world-building Archives - Irreverent Muse

World Building – Every Character Has a Story

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Michell

An I’ve been thinking a lot about characters and building rich, living worlds for them to live in. I have also been re-reading some old favourites. Specifically Anne McCaffrey’s Harper Hall Trilogy set in her fictional world of Pern. I have come to better understand that every character has a story within their world and approaching those various stories in different ways will enrich the world you are building. Pern – a rich story world Let me use Anne McCaffrey’s planet of Pern to better show what I mean. If you ask any lover of her Pern books what elements most stand out for them, you will likely hear about dragons and dragon riders. An invasive spore, know as Thread, […]

Building Worlds Takes More Than One Book

Posted on October 25, 2018 by Michell

Building Worlds Takes More Than One Book I have heard of people spending hours and hours doing nothing but building worlds for their characters to play in. They sacrifice time creating those actual characters and creating stories for them to exist in all for the sake of a more detailed legal system or better rules of magic or whatever. I suspect, for those people, the fun of creation is such that the actual story writing might be a chore. Sort of like being the Dungeon Master (DM) versus the Campaign Party (CP) in DnD. The DM creates the dungeon and all of its inherent challenges and rewards. The DM loves torturing and making the characters work. The CP meanwhile, is […]

World Building – It’s the Little Things

Posted on April 13, 2018 by Michell

World Building – Small Details Make It World Building consists of lots of big ideas interspersed with many smaller ones. Those ideas can be cultures, characters and places. But what about the small little bits you don’t really notice? I am a big fan of superheros (probably not a surprise to any of you). I love watching shows like The Flash on television. The little details they put in to make their world feel real are part of what I adore about the show. One example, the favorite coffee shop is CC Jitters. Another would be the Big Belly Burger. Are either of those elements important to any plot line? Nope. Do they give the characters something important to talk […]

Creating Worlds

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Michell

One of the things I truly love, whether it is in books, movies, comic books or whatever, is when the property hits a certain tipping point and stops being a collection of material and becomes a living breathing entity. Several such properties come to mind (and might make what I’m talking about easier to envision): Star Wars; Star Trek; Discworld; Wizarding World of Harry Potter; Pern; Asterix and Obelix; Narnia. This is just a very small list; there are many MANY other examples out there. In each case, the original work has grown well beyond what was first conceived, gaining a life of its own. Hmm…now that I think of it, perhaps the word, “Conceived” is very appropriate. What makes […]