Worldbuilding in Fantasy by Sydney Winward

Worldbuilding in Fantasy

When you are writing a book, particularly a fantasy novel, you could spend hours, weeks, even months (maybe more?) building out your fantasy world to perfection. You want to draw in your readers by creating an immersive world filled with lots of amazing things to discover.

In my opinion, one of the greatest worldbuilding masters is Brandon Sanderson. You’ll never read anything like the ash-filled skies in Mistborn or the highstorms in A Way of Kings.

Brandon Sanderson is a great example of taking a concept that’s completely unique and making it his own.

So What Goes Into Worldbuilding?

Setting

Ah, the setting. This can be one of the trickiest parts of fantasy worldbuilding. Where does the story take place? What’s unique about it? What does it look like? What kind of rules does it have?

In my Sunlight and Shadows series, I have broken apart my worldbuilding in terms of race. Sun Fae, Shadow Fae, Forest Fae, Ocean Fae, and humans. In the Sun Fae kingdom, they draw strength from sunlight, and the world I created for this particular fae race reflects that. The Shadow Fae are nocturnal and feel more comfortable in the darkness. The dangerous creatures in their kingdom reflect night, darkness, and shadow.

Theme

For every series I write, the themes change to reflect the moods of the books. Here are a few of the themes I created for my latest fantasy series.

Sunlight: The sunlight represents hope and finding the sliver of light even in the darkest of places. I draw on this theme in A Breath of Sunlight, centering the book around sunlight and hope.

Shadow: Darkness and shadows can be all-consuming. Deadly. Hopeless. But when you learn to navigate the darkness, it can become your truest ally. This theme is in book 2, A Taste of Shadows.

Music: I use this theme in book 3 of my Sunlight and Shadows series, centering around things unseen. You can’t see music, but you can hear it. You can’t see your emotions, but you can feel them. Music is about healing from your greatest wounds, about finding and accepting what love is given to you.

Colors: This is a big theme in this series. Gold, silver, bronze, black. They all have different meanings within the books and go along with sunlight, shadows, and music.

Characters

Another really important aspect to worldbuilding are the characters you create. Readers will want to be immersed in their culture from how they talk, how they live, and even what they wear. A great example of this is Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive. The women all have a “safe hand”, where in their culture, they have to keep one hand covered while they can reveal the other hand. To reveal their safe hand would be considered inappropriate.

Another great example in his series is that women are scribes while men can’t read.

In romantic fantasy, I love to create a culture and customs centered around marriage. In my Bloodborn series, vampires will present a handkerchief to someone they are interested in courting. If the person gifts a handkerchief back, the courtship begins. And then when they choose a mate, they mate for life.

History

I don’t always see this fleshed out in books, and sometimes you don’t need to explain a whole lot of the history. But it’s definitely something that rounds a book out. What happened in the world’s history that brought it to where it is now? How does it play a part in the characters’ lives? How has it shaped their understanding of life and the everyday choices they make?

When I read fantasy, I love seeing the unique history of that world, and I think it really helps round out the story as a whole.

There is so much that goes into writing fantasy! This is one of the reasons I love reading and writing it. I can make it uniquely my own, and create rules and customs that add depth to the world and characters.

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What Does Your Writing Say About You?

If you write long enough, you'll hear it said that every writer has themes in their work. It varies, of course, from book to book and possibly even from theme to theme if you have several. (And most writers do.)

It's no surprise to me that I have themes. I could even guess a few. But it was odd to have a beta reader of mine mention it out of the blue. She said, "Your values really shine through your work." And I thought...is that a good thing? Should that make me nervous? Should I now try to vary those known themes so I become less predictable? I don't think so.

In this particular case, she meant the fact my characters only have sex after they've fallen in love, and it's a conscious decision. An are we sure we want to go there moment for them. While that might limit my appeal, I can't change it. I've tried. LOL

One of my critique partners is forever leaving "where is the sex?" notes in the margin. In this last book, it was more like "I know there can be more sex. Add it here please. kthanxbai."

I have tried to explain to her that I can't force characters to have sex. I mean, I could, but the reader would know it. Worse than that, I would know it. The beauty, for me, of a new relationship, is watching as it unfurls. You only get one first time, you know? And I mean that literally as well as in each new relationship you enter. You want each first to be special, to mean something.

That is not to say I have anything against casual sex or relationships. I've just never had any/been in one, so that theme speaks less to me than others. Which is not to say my theme couldn't overlap it. Ha!

Ex: H/H who have always had no-strings sex decide it's not for them. This time they want someone to work for them, to show they are worth having and not just for a night.
(That actually sounds like a fun dynamic to write.)

Here's a definition I can agree with:
"Theme is a statement, or series of related observations, about some aspect of the human condition, interpreted from the unique viewpoint of the author."
- Dean Koontz
So how about y'all? Are there any themes that pop up unexpectedly in your work? Come on, now. I can't be the only one whose a virgin magnet here, can I? There's got to be some sort of theme nipping at your heels. Spill. ;)

The Terminator Legend & Me

So today I am going to talk about something near and dear to my heart and that is the Terminator movies and the legend behind them.  But before I do that, I’d like to first show you all this really incredible book trailer for a book called The Cain Letters and written by an author named Pierre Roustan.  It releases December 4^th, 2009 from Eirelander Publishing. 

Here is the summary:

All legends have beginnings— some are worth remembering -- others are better left to darkness.

When college student, Marcus Brennan, discovers an ancient book revealing the origin of vampirism, all hell breaks loose not just in his life but for the world around him. He is holding the ultimate weapon two master vampires desire more than blood. It is the weapon that will give them the power to rule not only the Vampire Nation but all mankind.

 

It is up to Alexandra Glade, fierce and radiant vampire hunter, and her team, the Berith Lochem, to find and protect Marcus in order to prevent the unthinkable…

 

… The awakening of Cain.

Next week, I may have a book preview video I can post here. 

Personally, I can’t wait to read this book.

 

Now, onto Terminator.  Ralph and I recently went to the movies to see the newest installment of The Terminator movie.  (We got a sitter and planned it weeks in advance; this is how two people with an almost two year old and an almost four year old who are pregnant with their third son go to the movies.)  Several weeks earlier, we’d set up the same scenario to see The Star Trek Movie. 

 

I know Terminator was somewhat panned by the critics but we really enjoyed it and I think, as a good friend of ours said, really the only thing wrong with it was that it came out two weeks after Star Trek which was truly exceptional and probably the movie of the summer.

 

Anyway, as per usual, I digress.  I was quite young when the first Terminator movie came out and, in any case, I think I saw T2 first but that is neither here nor there.  Over the years, I’ve watched the Terminator movies many times and enjoyed each and every one of them. 

 

Although I knew T3 was not the favorite of most fans of the series, I loved it. Why? Because Skynet finally won.  Does that sound nuts? Yup.  Let me explain.  In the first two movies, John and Sarah Connor (okay in T1 she’s not even pregnant with him yet but they talk about him constantly) fight to stop Skynet from doing what we are told Skynet has already done.  Even after they destroy it in the first one, it comes back in 2 to try again. 

 

I guess I kind of like the idea that sometimes the inevitable is inevitable and, for me, it was nice to see that John was finally going to become the man we are told over and over again he will be. 

 

I think this is a running theme in most of my works.  If my books have nothing much in common with each other, except for the fact that they all fall within the Fantasy/Sci Fi/Paranormal Romance genre, they share this common trait.  To be honest, it wasn’t until quite recently I wasn’t even aware of this myself.  But there is a character, maybe not the hero, it could be the heroine, and he or she has a destiny to meet if only they can become the person they were born to be. 

 

Now that I am aware of this, I wonder if I will continue to do it. Hmmm….

 

Perhaps another common thread is that each of my books has a little bit of a fight scene in them.  My critique partner once asked me how my husband felt about the fact that I was a little bit bloodthirsty? What can I say?  We get babysitters to go see the Terminator movies and once upon a time I recorded the Sarah Connor Chronicles. 

 

I’m still a girl who loves romance, multi-faceted as I think so many of us are.