How they raise their children
• Religion and festivals
• Even how they deal with death

It’s great to know all of this.  Of course, the problem is an awful lot of that crept into the novel and had to be cut later.  But it’s still good to know.  Besides, it’s fun to imagine all these things and how they interact and make sense for one group but shock another.

For later stories, I’ve usually drawn a map, but I haven’t written out the world building in the same way, although I know most of the same things about those worlds.  I just haven’t felt compelled to write it down.

The world building for DREAMER’S ROSE eluded me, until I remembered a trip to Princess Louisa Inlet (where the photo at the top of this blog was taken).  Then the world became real to me in a flash.

And, in writing this, it occurs to me that there is one story for which I really don’t have a good handle on this kind of information, my current problem child SEVEN STARS.  Before I go back to it, I really need to work that out some more.