Hello, my friends and the occasional relative!

I’ve talked about world building before. And today I’m going to talk about it again, because I’m trying to get a solid outline of my next book drafted before my deadline for receiving feedback on The Slaves and The Djinn. (August 12^th, btw.)

Now I intend eventually to fashion an outline on the Take off Your Pants model, but first a simpler chronology of events will do, with some detail as to locations, characters, motivations etc. You know, what I thought was an adequate outline before. Well, actually I thought rambling 37-44 page documents filled with stream of consciousness digressions and conflicting updates on what I really wanted was an adequate outline before. (Remarkably consistent—I have four that length, for TTATD, TKATD, TSATD and for a sequel to TTATD, but I then went down a different road with TSATD and thanks to Take off Your Pants wrote a way tighter Really Detailed Plan™ that clocked in at 14 pages of chapter by chapter descriptions after writing a 7 page character progression outline, with 7 pages of old school rambling tacked on after that. (I need the rambling—it’s like talking to myself, which I do, frequently.) I think, when inspiration strikes, you need to put it down on virtual paper and save it, but for outlines as for everything else, editing is required. I do recommend giving ToYP a look as a way to edit yourself and give yourself a good solid structure to work with, I have loved using it so far!

So: I was in ‘slam it all out into a file and see what sticks mode’ for a bit, with some digressions for cosmology and character histories etc., and then (in the same document) I tried to get a bit more formal and produce a chronology of dramatic events. That was going pretty well until what I imagine will be about the half-way point of the proposed work of dramatic fiction, when I realized, dammit, I need to really pin down the cosmology and mythology of this universe, as it directly affects the plot and events depicted therein, and will influence what types of powers and magic get used, and how they work/interact. Funnily enough I realized I had to do it after I reached the point where I really knew this book had wings, and would work. I needed the extra detail to help deepen the motivations and connections I had already sketched out. Plus fit different races in position as rivals and friends, as you do.

I had a 2 paragraph cosmology before. Now it is 12 pages, and could be much, much more. I could write novels based on the mythology alone, depicting those early events, but I don’t want to, I want to write the original story as conceived, but have the background make complete sense, even the bits that never get mentioned. That, for me, is world building.

I love doing this stuff. Which is fortunate because I still intend to write The Red Palace, which has its own complex world, and The Old Rivals, which has a long, blood-drenched kingdom-crippling feud as its backdrop, and an as yet unnamed story about a world where one man managed to kill a god’s living avatar, and it didn’t do him much good. That needs its own deep cosmology too. Three books: three completely different worlds. My next planned book is a fourth world, the World Belt is five. If I dig up and resurrect the book of my twenties, we are talking six.

And this is (another reason) why I have not really tried too hard on the marketing and branding front yet. I’m procrastinating. And/or: I don’t want to commit to the World Belt alone, though I love it dearly, and there are many miles to go there. My desire is to be a teller of stories, and a maker of worlds, and for readers to know that if they don’t like one, they can always try another, if they at least enjoyed my writing. World building will be a big part of my eventual brand, so it is a) lucky I enjoy it and b) necessary for me to demonstrate it at least a little before crafting my brand (ugh, hate the term, however necessary it may be) around it.

So keep dreaming up new worlds to explore, my friends—I know I will, and with nary a LLM prompt in sight!   

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