What goes into building a fantasy city

Rome wasn't built in a day.

Yes. I know, but I'm not trying to build Rome. I'm trying to build a city for my book.

Probably Rome

That must be a very impressive book if you need a city to house it in.

No, no. I'm not housing the book in a city, I need to build an imaginary city.

So that your imaginary emo bunnies have someplace to live?

*Sigh* You're just not getting the point. I'm writing a book. In it, the characters are visiting a city, so I need to describe it to the reader. That's what I mean about building a city.

And don't call my emo bunnies imaginary.

Sorry.

It's okay. So about that city I'm building . . .

Why do you need to build a city for your characters?

I'm glad you asked. Stories need settings. Does the book occur in a city, a desert, a forest? . . .

I don't know. It's your book, silly.

Quit interrupting. The point is that the setting needs to be developed for the reader. So I'm going to explain the process I go through in writing a city setting.

Neat!

Right? Okay. So I've decided I need a city in my current book.  I spent some time coming up with a name for it.  "Aest" (I originally named it Amarash)  I've also decided that it will be the capital city of the kingdom it's in.

So now I have to decide how much of this city to describe.  That depends largely on how much time my characters are going to spend there.  If they're are just passing by, I can say they saw the city in the distance and leave it at that.  If they're staying for the night, I have to tell a little bit more.  If they're going to interact with anyone or anything in the city, then I need to go into a fair amount of detail.

The city I've described the most in the world of Ryallon is Dralin.  The first book of the Dralin Trilogy is named Dralin, which gives a few clues to as to how much I had to explain it.  I went into great detail about the building styles, politics, people, dress, weather and just about anything else.  Dralin is its own character.

What does the writer need to know about the city?  What does the reader need to know?

You might think that the writer needs to know everything about the city, and many do.  I used to spend a great deal of time going over the details, but my writing style has changed.  I only figure out what I need in order to tell the story now.  It saves a great deal of time.  Occasionally, I'll figure out more details for my own curiosity, but I don't always share them.

Then I look at it from the character's perspective.  What's important to them.  What do they notice?  This is all the reader needs to know too.  They need to see the city from the characters' eyes.  They need to see the parts the characters interact with.

Aest

So I'm building the city of Aest and the characters are going to stay there for a few days, maybe a couple of weeks.  It's important to give a good amount of information.  These are some of the things I'm going to look at describing to the reader.

1. What does the city look like, sound like, smell like, taste like and feel like?  I believe it's important for a writer to communicate to all of the reader's senses.  There are a lot of details that goes into this.
2. What are the people like?  More than anything, this will tell the reader what the city is like.
3. What are the politics like?  This will go a great deal in influencing the reader's perception.
4. How powerful is/are the religion(s)?  This can have great affect on the city.
4. Is it at peace, war torn, or under the threat of war?  A surprising detail that establishes the mood of the people and affects the appearance of the city.
5.What is the weather like?  This is a detail that helps to establish mood.
6. What's the air quality?  An odd fact that can help add detail and mood.
7. Does it have a sewer system?  Vital for thieves guilds, assassins and secret entrances into anywhere.

Appearance

What does the city look like?  Start with how the buildings look.  Are they wood, stone, or possibly tree houses?  Are they run-down?  Are they well built? Does the city have a wall?  These details can tell the reader a lot.

You can also add whether or not there are parks or statues, a sign of wealth and concern for the citizen's comfort.  Are the streets paved?  

What does the city smell like?  Do people refuse to bathe?  Is the city thick with smog?  Is there trash in the streets?  Does it leave a bad taste in the mouth?

What does the city sound like?  Do people shout and yell at each other?  A marketplace is always noisy except at night.  Is there a low hum of noises?  Do children laugh in the streets?  Perhaps it's quiet because people are afraid to come out of their houses.

What does the city feel like?  You can tell the reader that it's grimy, or that the air is clean.  You can say that your readers get an uncomfortable sensation from walking down an alley.

These details really help immerse the reader into your story.  Don't over describe though.  Try to slip in a few details about it in between conversation if you can.

People

This will tell the reader more about the city than anything.  Try to establish this right away.  Have your character talk to someone that represents the average person.  The attitude of the people on the street will help to explain the prevailing mood.  People will be different at day than night.

Also, have your character talk to a guardsman or soldier of the city and use it to describe whether the people are oppressed or happy by the manners of law enforcement.  A guard that challenges the character makes the city hostile.  A welcoming guard makes the city friendly.

Innkeepers are one of your most useful resources.  They have all the information about the town, as do inn patrons.  Is the inn expensive or run down?

Shopkeepers are another good source of setting the mood.  Do they trade freely?  Do they haggle?  Are they honest or dishonest?

Probably people

Politics

Is the city a small town run by a mayor or council?  Does the military run it?  Is it perhaps the capital of the country, as in the case of Aest.

Is the government just or corrupt?  This is probably the most vital piece of information that will determine how the main characters are treated.

Religion

Religions tend to bring order to a city.  If there is a large religious presence, then a city is more likely to have strict laws and moral codes.  If there is no religion or system of belief, (like a monestary, or Druid grove) then it the town is likely to be lawless.  Too much religion can create a suppressive environment for the citizens and make it difficult for your characters to accomplish anything.

You can also have negative religions, like a death cult, or temple of trickery.  Those will add completely different flavors to your city.

War

If a town is at peace, it will likely have happy citizens that walk around freely, and children playing in yards.  Information will be freely given.  The weather is likely to be sunny and the season likely to be spring.  You'd be amazed at how much weather affects the opinions of the reader.  Flowers will grow and birds will sing in the tree.  Houses are likely to be painted and clean.

If the threat of war looms, people will be nervous and huddle in groups.  There will be lots of frowns.  Soldiers will patrol the streets and be suspicious of any newcomers.  The weather will likely be cloudy.

And if war has beaten the city down, there will be feral dogs and rats on the streets rather than people.  The citizens will be huddled in their homes or in taverns, worried that their drink may be the last.  Shadows will be everywhere and the weather is likely to be too hot or cold in the middle of summer or winter.  Buildings will be in disrepair.

Another side affect is cripples and homeless.  War leaves people broken.  A beggar's guild is very likely in a war torn city.

Weather

In the last section, I mentioned weather.  This doesn't apply to just cities, but every scene in just about every genre of book.

Sunny days show hope, but too much sun can beat down and oppress the characters.
Rainy days are sad, but a light shower can wash away worries and the day's heat.
Blizzards get people lost.  Utter cold drive despair into the stoutest of hearts.  However, a light fluffy snow can be fun for children to play in.

Weather is quite simply one of the most effective tools a writer can use to set the mood of a scene.

Probably weather

Air Quality

Here's something few writers think of.  Is it smoggy?  Are there a few chimneys with smoke.  Is it a nice, pleasant village with trees and pure air?  Dralin, in my world, is filled with pollution, both magical and mundane.  It clogs the air and even poisons people.  Air quality is an underutilized detail in writing often times.

Sewer system

Sewer Systems are very useful for hideouts, especially in D&D style stories.  But in addition to hideouts for thieves, rats and human waste, they also help to tell how clean the city is.  A good sewer system will allow trash and waste to flow from the streets.  A city or town without one can flood easy and is likely to have trash built up in the streets as London was in the dark ages.  As with London, that can lead to disease and plagues.

Probably a sewer

Conclusion

There are countless other details, but these are a good start for things to consider while city building.  As far as my city of Aest goes, it's a capital city with a castle, a university and a fair amount of adventure to be had. :)

All my best,

John H. Carroll

World Building: Creating Religion

World Building

I mostly write fantasy and sci-fi books.  One of the things I have to pay attention to is what things do I newly create and what things do I leave the same as people know them in this world?  At the time of this blog post I'm writing in the world of Ryallon, where I base my fantasy series.  Every once in a while, I'll share a little bit about the world building I do in the process.

When a person writes about something that happened in the past, it's wise to look at history books to get facts correct.  When someone writes about a completely fictional world, all of the details need to be built from scratch.

World building can be fun.  I'm certain there are a few would-be writers who have spent years building worlds of fantasy and magic, but have never gotten around to writing an actual book in the world.  It's also very popular among D&D players.

Creating Religions

In fantasy, it is common to establish a fictional set of religions.  Doing so can add great depth and definition to the characters and the people surrounding the characters.  An understanding of historical theologies can greatly add to the richness and realism of these religions.  It doesn't hurt to have read other novels with fictional religions either. 

Before you begin, it's a good idea to have a general idea of how different people in your world think.  There are usually many countries, though in fantasy it's possible to only have one.  But do all of your people believe the same way?  If you wish to have war in your worlds, multiple religions is one of the best ways to establish this.

One of the first things to consider is whether you want one god or many gods for your world.  Has it been that way throughout the history of your world?

How they get their power is important.  Are they powerful because they're gods?  Did something give them power?  One series I read, the Hawk and Fisher series by Simon R. Green, has gods gaining their power by the number of worshipers they have.

I have added the prologue of my fifth book, "Ebudae", below to give an example of how the Gods of Ryallon are set up.

An exerpt from "Ebudae"

While in the gloomy ruins of an ancient city below Dralin, Ebudae and Pelya had discovered a temple dedicated to an unknown god.  Within that temple was a book most ancient.  In spite of its age, the book was in perfect condition with gold and silver-filigreed bindings.

The cover opened of its own volition as the girls approached.  Gazing upon pages that flipped before their mesmerized eyes, Ebudae and Pelya understood every word with a clarity never experienced from any other book.  Neither left until the last page was finished and the cover closed.

The mysterious book told how the Gods of Ryallon came to be and a summary from it had remained sharp in the girl’s minds from that point on:

 

Chaotic energies swirl around Ryallon and its moons, extending far beyond to other suns and worlds, though they do not exist everywhere.  The energies give us magic and shape the life of Ryallon, though they are not the source of life.

Those who we call Gods were once normal beings.  When those normal beings drank of the chaotic energies too deeply, they gained vast powers.  There are many Gods on and around the world of Ryallon.  Some have great influence and power while others touch few.

The most ancient Gods have existed since before the beginning of humanity, but those are very odd to humans.  They are called the Unreal Gods.

The earliest deities of humanity are the Van Gods.  The oldest and largest temples are built to them in cities throughout Ryallon.

Others are new in the scheme of things, spawned from people or creatures who attempt to control the chaotic energies.  These are called the Crazed Gods, for when a being absorbs vast power too quickly, it can destroy the mind.  The Crazed Gods generally burn out and their energies spread back into the chaos. However, a few grow to power.

Less common are the Hushed Gods.  It is unknown when they came to be, but many believe them to be as old as the Van Gods.  They influence the world in subtle ways and have few followers.  This does not mean their power should be underestimated. Even Van Gods treat the Hushed Gods with great care.

And then there are the Dragons.  They are not Gods, but all Gods fear them; for they are Dragons.

World building and tense situations - A guest post by D Kai Wilson-Viola

Introduction

World building is a subject I'm extremely interested in.  When writing series of books, it becomes vital to get the details right.  It's also one of the hardest things to do, especially when things get tense in the story.  That's when having your facts straight matters the most.

I've invited fellow Indie Author D Kai Wilson-Viola to write a guest blog and she presented me with an exceptional piece.

World building and tense situations

My stories always start with some sort of major problem.  Whether that’s where they actually start once they’ve been edited and put together is a different story, but that’s where everything starts for me.
Which, to be honest, makes world building both a bit difficult, and a lot liberating.

My first novel is out on the 12^th of February, and is the first in upwards of 50 novels set in the universe I’ve built around my detective and his two friends.  So, John asked me to come talk ‘world building’ and give some tips on how I manage it all.  And I’ve got three absolutely amazing tips to share.

World building so you’re not changing canon

Though, before I go there, I’d better explain canon.  I don’t mean the things firing balls of lead at castles or pirate ships – I mean canon.  That sacred bible of what is – and isn’t – in your world.  It is, as far as I can tell, something I picked up in my fan fiction days – the idea that something could be canon or non-canon.  And the idea that if you screw up your own canon, your most obsessive fans (and we all get them) can call you on it, and complain.  So, having your own world building straight is a must.  It’s also essential for other reasons – if you’re not sure of your own world, others will struggle, especially when consistency will give you the chance to really use the world around the characters, for or against them.  Basically, your world could almost be its own character, if you use it right.  With that in mind though, I’ve got three tips.

1)      Keep your own bible – I use software to track mine, but before I discovered the items that I use (there’s two – a wiki/database based piece and Liquid Story Binder, which is a kind of folio system for writers), I had folders and key sheets.  It might feel like hard work, but if you’re building a world that has persistence, you need to track scars, and dates and where everything goes.  Elliot Peters, my main character goes from being pretty much unscarred to picking up several over the course of four books, and I have to remember whether he’s got them or not by (x) point.  The easiest way to do so is to keep a timeline, with a master sheet that documents scars.  I’ve found the front/back images that are http://www.docstoc.com/docs/72398109/Injury-Chart here work well - but you might have other ideas.  Every three books, I update that, especially if I’ve stopped writing in the period beforehand, and ensure that anything I’ve finalised is included.

2)      Update regularly – It’s easy to get wrapped up in the tiny details of keeping the ‘bible’ updated for your world, but if you don’t do maintenance, it’s kinda like tax receipts – it’ll take forever, and you’ll hate it.  I update mine once a week when doing ‘other paperwork’ like billing, so it’s kind of part of my maintenance tasks.  If your world is consistent, you’ll need to do it less, and eventually, you’ll only need to keep track of the changes.

3)      Little things matter too – even in tense situations, if you can give a ‘call back’ to something that was mentioned in another book, you show not only mastery but immersion in your own universe, which, in turn leads readers to trust you.  And reader trust is what invests them in books more than the most skilful writing ever can.  If there’s no trust there, no matter how beautiful your writing, readers will resist and you’ll be stuck with a perfectly crafted book that no one cares about enough to engage with.

Once you’ve got the basics of world building down, you’ll find it much easier to do it again and again – so even if you finish up one series, you can use what you’ve learned to build your next world and your next.  And then, when you toss them in at the deep end, you know how deep and where the escape hatch is.

D Kai Wilson-Viola’s debut novel, Glass Block (http://glassblock.darknesspd.com)  is due out February 12^th.  A copywriter and editor by trade, she’s been serving the indie community as an advisor for years.  You can follow Kai on Facebook (http://facebook.com/Dkaiwilsonviola), Twitter (http://twitter.com/Kaiberie), at her own blog (http://authorinterrupted.com) or at Author Central after February 12^th.

World building: what ingredients do you add?

World Building

I mostly write fantasy and sci-fi books.  One of the things I have to pay attention to is what things do I newly create and what things do I leave the same as people know them in this world?  At the time of this blog post I'm writing in the world of Ryallon, where I base my fantasy series. Every once in a while, I'll share a little bit about the world building I do in the process.

When a person writes about something that happened in the past, it's wise to look at history books to get facts correct.  When someone writes about a completely fictional world, all of the details need to be built from scratch.

World building can be fun. I'm certain there are a few would-be writers who have spent years building worlds of fantasy and magic, but have never gotten around to writing an actual book in the world.  It's also very popular among gamers.

Describing a scene

One of the things I have to pay attention to is what things do I newly create and what things do I leave the same as people know them in this world?

I just gave one of the characters a mug of cool cider with a stick of cinnamon.  It helps the reader understand what the character is sensing at that moment.  But remember that this is a fantasy word, different from Planet Earth.  It brings to mind the question of whether or not that world would have cinnamon, cider or even mugs!

So I have to decide whether or not to make a new kind of drink or import something from Earth.  In this instance, I use the Earth descriptions because I would waste paragraphs explaining all the details of a newly imagined drink and spice to put in it.  By the time I was done, the reader would have realized that it was the equivalent of cider with cinnamon.  The point of that scene is to describe the character's environment, which is sitting in the kitchen of an inn.  Creating a new drink would not advance the story or future stories, so I used the Earth norm in that case.

Areas where I've decided to create new things

There are many areas in the world where I've added a new item not found on Earth.  This helps add to the flavor of things and lets the reader know they're in a new, fantastic land.  The key is to balance what's new and what's normal and it's hard to do.

In the second book of the Willden Trilogy, I created a whole new underground ecosystem that ended up being a couple of chapters of information dumping that I think detracted from the story-telling.  However, I'm a new writer and much of this is a learning experience.  It's also really neat to come up with some of these ideas.

Some of the things I've created or changed from Earth normal are:

Rojuun.  This is not only the title of the first book, it's a race of four-armed, two-voiced sentient beings that live in the vast tunnels of the world.

The vast tunnels of the world.  I've made it so that the crust of Ryallon is honeycombed with caverns, tunnels and underground bodies of water.  I also added an entire ecosystem of plants and animals to live in it.  Most things are luminescent to create light to see by.  This was done partially because it was cool and largely because I wanted my characters to be able to see without carrying torches everywhere.

I've made the world bigger to compensate for dragons and numerous ancient civilizations.

A system of magic.  There are aspects that are borrowed from other things I've read and aspects that are new.  An arcane wind affects only the caster of a spell.  Runes are used in magical items to store the magic on it.  Casting spells takes energy, which requires a mage to sleep for long periods of time and eat large quantities of food.  One of my favorites is that magic leaves behind pollution, much like science does.

Eye color.  This is one of my favorites.  Humans can have pink or grey eyes as standard colors.  It adds to the fantasy atmosphere of the world in a cool way that excites the reader (it excites me anyway!)

Dragonflies are dragon's tears.  They start out silver and gain color from the first thing they touch after hitting the ground.

There are numerous other little touches that let the reader know that they're in a fantasy world, but I try to make them as unobtrusive as possible.

Areas where I've kept things the same

There have been numerous instances where I've used Earth items for description because it would have distracted from the story to replace them.  It's a little disconcerting as a writer to create this entire alien planet and have pine trees, tea and cinnamon in it when everything would probably be vastly different in reality, but it has to be done.

I also draw on earth mythology and history to create some of the aspects of the world.  Dragons and Druids are a big thing.  I avoid going completely D&D by leaving out elves, dwarves, orcs and many of the other denizens of role-playing games.

Things I've left the same that many people may not consider while reading are:

Animals such as wolves, butterflies, most species of trees, grass, flowers (including types of flowers like roses), birds above ground, deer, rats (a must for any city).

Materials like wood, brick, glass, leather, cotton, wool, silk, steel, iron, brass, gold, silver and copper.  This includes the processes to refine them, such as smithing, tailoring and tanning.

Monetary values.  Gems and jewelry are very valuable as is land.  Gold, silver and copper are standard currency and rural areas use barter systems for the most part.

Weather is the same.  Most readers never consider this, but it's something that's often changed in sci-fi worlds where everything can be alien.

Dragons and magic exist, but they have unique traits that make them distinctive to Ryallon.

Time is . . . similar.  I use days, minutes, hours and seconds.  Most readers never even consider this subject.  I have never defined how long the days, weeks, months and years are though.  I haven't decided!  It seems like an odd oversight, but I simply don't know and I'm not willing to commit to it.  I honestly don't think any reader has ever noticed this fact without me pointing it out.

In conclusion

It's difficult at times to decide what ingredients to add to a world of fantasy.  The key is for the reader to be fascinated by the new things without being jolted out of the story.