Worldbuilding Session Four Geography

WORLDBUILDING SESSION FOUR: GEOGRAPHY This week, how about a preview of the revised fourth session of my on-line course Worldbuilding in Fantasy and Science Fiction Writing, which begins up once more day after tomorrow… I may go as far as to say that fantasy and science fiction worldbuilding is ninety p.c naming things. We tell tales about individualsâ€"and even if you reimagine “individuals” as elves or replicants, persons are people. Our emotional lives, our fears and wishes and expectations monitor from story to story. That’s what makes a character in a fantasy novel simply as believable, simply as “real” as a character in a up to date romance. But where they reside, the world we’re building around them, is completely different: totally different cities, totally different nations, completely different gods… completely different geography and different names for the things they discover there. This is the place the thinking you’ve done in the broader classes of magic and expertise, authorities and rel igion, and tradition all come collectively underneath what will be the broadest category of all. In his guide Maphead, Ken Jennings wrote: It’s misleading to consider geography as a single discipline in any respect. Instead it’s the ultimate interdisciplinary examine, as a result of it’s made up of each different discipline viewed spatially, through the lens of place. Language, historical past, biology, public well being, paleontology, urban planningâ€"there are geographers learning all these subjects and aspects of geography taught in all of them. In one sense, geography’s ubiquity is an argument for its significance. So yes, by all means, draw maps, however there’s lots more to it than that! Language If we begin with the fundamental idea that no one literally speaks English in both Westeros or in the galaxy far, distant by which Star Warstakes place then we now have to imagine that the Georges R.R. Martin and Lucas have done us the service of translating (a minimum of most of) what their characters say into English (even when that come through subtitles) so we don’t have to first study a new, invented language to be able to take pleasure in those stories. That leaves us with this query: To translate or not to translate? I say: Again, no less than ninety % of the time, translate. I tackled this issue in The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction: In the old Battlestar Galactica tv collection from the late seventies, our heroes are humans who've been separated from the rest of humanity and are on a pilgrimage to find what has for them turn out to be the legendary Earth. It’s naturally assumed that though the actors are talking English, their characters are talking their o wn native language, they usually’ve received their own system of weights and measures. To emphasize this point, the characters say “Wait a centon” instead of “Wait a minute.” I’m sure there are hardcore fans out there who will discover my opinion sacrilegious, but I imagine that was a horrible decision. If a centon and a minute are essentially the same, why not translate centon intominute and get on with telling the story? No episode was improved by the fact that they labored in centons as an alternative of minutes. And I stand by that opinion. Translate something, not just units of weight and measure, into English (or the metric system, should you like, in science fiction) in the identical method you’re translating the words for floor, table, love, etc. But then… not at all times! I labored for nearly fifteen years as an editor for TSR and Wizards of the Coast, and labored totally on the Forgotten Realms novel line. I’ve often pointed out that the dark elves of th e Forgotten Realms world put on a cloak called a piwafwi, and you’ll see it called that throughout dozens and dozens of books. So why not translate “piwafwi” into “cloak”? Well, it turns out that a piwafwiis a very specific sort of cloak, made only by the darkish elves. It has some magical properties that assist the wearer go unseen. It seems like a cloak, and in every different way features like a cloak, however this very particular factor doesn't exist in the actual world. There isn't any English word for it. It is a piwafwi. So, adopt this rule: If there is a clear actual-world analog, translate it. If not, name it. But then how then will we come up with words like piwafwi? And no, you do not want to literally create a brand new language earlier than you possibly can write a science fiction or fantasy novel, even if there might need been an creator (like Tolkien) who did so, or somebody who got here alongside later to create Klingon deep into the life of the Star Trek f ranchise. If you could have a background in that kind of thing and approach it extra as a separate pastime than as a essential part to your writing, have enjoyable. But regardless of the way you slice it, time spent over-worldbuilding is time spent away from writing! Free, then, of the requirement to create our personal variations of Elvish, how finest to create distinctive individual phrases for when they're needed? I really don’t want to just say: String collectively letters that you just suppose sound cool. But then, I’ve carried out exactly that to give you names for characters, planets, cities… all kinds of things. In truth, I would bet that a minimum of half the names of your favourite fantasy characters, places, and so on, had been generated in simply that method. I worked with an authorâ€"and you'd acknowledge her nameâ€"who informed me that she used placeholders all through her text virtually till the last second, and after I requested her tips on how to pronounce one character’s name she mentioned, “I don’t know, it’s F3 on my keyboard.” Now, I am not recommending that. I are inclined to think you must be able to name your characters by name as quickly in your writing course of as potential to get to know them as well as you can so as to bring them properly to life. But I know simply as many authors who fall into work-stopping obsession over finding precisely the best name, struggling over every syllable till they just freeze up. And you don’t want to freeze up! We’ll take a look at more particular recommendation in the classes under, however here’s a little more general sensible advice on the themes of language: A good rule of thumb when creating new thingsâ€"monsters, animals, ranks and titles, and so onâ€"is somewhat than create a brand new rule of grammar and usage to go with it, simply discover the closest actual-world analog to that new thing and follow that rule. For monsters, we’ll wish to fall back on the foundations for animals. Though we’ve seen a number of examples, particularly from H.P. Lovecraft, the place the names of the monsters have been capitalized, I suggest you let that be one other of his quirks. So should you’ve created a monster referred to as a “bloodstalker,” and it’s clear that there’s more than one bloodstalker out there, it might be bloodstalker, lowercase b, the identical means the b inbear would be lowercase in case your characters were being hunted by a bear. A possible exception could be if indirectly that was a sort of brand nameâ€"applicable maybe in science fiction but doubtless by no means in fantasy. So Dr. Morpheus has created the Bloodstalker, and you’d use the initial cap the same means you'll for, say, a make of automotive: Dodge Caravan or Plymouth Destructinoid. Of course, if the monster has a correct name, like my name is Phil, then you would observe that fundamental rule, i.e., Kong, Godzilla, and so on. This may even maintain true for ranks an d titles, so watch out with preliminary caps: “Good morning, Lieutenant Galen,” Bronwyn said, using the capital L when the rank and name are used collectively. “Good morning to you, too, Captain,” replied Galen, utilizing the capital C as a result of the rank or title is used rather than a name, while leaving it lowercase when referring to somebody in the generic, as follows. “Have you seen any of the colonels round?” â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans