Worldbuilding for any Genre

Leslye Penelope from Inkers Con

If you are new to this publication, this is the third week of covering my favorite presentations from the Inkers Con conference.

Leslye Penelope writes epic fantasy, paranormal romance, and historical fantasy romance. The cover from her book, The Monsters We Defy, is stunning! The cover designer is Lisa Maria Pompilio if you want to check out more of her work. The novel above was just awarded the Best Fantasy Audio Book Award from the Audies. Her first novel, Song of Blood and Stone, started as an Indies series (I love the title.) The series was purchased by St. Martin’s Press, who republished and completed the series. That novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best fantasy novels of all time, so clearly, this author knows a thing or two about world-building. The author also has a podcast called My Imaginary Friends if you want to check it out.

What is world-building exactly? I always believed it was something for sci-fi writers and had more to do with describing your setting. It turns out I’m wrong once again.

“So everyone needs to world build. It’s a vital aspect of the writing and it’s a vital aspect of character and conflicts as well. I believe that world is character, world is conflict and world is your story.”

Five essential world-building questions:

1. Where to start? Leslye Penelope suggests the beginning. Makes sense to me.

A perfect example was when I saw the film Blue Beetle with Xolo Maridueña on Sunday. I have never read any of the Blue Beetle comics. Still, there were too many unanswered questions in that film for me to understand what was going on in a few scenes, entertaining as this movie was. What’s not to love about a Nana with a big old gun blowing bad guys away protecting her family? Anyway, back to my point: why was this gold bug flying ship just sitting there? Who had maintained it all these years? What had it been used for previously? What powered it, allowing it to fly? Granted, it’s from a comic book, but still, it has to make some sense when it starts giving me a headache. People need to know your world, the rules to the game. Who wrote this script?  

Leslye mentioned regency romance and small-town romance being worlds that some of us may not be able to relate to because it’s written in a specific way. She says authors like Vanessa Riley and Adriana Herrera now write the regency genre and include previously underrepresented people. 

Her point is that you don’t have to ignore people to make it a happy story. It can still be a happy story where everyone gets along. My thoughts here are maybe they don’t get along right away because if it’s like Leslye says— the world is in conflict, but it could end on a happy note.

2. Why is the story taking place where you’re writing it?

I'm writing my second book in my series, and like my first, it takes place in Chicago. It's gothic, and I wanted a cold, windy, metropolitan city with old brownstones that had a lake where I could have mobsters, stately old homes, and run a brothel. If I could take my story and put it somewhere else, maybe I need to consider a different location or make a more robust setting.

“More world-building as conflict… So, can the world itself be a force of antagonism? And think about how that would happen. How does it nurture or strengthen your antagonist? And can your protagonist bend the world to her will?” 

Or does the world work against them? If my character can't get an Uber because everyone else needs one because of the weather conditions, she'll have to walk. She'll be all alone in a snowstorm. The hero won't be able to find her, creating more conflict for her and the hero. How have you turned the environment against your characters in a story? Please share under comments.

3. What do people care about?

What do they value? What motivates them? Is it desire or fear? Understand your characters. Know what motivates them and why they do what they do. View your story through the lens of the world: culture, customs, religion, and the rest. Know how your character relates to these things and are the same as everyone else and how they differ. Being the odd one creates conflict, and that makes exciting books.

The hero in my story practices Wicca. The heroine is Catholic, and the hero is motivated by fear of his past. He also doesn't live by society's customs or accepted standards, creating a conflict with the heroine, who's been raised to follow the church's rules. In what ways have you created a character that is odd or different that different? Please share under comments.

4. How do our characters come into conflict?

How do their values affect their daily lives? This is where you can see how our character gets into conflict. “Who is hated, and why are they hated.” This is where our tropes come in. Think of your favorite tropes like Opposites Attract, Enemies to Lover, and Mafia or mine, breaks up with lover to save her.

Leslye mentioned other conflicts that could be explored that mirror actual conflict in the world, inequitable resource distribution, and historical conflicts, but that got me thinking: can you have a story without conflict? Not a very good one.

5. Who is telling the story?

“Reveal the world through the eyes of the character. How do we do these things?”

Writing in first person POV is wildly popular in romance, but third-person POV is just as versatile. The important thing is that you need to show how your character sees things and immerse your readers in the scene.

Tips For Creating Immersive Situations:

• Create a newbie character who asks questions that allow you to get this information across in a way that interests the reader but doesn’t feel phony.

• Keep exposition active. Reveal your character by having them do things as opposed to describing. 

• Drop bread-crumbs. A little at a time. Answer the reader right before they have a question or right after. 

• Ask yourself, does the reader need to know this now or ever?

• Put the least amount you can of your world in your story. Your editor and/or your beta readers can tell you if you need more.

• Leslye uses a Story Bible to keep track of things and uses Scrivener to write. Her story Bible is a template of her world, the people, the places, objects, etc., that she puts into her book. This is an important document you can refer to when you build a series.

Hope you enjoyed reading about this presentation and learning about Leslye Penelope and other authors. Leslye Penelope offers online classes if you want to learn more about world-building. Please leave comments below.

Next week, I’ll discuss Jen Graybeal’s Focus on Story Issues presentation.

Have a great week, and let’s get some writing done!