Two aliens walk into a bar, drawn in by the music of the vintage jukebox and dance to Doris Day's "Dream a Little Dream of Me"This was the only concept I had for my first novel writing endeavor. No characters (other than two aliens). No world in which to build (though I had the vague idea of a retro Sci-Fi setting... hence the jukebox). Prior to this, I'd never had cause to "world build" since my longest projects have been short stories. (Note: I believe that any project, no matter the length, has to have some element of worldbuilding in order to stay consistent and have characters that interreact remain true to their environment... even if its a small town in the middle of nowhere Iowa). Primarily associated with (but not limited to) the Fantasy and Science Fiction genres, Worldbuilding is "the process of creating a fictional world within your novel that offers an entirely new and unique location with exotic creatures, societies, religions, and governments" (Self-Publishing School). In college, I followed the MFA tract while also getting my BA in English Literature (though I opted out due to schedule constraints with my BA). I took Writing Popular Fiction with paranormal fiction author, Nicole Peeler. Her class was my first introduction into worldbuilding, as well as my first introduction into Pinterest. The instruction was to create a Pinterest board for each character as well as setting elements, culture, and lore. While I only used Pinterest for that assignment, I've taken to create folders within Google Drives of all these worldbuilding elements. When to Worldbuild![]() According to the Self Publishing School, Worldbuilding should be the very first step an author should take. However, different writers write differently! I, for example, write as I go (aka. Discovery Writer/Pantser/Gardener), while others write from outlines of varying meticulosity (Outliner/Plotter/Architect) (see "Outlining/Plotting Vs Discovery Writing/Pantsing" for more details!). If you are the latter, worldbuilding expert, and director of the award-winning worldbuilding and novel writing software World Anvil, Janet Forbes instructs it should come in the plotting stage. You need to be aware of tour characters, traditions, systems, technology, etc. early. But if you don't outline? Forbes writes in "When Should You Worldbuild for Your Novel?" "Most pantsers I know love to craft characters, even if they don’t know what will happen to them over the course of the story! And characters are full to the brim with worldbuilding opportunities!" This is true enough! Though my "world" came slowly, my characters were already starting to develop-- and with it, their story. Though I kept the two "aliens" from my concept, they were not the aliens of "little green men" lore. They were inspired by the various myths of ancient being arriving on Earth. They look like us, and act like us, but were from civilizations light years away. How would these "ancient aliens" look? I envisioned them resembling the Tuaregs of the Sahara, the Dogon People of Mali, the Cushitic tribes of the Eastern horn of Africa (AKA, Kush people and Cushites). My Diadasi people were immaculately beautiful and well cultured despite being centuries behind in terms of space travel. My Diadasi people went through various changes (from being more alien in appearance to less; from having purple skin the color of their sand, to simply having rich black skin). Their appearance evolved over the years as I wrote their stories. Forbes recommends taking notes after each writing session, "Try spending 5 minutes documenting the people, places and things you came up with... mention a creature, a character, a location or a technology, scribble down a few notes about your ideas." I've learned a lot more about my characters and worlds after I've already written them (for example: my two Diadasi like Doris Day😁)!
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