#NaNoPrep: worldbuilding – society and how we live #amwriting

November is only a week away. If you are participating in NaNoWriMo and intending to begin writing on November 1^st, this post is meant to help you lay the groundwork for the world in which your novel is set. This is definitely pre-writing, but you might want to describe this world in a separate document.

WritingCraft_NaNoPrep_Novel_in_a_month First, what sort of world is your real life set in? When you look out the window, what do you see? Close your eyes and picture the place where you are at this moment. With your eyes still closed, tell me what it’s like. If you can describe the world around you, you can create a world for your characters.

So, in this fictional world, somebody is in charge of running things. We humans are tribal. We prefer an overarching power structure leading us because someone has to be the leader. We call that power structure a government.

As a society, the habits we develop, the gods we worship, the things we create and find beautiful, and the foods we eat are evidence of our culture.

If your society is set in modern suburbia, that culture and those values will affect your characters’ view of their world. As you write that first draft, the society will emerge onto the paper.

Maybe you are writing a sci-fi or fantasy novel. You will create the world as you write it. But do make a few notes as you go, or you may have trouble showing your world logically and without contradictions later in the narrative.

If that sounds like outlining, relax. You don’t have to call these notes an outline—after all, we don’t want to imply you aren’t a bona fide “pantser.” You can call them “notes.” No one will accuse you of outlining.

chicken clipart What does the outdoor world look and smell like? Is it damp and earthy, or dry and dusty? Is there the odor of fallen leaves moldering in the gutters? Or have we wandered too near the chicken coop? (Eeew … get it off my shoe!) If an author can inject enough sight, sound, and scent into a fantasy or sci-fi setting, the world will feel solid when I read it.

What about the weather? It can be shown in small, subtle ways, a background giving a sense of place to our characters’ interactions and the events they go through.

Once you have decided on your overall climate, consider your level of technology. Perhaps you are setting your story in a pre-industrial society. Do some research now on how the weather affects agriculture and animal husbandry. Bookmark the websites with the best information.

Overall, climate limits the variety of food crops that can be grown. Wet and rainy areas will grow vastly different crops from those in arid climates.

Maybe your novel’s setting is a low-tech civilization. If so, the weather will affect your characters differently than one set in a modern society. Also, the level of technology limits what tools and amenities are available to them.

Visualizing the scene and placing yourself there is the best way to make the fantasy world real. Blend what you know about the natural world into it. Consider writing several paragraphs describing all the details that will never make it into your story. Write them on a separate document, a list of things you, as the author, want to have firmly in your mind.

Paul Cornoyer: Rainy day in Madison Square

In any era, the weather affects the speed with which your characters can travel great distances and how they dress. Bad weather always has a detrimental effect on transportation, offering opportunities for conflict.

Society is the way people live in your world. While writing those first lines on November 1st, details about the society your characters inhabit will surface. They will continue to present themselves throughout the first draft and possibly the second.

Keep notes on the places and people you described. When you get to chapter 30 and need to know what you said in chapter 2, you will have the answer and won’t have to waste time searching the manuscript for it.

How is your society divided? Who has the wealth? Where do your characters fall in that spectrum?

How do we treat each other? Do we have a culture of revenge and aggression?

Who has the power, men or women—or is it a society based on mutual respect? Is there a cisgender bias or an acceptance of different gender identities?

As we said above, someone has to run things. If the politics are a part of your narrative, is the government run by tribal elders, or is it a monarchy, or a democracy, or a dictatorship, or a corporate oligarchy?

How does religion impact your story if it plays a role in your society?

Ferrari_AssetResizeImage What about transport? How do people and goods go from one place to another?

Many things about the world will emerge from your creative mind as you write those first pages and will continue to arise throughout the story’s arc.

Consider making a glossary as you go. If you are creating names for people or places, list them separately as they come to you. That way, their spelling won’t drift as the story progresses. It happened to me—the town of Mabry became Maury. I put it on the map as Maury, and it was only in the final proofing that I realized that the spelling of the town in chapter 11 was different from that of chapter 30.

Epic Fails meme2 Names and directions might drift and change as you write your first draft. Also, if they’re invented words, consider writing them close to how they are pronounced.

(Sigh.) Some names that looked cool and sword-and-sorcery-like when I first put them on paper in 2007 have lost their charm. It never occurred to me that I would still be writing stories featuring them in 2023.

Oops.

Next up: worldbuilding – creating believable magic and the paranormal.

The #NaNoPrep series to date: