Your Character's World

I was originally going to put up a picture of a paper doll. You know the kind with the metal brads through the shoulders and hips. As I was gathering my ideas about building the character's world I realized that I was only thinking about humanoid characters, characters based on the physical world we as humans live in. I was seeing only superficial world building.

Superficial worldbuilding is not a bad thing. Here's my original idea for this post. Take that paper doll image and fill it in. What do its ears look like, its eyes? How many limbs? What kind of skin? Does it have any? As you can see, building a character like this is already interesting. Now, add things the character carries or wears. Where do they come from? How did the character come by them? See? We have another level of building a world from the character out, taking us to a different aspect of the world: its economy.

That's not my original idea, by the way. It came from a now-defunct podcast called "Shakespeare and Dragons" (you can still find the podcasts online here. Not all of the files work so if you can't download one version, try the next!). Focusing on the world this way is another means of managing the complexity of the worlds characters live in.

So, what is the idea I ended up with? It's this: What kind of world created your character? Take our friend Sarah. What kind of world created a woman who buys sex like coffee? We assumed it was a world a little like ours, similar cultural system (since there are places where sex is nearly as easily come by. Amsterdam, anyone?). However, this is SARAH, a female. How is her world different from ours? We assumed that her purchase was taller than she was, had a particular set of sexual organs that fit hers in a particular way. We also assumed that her purchase of sex was casual. What if she is making a necessary purchase, that the function of the process was reproduction and the use of non-bonded partners created a drone workforce? Oh, and she is not the womb! What kind of story will you write, now?

You got werewolves? What kind of world made them? Even if it is our more familiar world, what about it is so different that werewolves emerged? Or vampires? Think alternatives. We have alternative histories in Steampunk so, how about alternative evolution? Alternative cultural development?

After extending my image of Sarah, I started thinking of her society as being based on the life of bees or ants. It's not an original world, I'm sure, but it gives me another idea. What if instead of werewolves we were wolves? What would the world look like if it was based on wolf society? Wolf culture? What if Sarah's world were based on the wolf?

Just asking...

The Ordinary World

When we hear about the Hero's Journey or three act structure or the main character's back story, we sometimes hear the phrase, "ordinary world", or the state the character is in just before the story starts. Lately, I've been thinking about how we can use the character's ordinary world as a way to manage our world building.

Think of one thing you do in the course of a typical day.

I had coffee this morning and I don't know where it came from. I just went to the coffee shop and ordered it, expecting it to be there. I remember, a long time ago, that I decided that if I ever ended up in a strange world the first thing I would do is find coffee, get myself grounded over a cup of coffee. Then I wondered what would happen if I ended up in a world where ordering coffee was illegal (Kristine Kathryn Rusch does something similar in one of her Retrieval Artist novels). So, to continue the pursuit of coffee. I expected the coffee to be there. Why? Because that it my ordinary world. In my ordinary world I don't have to think too hard about getting a cup of coffee. Or a banana. Or a rare steak. Or sex. Okay, maybe I'd have to do a little work for that last bit, but that could be the beginning of a new world. What kind of world would it be where it is easier to get sex than it is coffee? Or as easy to get sex as it is to get coffee in my ordinary world?

One advantage of thinking of worldbuilding from the ordinary world of your characters? You get your reader oriented more easily to the novelties. You are starting in their ordinary world also.

Sarah stopped by the local discount market to pick up her two-buck chuck, deciding she wanted a skinny redhead this time. She was tired of the hunky blonds. They spent more time in front of the mirror than she did.

Running her thumb over her scanner she added the SKU to the barcode and headed for the transport tube. She didn't care that her more upscale neighbors saw her chuck half-naked. She knew for a fact that theirs were no better. Just dressed for the service. They all had the same equipment, did the same job. She could afford more but why waste the credits? It was a job. Kept people off the streets. Provided revenue for the state. Kept down violence and disease.

Sarah shrugged. Not bad for a couple of credits.

So, in less than 150 words we have met Sarah in her world. I have no idea what kind of world it is except for the details I've put here, but I'm now curious. Maybe not as a reader, but as a writer I am. It's an idea I didn't have half an hour ago.

So, here's a challenge. Think of something in your ordinary world, something that is so ordinary you don't have to think about it. Now, make it complex. This is the opposite of what I did. I took something that was for complex for me (getting sex) and made it as easy as buying a cup of coffee (easy peasy). How about getting out of bed? Or getting the mail? In what kind of world would those things be difficult? Can you, in a sentence or two, create an ordinary world that is far from ordinary?