I'm taking a break from outlining my planned submission for #TheSwordsofSaintValentine to wonder publicly about something that I've often been perplexed about privately.
I've made a hobby out of world building. I've been doing it for over twenty-five years at this point, and everything is interconnected. Literally, nothing I've imagined falls outside of a grand web of design. No one-shots, no separate franchises...if I come up with a plot or a concept, my mind immediately furnishes a context for it within the existing framework of everything else I've ever come up with.
Maybe this is a learned behavior. My early reading was taken up by things like Tolkien and Asimov, who worked very similarly. I didn't read C. S. Lewis' Space Trilogy until later in my life, so for me his Narnia stories represented coherence in creativity. It was just how stuff worked, as far as I knew.
Fast forward to the last couple of years, and my discovery of the indie rennaissance in science fiction and fantasy. Even more recently, my experience of reading the fine #PulpRev authors on Steemit. Some people follow the practice of what I'm calling "coherent world building", but just as many if not more ar demonstrating the ability to create one-off stories completely unrelated to what came before and what came after. This is, I'll admit, something completely foreign to me.
Im certainly not complaining. I enjoy it all. However, I am curious how those of you who write on here decide whether to go with discrete stories or complex, interconnected world building. Does one come naturally versus another? Or is it a conscious choice in each case. So far, I haven't been able to overcome the reflex to assimilate new ideas into my existing world, and I'm not sure how I would start going about it if I decided it would be advantageous to do so.
So, Steemians, what have been your experiences?
I find that no matter how hard I try to write out of the universe I've created, one of my characters eventually shows up, proving that I feel much more comfortable in my universe, rather than out of it. For me, I suppose, it's a safety net.
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As of about four months ago I'm writing everything in a common universe.
[Note - I'm exhausted so hopefully this comment is not too full of typos.]
I'm doing this mainly because it gives me flexibility, which probably sounds odd. What I mean is, by explaining things in-story in terms of a common framework (or at least knowing what the in-universe explanation is, even if I don't explicitly lay it out), it allows me to connect my stories later on should I so choose. Knowing that's what I want to do, I can pay attention to when and where things happen up front so I don't have to retcon or outright break continuity later.
A common universe also means I don't have to screw around world building for every new story. I might have to come up with some new elements, but the foundation is already in place. Since I tend to waste time chasing minutia during world building, this saves me time.
I think of this as the Terry Pratchett model. Ignoring the first handful of Discworld books, what he ended up with was a bunch of loose series that followed certain groups of characters. The Witches, the Night Watch, Unseen University, etc. There were also stand-alone novels. Sometimes a story about the Witches (for example) would involve people from the Night Watch or the University, tying things together.
That sort of web of stories is what I'm going for, though my web will be much looser. The web approach seems necessary given I'm not that interested in writing continuous series covering a larger coherent arc---I do have some of those planned, but not many---but I do want to reuse characters, split off supporting characters and give them their own adventures, etc.
I'm also focused more on certain families and organizations than specific characters, and I think it's unlikely that any one character will get more than a handful of stories to star in. Most protagonists will be the star of just one story, though they'll probably turn up again elsewhere. I think of that approach as following the Redwall or Sackett model, though I won't hew to it as closely as Jacques or L'amour did.
And what's the point of not using a common universe, really? I have certain ideas about how the world is, how fantasy elements should work, and so on, and I'm always going to revert back to those ideas because they've been a lifetime in the making. Why not just say the stories are all connected? If I want a new playground, I can jump around in time, or shove my characters into a pocket dimension with different physical rules (though magic will always work the same way). One of my stories is set 300 years in the future, on a space station in a distant system. Several largely take place in other dimensions. One is on another planet, in the far future after space colonization, but following a technological collapse, and deals with the relations between normal people and people so magically altered they've become a new (fairly hostile and insular) species. Some of these stories are so wildly different you might not guess they take place in the same universe at all if you fail to pay attention to the details of the world mechanics.
If I ever absolutely need to write a story outside this common universe, that's fine; that's what I was doing the last several years anyway. But so far, I haven't yet run into a story idea that couldn't fit into it somehow.
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See this all makes utter and complete sense to me.
I would add as a reason that it let's me screw around with genre barriers. As an example, I have what I'm planning to do for the impending #SwordsofSaintValentine, which is somewhat fantasy, somewhat sci-fi, and somewhat "weird". That will probably expand into a series of short stories in a similar framework. However, there's also more high fantasy in one place, straight-ish sci-fi in another, and something I'm calling "techno-noire" in a third. These are just examples. And while I do plan to join them all in a grand arc at some point (my world building has always taken a very eschstological bent) they will probably live in that otherwise loose web that you describe.
Really I should read more Pratchett.
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For me personally, the variety of genres and subgenres that I enjoy both reading and writing in are varied enough that I think it would be difficult to contain them in a single world.
I don't think my furry sci-fi horror story, for instance, could take place in the same universe in my superhero fantasy or my meditation on La Santa Muerte. Maybe I could retcon them to in fact exist in the same universe (a la Asimov), but I don't think that would be true to the stories.
I don't have any problem with authors who think otherwise. In addition to those you mention, let me add a personal favorite: Cordwainer Smith. His stories can be seen to create a coherent universe spanning millennia, often with allusions carrying from one story to another.
I just feel that to me, it would be too limiting to stick to one universe...
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The world, in my case, usually tends to serve the story - I don't go around making worlds for the sake of it, simply because it isn't the way I write. With the exception of my in-progress novel, which does have the weight of a whole alternate Earth behind it, I always focus on local milieu rather than wider storyworld, and then, if sequels require it, I bring more of the flavorful details out.
Then again, I tend to work with evocative names rather than concrete numbers, so please take my advice with a large lump of rock-salt. I don't even know what I'm on about half the time. :)
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I've thought about alt history before...and I have to say that I think that would fall outside my current worldbuilding.
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Ken, I love your view of world building. I too tend to fall back on certain worlds - the Familiar summons us, in writing, in relationships (women leave one abusive boyfriend for another just as bad), even in our dreams (recurring places and long-ago faces).
Isle of Write has met pulp-revs and #SwordsofSaintValentine contributors, and you all write splendidly! We'd love to see more of you in our Discord channels and fiction workshop.
art and flair courtesy of @PegasusPhysics
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That invitation applies to all of you commenting here - I've been reading you, and love what I see!
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As for me, I must move as the spirit lists. So far, it only leads to one universe. But I can make do quite well there. (The World War 2 stories are coming someday. From both World War 2s, that is...)
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I neglected to add that I deeply admire anyone who can write stories in multiple universes simultaneously, or who is willing to roll up a cohesive universe for a single story. Those folks are gods. I will likely never be worthy to untie their shoes.
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