Monday, September 25, 2006
World-building
Everything I know about world-building I learned from DVD special features. It's true. This whole desire to create a world got thrust on me suddenly, and I often found myself wondering just what the right way is to go about creating a world. I'm sure my ignorance has worked in my favor in some cases, but at the same time I needed a reference to see how other people do it. And with me being out of work and with this bum leg of mine, I had lots of time to kill. Most of that was filled with me trying to figure out this writing thing, but I also got a lot of movies on DVD in order to check out some other stories in this genre in a bit more time efficient way than reading (though I did that too).
But what I found was that even better than actually watching these films was watching the special features or commentaries on how they went about creating the worlds and visions. One that springs to mind is a documentary I watched on The Dark Crystal. They talked about how the starting point of the story was the created world, and went into depth about how they strove to make everything in that world work and be believable. From there, the story arose. That struck a chord with me.
My own writing felt like that. Even though things started with a single character drawn on my leg cast, the world soon took on a life of its own. I found that it would generate stories seemingly on its own. It's nice to know there are other people out there who've had the same experience.
But probably the biggest thing I've learned is that you don't necessarily have to know everything right away. You have to keep things plausible and believable, but you can't be afraid to let things show up in the world and be there without an immediate explanation. I think it helps the world seem bigger and more realistic. Of course I have found that is easier to do in a movie than it in writing.
For those of you wondering how Starfire is coming along, I'm making very good progress. I'm almost halfway through with the first draft. (I think. I'm not entirely sure if any new surprises will pop up between now and the end.) Another few months and I should have the first draft done. Of course, then there will be rewrites. Some days it seems like I'll never be finished and wonder if this will all be a grand waste of time. Still, I do believe there are plenty of people out there who will enjoy Sauria and its stories just as much as I have enjoyed creating them.
S-man
Fortunately for you, S-Man, you can have unexplained aspects and make up things then create the plausible explanation, real or not. For historicals, I've got readers who will tar and feather me if I don't get it right.
Keep up that writing! Starfire will be a big hit when it's published.
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