Setting Development: How to Create a Believable Setting

22Apr08

Originally written on Tuesday, April 08, 2008

This is the seventh post in the Writing Series. To learn more about the series see this post.

Let’s do a quick review shall we? Over the last seven posts in the series we have not only lead a confrontation against Cliché Characters and implemented a full scale attack against Writer’s Block, but we’ve tackled outlining and plot development. So what’s next? It’s time to address settings and their development. You have your characters and you have your plot, now you just need to know when and where your story is going to take place. But that’s not all there is to setting development, but we’ll get to that later.

The Basics of World Building

The basics of world building are just the answers to simple questions, When and Where. To build up a believable setting you should start with these questions. And as always the more details you start with, the better.

One of the first steps you should take when building your world is simple, are you on Earth or not. Is this place an Alternate Earth (AE) world or is it a Not Earth at All (NEaA) world? Figuring these answers out now will aid you in the steps to come.

When does your story take place? Past, Present, or Future. If it’s in the past, then it’s label historical and that in itself comes with challenges. If you choose to do a historical fiction, here are some general rules. Going back to the first step, are you dealing with Earth, Alternate Earth, or Not Earth at All. If you are dealing with Earth’s past, you already have a plan to follow. Do your research. Know when your civilization happened, or could have happen. If you are going to have a race that is more advance technologically then we are today in the year 1020 CE, then you should have a plan to explain what happen to them since we obviously lost their knowledge somewhere along the lines. By most historian standards, civilization happens when there is writing and a system of counting, and the first signs of a true civilization are the Egyptians. However, there is nothing to say you can’t create a lost civilization. Pay attention to details when dealing with historical fictions. Clothes, language, transportation, beliefs, all need to be handled. A 12^th century peasant wouldn’t be wearing a knitted skirt because the technique of knitting was learned until the 14^th century. It might seem like random facts but the details make your story believable.

Once you’ve settled the answers to When and Where, then you can move on to Whom and How, you need to think about the inhabitants of your world. Are there different human races on the planet, are there human races on the planet at all. What about non-human, elves, dwarves, aliens? How long have the inhabitants been here, did they evolve there or migrate from another place? How big is the population of the world and the country your story takes place, the town/village? Does this planet run on magic or science? If it’s magic, then it’s a fantasy based story. Where does magic come from, the gods, personal willpower, the life force of the person (As with Harry and the other witches and warlocks, they were born magical it’s just how it is.) If it’s science then science fiction is your home. How technologically advance is the population, is everyone on the same playing field? If not why not? What purpose does technology have in the world, who developed the technology? Is there someone out there opposing this technology?

If you have chosen to do an AE world, then the inhabitants might include non human races, if that’s the case what kind are they? Are they open about the presences to everyone, how many are there and what areas do they occupy. How similar is this world to Earth, are their differences in history and culture? What are the similarities? Maybe your story has a definitive point in history that causes it to split from ours, maybe China was really the first civilization to discover America and that caused America’s future to change drastically. If you chose to do a NEaA world, then you need to go into physically building your planet and its structure. The size of the planet, the atmosphere make-up, does it have a sun and a moon? Landmass makeup and arrangement. Season patterns and such.

**Please note that by choosing one of these types of world, you are in for a lot of creative thinking, while having your story based on Earth you are in for some heavy research. The work will end up about the same in order to make the story believable.

Once you have a handle on the basics of your world you can start delving into the details of your world. Starting with the physical and historical features of your setting. Physical and historical features of any story be it an Earth based story, AE based story, or even a NEaA story, have two things that are generally the first steps one takes in getting started and that is where geographically does your story take place. How much ground is covered in the story, how will the characters travel this ground? What does this landmass look like, is it a snow covered mountain range, a sweltering tropical rain forest, or a deathly dry desert oasis? Moving on to the historical features you’ll handle the specific of your magical element or the technological one. Also the country that your story takes place in, its background history should be hammered out.

People are part of the Setting too!

Setting isn’t just geography. A complete and believable writer has taken in to account the type of people that will not only be the supporting class but the extras. For those who are taking on the challenge of writing a AE story or NEaA story, how you deal with the people in your story and their customs can break or make your story. You should think about and handle grand themes like customs, ethics and religions, and even language to small mundane things like foods eaten, arts and entertainment, and architecture. Dealing with the social organization is a must too, the government set up, foreign relations, the crime and legal system, and even how they wage war and the weapons used.

Public life of your characters will most defiantly come up in your writing so dealing with it now can save you hours of writer’s block when you need an extra tie in scene. As well as their daily life, should be handling in the setting development stage. The general fashion and dress of the characters in your story should be handled as well as manners that are accepted and those that aren’t. And figuring out their diet, which is different than deciding what type of food they eat. What is considered everyday food for your characters, what are some holiday only foods? How often do they eat? The last few things you might hammer out in the planning stage are the calendar set up and the education system. For those of you with Earth based stories, all this just should come from research and personal experiences.

Here’s a link to a website I like to use that has a list of questions to help me whenever I think I’ve done all the planning I need to do. It helps me check to see if I have missed an important detail somewhere in the planning stage.

http://www.sfwa.org/writing/worldbuilding1.htm

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