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World Building in Fiction
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World building is the foundation for all creative fiction. I covered the topic in a blog post a couple years ago, but the advice bears repeating:
"We mustn't tell them everything. Some things, certainly, but not everything. I mean this as no excuse for poor detail or fractured narrative. What I mean is this; know it, inside and out, every detail: The peoples, long since faded from memory that once thrived where your hero now treads; animals that will never wander in your protagonist’s path and ruins that are too covered with centuries of stories to be seen. Every rock, village, tide and turn. This is the foundation upon which worlds are built. These are the underpinnings of much greater things. Like steel beams in a modern building, it holds…it structures the fabric of your imagination. Because after all, it is the utterance of a thing that makes it what it is. As an author, you will always (without fail) know more about your worlds than can be shared with your readers. Your acknowledgement of it is enough. If it is strong, it will carry through your prose and filter into the minds of those who dare dive deep enough. Those are the worlds that leave us dreaming long after the last page has been turned. Like the never ending story, some worlds will never die." (http://www.jschancellor.wordpress.com)
Most beginning authors, after months or years of hard research and idea drafting, arrive at the frightening fork in the road that will determine whether they bring their story to fruition or let it rot among complex piles of notes and outlines. I've been there more than once. The trick, is to not get bogged down with the details or the overwhelming urge to produce 'perfect' prose, which simply does not exist. Writing a novel, in any genre, has been likened appropriately to exercise; you've got to flex those muscles every day or they'll atrophy.
Set a daily word count. After you've done the preliminary outline, assign the novel a ball park number of words. Then, set a date for completion of your project and ration out those words by the number of weeks till your deadline. Lastly, choose whatever number of days per week you are comfortable with and divvy those words out one last time. Maybe you have Sunday set aside for family time or you don't want to work weekends--whatever your schedule is, decide what fits you best and stick to your guns. If you miss your word count one day, you may have to use one of your 'off' days to make up for it.
Whatever approach you decide to take, don't get lost in perfecting the little things--yet. You will have plenty of time for that during the revision/editing process. So turn off your phone, update your social media outlets (every author needs these for exposure and networking) and then get down to the business of true world building.
