How to "fake" World Building
Sorry for the "click-baity" title. But this is something I would like to discuss. You may be asking yourself, "Why fake world build?". Thats a good question. Everyone likes to hear about beautifully crafted worlds with an extreme about of lore (e.g. Middle Earth, Westeros, The Forgotten Realms, etc). Something no one tells you, is that these worlds are the result of years and years of world building.
Let's say your story is set in a densely populated city like New Angel City in my first book: Blood Shadow: A Vera Shadow Mystery, and you don't want to map out every single building and location. Thats absolutely okay. I didn't sit down and draw out every street. In fact, I despise world building cities. So here's what I did.
I wanted New Angel City to resembled Los Angeles and New York City (hence the name). I knew I wanted key Noir locations such as film studios, rich upper class neighbourhoods, docks, and an entertainment district (perfect for seedy nightclubs and dark back alleys). With this in mind I made a list of the districts I wanted and gave them names, as well as noting what they were. For example: The Pearl District is the seedier part of town where you can find prostitutes and other ne'er-do-wells, and Grafton is a more of an upper class neighbourhood. Something I did was to name addresses. So when my character is discussing a location with another person I throw in the address to make the world feel a bit more real.
Another idea I had was to make "pop culture" references. Now I don't mean this as a way to include modern things into an alternate 1940's. But I did make a reference to Beethoven, and there is a nod to Shakespeare, but I changed Shakespeare to a translation. Again this was all to give the illusion that I had thought out this world in a deep way.
So that's my ideas on "faking" world building. Now you should still do some deep building in figuring out what exists in your world, technology wise or magic wise. With out that your writing will become contradictory and a real mess.
Cheers,
Enkelli Arn Robertson
Let's say your story is set in a densely populated city like New Angel City in my first book: Blood Shadow: A Vera Shadow Mystery, and you don't want to map out every single building and location. Thats absolutely okay. I didn't sit down and draw out every street. In fact, I despise world building cities. So here's what I did.
I wanted New Angel City to resembled Los Angeles and New York City (hence the name). I knew I wanted key Noir locations such as film studios, rich upper class neighbourhoods, docks, and an entertainment district (perfect for seedy nightclubs and dark back alleys). With this in mind I made a list of the districts I wanted and gave them names, as well as noting what they were. For example: The Pearl District is the seedier part of town where you can find prostitutes and other ne'er-do-wells, and Grafton is a more of an upper class neighbourhood. Something I did was to name addresses. So when my character is discussing a location with another person I throw in the address to make the world feel a bit more real.
Another idea I had was to make "pop culture" references. Now I don't mean this as a way to include modern things into an alternate 1940's. But I did make a reference to Beethoven, and there is a nod to Shakespeare, but I changed Shakespeare to a translation. Again this was all to give the illusion that I had thought out this world in a deep way.
So that's my ideas on "faking" world building. Now you should still do some deep building in figuring out what exists in your world, technology wise or magic wise. With out that your writing will become contradictory and a real mess.
Cheers,
Enkelli Arn Robertson
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