My Author's Blog

Fantasy Worlds

         Recently I have been pressing forward with the sequal to my novel, and in doing so I have also been expanding upon, and 'firming up' some things about the world in which these stories are set. Yesterday, with my favorite football team's game playing on the TV as a back drop, I began redrawing the map I created for my fantasy world. As I was drawing out the coastlines, and making decisions on the locations of places that I have not yet touched upon in my writings, but plan too, it occoured to me how painstaking, and important, creating the 'secondary' world for a fantasy story can be.
 
         When creating a world for characters to live, unless they are set in our everyday world, there are many things that cry out to be set out as facts of that world. All worlds, even our own, have certain laws that govern it, and I don't mean laws made by politicians or rulers. In our everyday world they are the laws of physics, those things that determine what will happen given certain conditions, such as when you drop something, it will fall, everytime. In a fantasy world that is inhabited by strange, and fantastical creatures, some of these laws could even be magical in nature. An example of this from the popular Harry Potter series by JK Rowling would be that casting a certain spell the same way, should result in the same effect each time. Of course it could be said that such 'magical laws' are really the suspension or negation of physical laws, but it comes out to be about the same in the end, and therefore I like to think of it as a 'law' of that world.
 
         Basically, when deciding on these 'laws' the decision is 'what happens when 'A' happens? Then everytime 'A' happens, there would be the same effect, thus a 'law' of that world/universe. Sometimes its not even something that the writer sets about thinking of as a 'law', but just a basic decision of what happens when Merlin begins chanting, or when a Dragon looks you in the eyes. It works the best when there is some congruency, because then the reader excepts it as a 'law' or fact of that world. If it changes throughout the story, without there being some reason behind it that the reader can wrap their mind around, they are most likely not going to be as 'spellbound' with the story.
 
         So remember, the next time you sit down to write a story with a fantasy setting to it, think about that spell your character is casting, or the effect of that weapon or machine. What is it that is suppose to happen? Maybe even think about why it happens, and then decide if you want that to be a set fact in your world. Then of course, even if later you decide you want it to change 'under certain conditions' well even in our world, there are exceptions to every rule, just make sure the reader will recognize it as something out of the ordinary.
 
Until next time, Happy Writing!
 
RD Williams
http://www.authorsden.com/robertdwilliams1