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"Creating a World – and Living With It"
A Workshop for Writers
by Rachel Lee
Introduction: by Rachel Lee
I’ve created several worlds as a writer. From the blue Wyoming skies of Conard County to the wacky Florida shores of Paradise Beach, from the serene but dangerous Whisper Creek to the dark threats of San Martin, from the poker-driven and alligator-addled absurdity of Treasure Island to the sweeping panoramas of the Ilduin trilogy, I’ve always enjoyed creating fictional worlds.
And having created several, I’ve made plenty of mistakes. Conard County grew up ad-hoc, and before the days of cheap, easy-to-use database software. I still don’t know who or where everyone and everything is, because my documentation vanished years ago in a move. I’m still trying to recreate it. Yet I’m still writing Conard County. By contrast, the island of San Martin that was home to a single book – Something Deadly – and the places and people of the Office 119 series were painstakingly annotated, and likely never again to be seen. Go figure.
We'll discuss why and how to create a fictional world, what to consider and what to avoid. We’ll begin with the why, then explore how the setting itself is a character in every story. We’ll look at the basic choices you have to make at the start of a story or series, then the basic kinds of characters you’ll find in it. We’ll talk about how to develop and document your world over the course of a story or series, and the most dangerous trap in world-building.
Post comments any time to ask Rachel questions about a topic in this seminar. If you have a subject you'd like to learn more about, please feel free to suggest a topic. She is looking forward to hearing from you!
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Sometimes I have to actually think about what I'm doing and why, and this is one of those times Write comment
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Writer Workshop