World Creation 1

All fiction writers create their own worlds. Even in stories that take place in worlds very similar to ours, the world has some differences that the author must create. For example, Tom Clancy often writes in a modern, realistic setting, and does a lot of research to keep things current. Even so, his characters do not exist in our world, and the events of the novels are not real, so he does have to make some stuff up. The first choice you are going to have to make when you start writing is the sort of world will you create. Will it be close to the world we know, or will it be something that is unrecognizable, or somewhere in between? There are advantages and disadvantages to whatever choice you make, so you should consider carefully.

The various genres lend themselves more easily to different types of worlds. It would be very difficult to write credible historical fiction without setting it in a real historical era. It would be pretty much impossible to write a story of a star spanning empire and its battle against a hideous alien threat from another dimension that was set on a modern day earth nigh indistinguishable from our own. Most types of stories, however, can be comfortably written in many different types of worlds. Fantasy has been done in completely alien worlds, and in worlds that initially look like our own. Political thrillers have been mostly written in the real world, but a few have moved to near future worlds that are very different from what we are used to. Your chosen genre will not always dictate what your setting will be. I will divide the types of worlds into three broad groups. There are real world settings, such as those of Clancy and LeCarre. There are completely invented worlds, like those in Lord of the Rings and Dune. Finally there are worlds that look like our own on the surface, but become much more alien when probed, like the worlds of Lovecraft's stories and the world of Harry Potter.

Writing in a completely real world has one major advantage. You don't need to work very hard for people to envision it. You won't need to explain to anyone what a Coke is. It won't be too hard to explain what New York city is or why it is important. Odds are good that you won't need to go into a lot of detail to describe window dressing objects since everyone will already have a clear picture of what they look like. However, there are two big disadvantages. First of all, you will have to do a certain amount of research to make sure that you have all your facts straight. It will be even more important to do good research if you are setting a story in a place you don't have a lot of experience with. Count on people who have spent time in your chosen setting to read your story. They will pick out errors with ease, and it may spoil the story for them. The less familiar you are with a setting, the more research you will have to do to get it right. As such, I recommend that you start with settings you are at least familiar with. This applies to time as well as place. If you studied the Civil War in school, you won't have to quite as much research to make a credible Civil War story than if you studied Canadian History instead. The second problem you may face is what you can do in the story and still keep it believable. If you set the story in the real world you pretty much have to keep it there. You won't be able to have a tornado strike in Downtown Seoul no matter how much the story calls for it. You will have to be careful not to write yourself into a corner that requires you to exit the reality of the story.

Dealing with a completely invented world also has pros and cons. They are pretty much opposite those of dealing with real world settings. On the plus side, you won't have to do as much research to make your world seem real. You will still have to do some work if your world has settings similar to those in the real world, but since you are inventing your world from scratch, what ever you put in is real for that world. Don't go overboard, however. Suspension of disbelief will only carry you so far. Since you are inventing your setting you also don't have to be so wary of violating natural laws as long as there is an explanation for why you are doing so. On the other hand, you must make absolutely sure that you don't violate the internal logic of the your story. Once you start doing that it is hard to stop. It also becomes hard for readers to trust you once you begin to cheat like that. The primary disadvantage is that you have to give details about everything. It can be hard to do that. It is clear in your head what everything in your world looks and sounds like, not to mention smells, tastes and feels. You may forget to present a relevant detail to your readers since it is obvious to you. Be very careful not to do that.

If you deal with a real world that becomes more alien as the story progresses, you get some of the advantages and disadvantages of both the previous choices. You will have to research your settings carefully to keep them as real as is required for your story, but you can make changes as is appropriate. You will have to make sure to describe all the features that make your world unique, but cars, buses and cheeseburgers will go without details quite well. The biggest unique limitation to these combination worlds is how far can you take the differences before people stop believing the story altogether. If you decide that the Waco compound was attacked because the people within had constructed a nuclear weapon with materials supplied by a secret organization, it probably won't hurt that much since no one would have been able to actually see the device in the confusion. Hence, no major break with reality. If you decide that Waco was attacked because all the people within had been killed and replaced by robots, that might be too much of a stretch since the press that was there should have seen something. As such you will have to carefully consider the all effects on everyday life of any change you come up with. This is especially important if you are doing an alternate history story. Make sure you are thorough in describing the changes in modern society that result from the major historical shift. For example, if you decide that Hitler was assassinated in 1936, consider carefully what this may have done to society. Without a common enemy, would the US and USSR been at each other's throats that much faster? Would the US have bombed Moscow instead of Hiroshima, and Stalingrad instead of Nagasaki? What would the results have been from the fallout? The bigger the change you create, the more dramatic the effects unless you have a good in story reason why that is not the case.

Which type of world you create is ultimately up to you. Do what you feel the most comfortable with and what makes the most sense for your story. If you don't like doing a lot of book work, an invented world might be more to your liking. If you don't like having to describe a lot of background information, a real world setting may be better. The choice is all yours. Make sure to make one you will be happy with.