Thoughts about World-Building

I usually don’t do that much world-building beforehand. A lot of my stories, such as the Knight Agency, the Black Knight Agency, and the Magpies are set in the current reality, so there’s not much world-building to do - I just work off that which already exists, more or less.

When I really got back into writing after a long break where I barely finished anything, I wrote the six novellas of the Loki Files (collected in Volume 1 and Volume 2 for your reading pleasures). I had to do some world-building there, but it more or less happened. The history of Asgard and the general lay of the land came together over time. First, there was the Great Hall (basically Valhalla) and the first houses around it. Then Odin built the palace around the world tree, which includes a throne room, a hospital, a gallery, and the personal rooms of the royal family (and assorted other people). There’s a prison, an arena where Thor does his training, and the library where Loki has his secret study. There’s the rainbow bridge, too, of course, but that’s pretty much all there is to say about it. Since a lot of the action happens in one of those places and Earth/Midgard is pretty much our reality, too, that was all the world-building I actually needed.

John Stanton also needed some world-building, but I went easy on it there again (Volume 1 has been out for a while and last month has seen the release of Volume 2). John lives in a Steampunk version of 2015, where a lot of things are still Victorian; there are airships and coaches and trains for transport, but no cars. Yet, I have a suggestion of phones, I have radio, and I have telegrams. John has a gun which can be taken apart and stowed away in little space, there is enough knowledge about genes to clone an extinct fish (enter Dunkie the Dunkleosteus from “The Case of the Extinct Fish”), and there are a few other odds and ends which might not quite fit with the Victorian era. Yet, the world is a mere backdrop for the stories and the characters, thus I don’t really have a huge pack of notes on it. I pretty much make things up as I go along there.

When it comes to yet-unreleased stories, there’s a bit more world-building all around. In February, I will release “Alex Dorsey”, a story which is set in a slightly different version of our reality in which zombies, revenants, and vampires all exist.

“The Cases of Benjamin Farrens” will follow in May and bring us back to an imaginary version of the late Victorian age, but won’t have any real supernatural elements, despite a cursed gem and a supposed vampire.

DI Colin Rook, the first story about whom I’m just about to write, will be in a similar situation as Alex Dorsey: in his reality, the supernatural exists, but stays hidden.

Maddie Dempsey aka. The Eye lives in a pulp version of the 1930s where technology, especially when used by evil masterminds who wear black dresses and long veils, is more or less hand-waved.

Gabrielle Munson lives in a Steampunk modern world different from that of John Stanton where a small child can drown and come back from the dead to grow into a necromancer looking for explanations of what happened to give her a skill for free for which others have to sell their soul.

“The Jar and the Nail” is set in yet another Steampunk world where zombies have come out of nowhere and nobody is really safe.

Most of these stories (all safe for “Alex Dorsey” and “The Cases of Benjamin Farrens”) are not yet complete, Colin, Maddie, and Gabrielle also will have to go through several adventures before they will see release (as all of their stories are meant to be novellas, so there will be collections for them).

I’m not the type to dream up a whole world before I commit the first word to paper (or keyboard), I mostly make my worlds up as I go along, which makes it much easier to operate in a world which exists, since it doesn’t need any explanations and I can just look up facts about the geography of a place when I need to (as I’ve done several times during the Knight Agency series). Yet, I’ve always liked the Victorian era (perhaps because I fell in love with the stories about Sherlock Holmes early in my life - I may publish my stories about Sherley Holmes and Joanna Watson, too, I will see). I do like the whole of Steampunk aesthetics very much - the cogs, the leather and brass and copper, the care which goes into Steampunk outfits or decorations - and so I like putting my characters into such a setting, too. John was the first to boldly go there, but now others will follow. I’ve also become very enamoured with pulp novels over the last two or so years (been an avid reader of the German equivalent since my teens, too), so the regular setting of 1920 to 1950 also appeals to me.

Yet, those worlds are not tightly researched or figured out in advance. I merely put my impression of Steampunk to work (or, in Maddie’s case, my impression of the 1930s). I might kick out parts of the reality which I don’t find useful or fitting for my version while I keep others around for conflict and other reasons.

For other people, world-building is a serious thing and I admire those people who can come up with fully-realized worlds with their own history. For me, the world is mostly a backdrop for my characters. Humans, that I think is why I approach it like this, are the same everywhere. Characteristics don’t change, even though Gabrielle, for instance, would have it much easier in a world where she wouldn’t have to pretend to be a man or to fear being executed for being a necromancer by fate, not by choice. But then - conflict is what drives the story, so it will be good for her stories.

No matter how you build your worlds, whether you hand-wave them like I do or whether you spend a long time figuring out the slightest details, it will always be the story which brings them to life. Remember that and your world will be alive and feel real to the reader, even if it’s just for the few hours it takes to read the story.