<@Jim> Okay... let's get started.
<@Jim> Welcome to World Building 101, Class 3. This session we'll talk about your world's inhabitants. Do you have dwarves and elves? What about characters of other races? What about creatures?
<@Jim> We'll discuss how to define physical form, advantages and weaknesses, how the creature reproduces its own kind, how the creature works, what it does and a history of the form.
<@Jim> You should make a list of the creatures and
types of people in your story. It needn't be a complete list... you can add to it later.
<@Jim> Human beings: we pretty much have a feel for what they can and cannot do, though that can vary, too. You should list any exceptional classes of humans, such as half-elves, heavy- or light-gravity-worlders, or any new races with different abilities.
<@Jim> When you have a list, add a description of the physical form. This is especially important if your creature or race is not like anything we've ever seen before.
<@Jim> You'll want to describe these creatures/races to your readers. And you must be consistent. The document you create will be your blueprint for consistency. Refer to it often.
<@Jim> Next, you want to list what all the creature or race can do. What
powers do they have that humans don't? What can they do with said powers?
<@Jim> What weaknesses do they have? Superman had kryptonite. Your creatures should have weaknesses that the characters of your story may discover and exploit. How they do that is up to you. It's your story in your world, after all.
<@Jim> Next, how does the creature reproduce its own kind? Do they breed like animals and raise the young? Do the young go off on their own and live a feral life? Or do they alter living beings the way vampires do?
<@Jim> Or do they do something different and unique? New twists are good in world building, too.
<@Jim> How does the creature work? If it's the size of a battleship and weighs almost as much and has wings to flap and fly, how does it lift so much mass? Magic? Antigravity?
<@Jim> Whatever it does, you
must know how it works, even if we don't. Your characters may discover how it works in your story, or they may not. If it comes out, you need consistency.
<@Jim> That's what worldbuilding is for: consistency. If it works one way in chapter 1 and another way in chapter 2, there should be a reason and that, too, should be documented in your blueprint.
<@Jim> You'll also want a history of the form, whether creature or race. How did they come to be? Were they created by a mad mage (or scientist)? Did they evolve on another world?
<@Jim> How did it all happen? What has happened since? If it comes out in your story, you want it to be believable and coherent. If it doesn't, it'll still show through in your writing.
<@Jim> The creature (or race) will act in accordance with the rules you define for them.
<@Jim> Questions?
<Robert> What you do just has to be consistent with itself to be plausible, right?
<@Jim> Yes, unless there's a reason why it changed. That could be part of your story. If so, it should make sense to the reader.
<@Jim> In your blueprint, you'll document when the BIG EVENT takes place... and define what's what before and after.
<@Jim> Or you may have several EVENTS... you'll need to document each stage if that's the case.
<BklynWriter> i have aliens who believe that they may somehow be related to humans, but the humans do not believe it..how could i make that believable
<Robert> In terms of the 90% of backstory never published, it seems to hep plausibility if I've got notes or files on its entire evolutionary history. That Big Event makes sense in terms of evolutionary principles, punctuated equilibrium.
<Robert> Bklyn, you just did. I don't assume characters' theories are right and it sounds like two groups of them disagree leaving reader to make up their minds.
<@Jim> Exactly. Your notes are your blueprint... whatever you call them, you need to organize them to your best advantage.
<Sarah> Bk, similarities that aren't immediately apparent (i.e. reproductive compatability between species that look nothing alike) might work. Same chromosome count, etc.
<@Jim> Deb, humans don't believe anything until you pound it into their heads or they realize it for themselves. Or they believe the false thing.
<Robert> Jim's so right, offhand the aliens are getting the benefit of doubt just on the blurb.
<Deedlit> Jim, I was once told that in fantasy, you should always have Humans (a human mc for preference)...what do you think?
<BklynWriter> basicallay they are being told that they [humans] are a failed experiment...
<Robert> BK, I wouldn't be offended, be relieved. If hte experiment was 'create an obedient war machine' and it failed and I happened, that's great!
<@Jim> lol Clare. In my current WIP, the MC is a dragon who has been locked into human form. There are always exceptions to the rule. But you want your reader to be able to identify with your MC.
<@Jim> I like to think I've accomplished that with Tataki.
<Gayle> I like her Jim
<@Jim> Deb: I can see why the humans wouldn't like that idea.
<@Jim> Thanks, Gayle. <g>
<Robert> I like her and I can find her very easy to understand. I don't have a problem with nonhuman protagonists and tend to like them!
<Deedlit> well, maybe it was just my creative writing group at uni then!
<Robert> Maybe it is - and maybe in speculative fiction its' a classic artistic challenge to create 'sympathetic nonhuman protagonists'
<Robert> Or in regular literature too remembering all the animal protagonist nature novels that are classics.
<Sarah> I think it's more fun to use nonhumans (watership down and tailchaser's song spring immediately to mind)
<@Jim> That depends a lot on how they're portrayed. Everyone has an opinion. You want reader identification. The easiest way to do that is with a human character. It takes a bit more work to do that with an alien or other race.
<Gayle> Doesn't that depend on when you tell your readers that your MC is not human...if you have them hooked first their not going to be the story down because they want to know the ending...right?
<@Jim> But it can make a very good story. In Holly's Secret Texts trilogy, the heroine is a karnee skinshifter... sort of a werewolf, but different, too. She has both benefits and problems, not the least of which is that if the public finds out, they'll kill her.
<Gayle> that should be they're
<Robert> Greatest romance novel I ever read is "Raptor Red" by Robert Bakker - a young female Utahraptor is widowed and seeks a new mate, while her sister hates the young male who's chasing her. They're very romantic creatures as tehy pairbond.
<@Jim> That depends on the story, Gayle. In BD, they have suspicions, but they don't
really know until chapter 9 (which is posted, btw).
<Robert> Gayle, that's allegory for anyone who hides that they're Jewish, hides they're gay, hides they're stamp collectors, a human situation...
<@Jim> That sounds interesting, Robert. <g>
<Robert> It is a grand book and it's utterly real-world animal novel, Lower Cretaceous as exotic locale can't be beat and Raptor Red is a memorable character.
<Gayle> But it's not hiding if you leave hints about the MC
<Robert> (plugging the teacher with real validity) Jim did a fantastic job hinting about Tataki in a dozen ways till it was revealed in the latest chapter. Starting with the dang title "Battle Dragon" where I kept waiting for a battle dragon to show up. Well she has and she gets in fights every chapter, so that fits!
<@Jim> That's true. It could be kept as a surprise at the end... but you better make sure the reader has a few hints and that it's a pleasant surprise if that's the case.
<Gayle> not that any of my current WIP has anything other that humaniods in them
<Robert> My big fat under consideration series, I introduced the humanoids first to do diplomacy in English and added the less obvious races as I went.
<Gayle> as MC's that is
<Robert> Till you find out one very reasonable theory is the sentient vegetables domesticated the humanoids for their flavor.
<Robert> I try to think outside my phylum...
<JimMills> Bak... got disconnected... any questions since "not that any of my current WIP has anything other that humaniods in them"?
<Sarah> Writing non-humanoid characters is fun, but tricky, since you really have to be aware of how everything changes (diet, gestures, philosophy)
<Robert> Underlying motivations, hobbies, habits. I'm currently working up some aquatics off mollusks and sea anemones, sessile sapients would have a very different view of life.
<JimMills> Not every chapter, Robert... no fights in chapter 2... lol
<Robert> She's wonderful and she does have a life besides fighting. It's just that fighting is her main profession the way writing's mine. She had the most fun in the match that got bet on. That was where her heart was, she wants to go back to arena athlete fight for finesse points.
<BklynWriter> i'm taking the easy way out by having my aliens similar to humans, but with several differences
<JimMills> That's true... a different environment would shape that creature's or race's lives and make them behave quite differently from human normal.
<JimMills> Deb: Those differences are what you need to document for consistency. They have to be the same, in general, in chapter 1 and chapter 21... or have a good reason why they've changed.
<Robert> That's not always the easy way out, Bklyn. The differences will have their consequences and secondary and tertiary consequences whatever they are.
<BklynWriter> i've started exploring their differeneces
<JimMills> A human being who grows up in New York will be different from a human being who grows up in Beijing or on Mars. But they're still human and have things in common. They also have things that are different.
<Robert> I've done fun things in backfiles like fan fiction off my own universe without worrying about whether it's good - just to work things out like that in practice so that one paragraph out of it gets rewritten into a book.
<JimMills> Those differences between races or beings are what you need to document.
<Robert> And regions - an alien that grew up in NYC might be more of a New Yorker than in tune with its alien culture!
<JimMills> Good point.
<JimMills> More questions?
<BklynWriter> they welcome change, they don't understand the huge bureaucracy of government; they want to teach us, but we humans are pushing them away because we don't trust them
<JimMills> Trust comes slow... and can be violated... a few years ago, the Afghans and bin Laden were our friends, or so we thought when we helped them fight the Russians.
<Robert> Jim, where do you fall on "nature" or "nurture" and "individual choice"? In race building you're setting up the Nature and Nurture elements but with characters the character's proclivity to go native to charming humans on grounds of one philosophical point could happen.
<JimMills> It's always an open issue, Robert. Any individual functions within certain parameters, though. Getting outside of those parameters takes extraordinary means. Man cannot fly unaided. So we make planes.
<JimMills> If your creature/race building says "they eat humans" then it's unlikely they'll get buddy-buddy with a human, but it could happen (anyone watch Earth Final Conflict this season?).
<Robert> Wish I had - and I had the exception to that one with the plant people and their flatworm learning - they'd get quite buddy buddy and prefer sentient food.
<JimMills> I guess it all depends on how you handle it in your story, Robert.
<JimMills> More questions?
<JimMills> Any worldbuilding topic?
<JimMills> No class next week. We'll meet in two weeks. Topic will be: Time. Calendars, varying year lengths, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds or their equivalents in terms of your stories. What do the people use for timekeeping? Bells, candles, sand clocks, sundials, water clocks, etc.
<Deedlit> thanks for tonights class Jim
<JimMills> You're welcome, Clare. Night, everyone!
<kiarlie> thanks jim - night everyone
<Robert> Thanks for the class, Jim!
<BklynWriter> night jim
<Gayle> night and thank you Jim
<Robert> I'll mail transcript. G'night!
<Deedlit> bye
Thanks to Robert for saving the transcript when I dropped out (my ISP dumped me).
-- Jim
"The difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and lightningbug." -- Mark Twain
"Weasel words are for cowards." -- Holly Lisle
http://www.jameskmills.com
Some of my work may be read at my forum: http://network54.com/Hide/Forum/74198)
Mail to: Jim@HollyLisle.com