I’m Not A Fan of World-Building

Happy New Year! This is my first blog of 2016. I had a nice long teacher break and, now that I’m well-rested, school is back in the swing of things. Since I submitted my manuscript to an agent back in December, I’ve started working on my next novel, which I’m quite excited about.

While writing my first novel, I learned something about myself and my writing style. World-building isn’t for me. It’s funny because I thought that since I’m such a fan of fantasy, I’d also enjoy writing it. I love watching fantasy films and TV shows, reading fantasy novels and playing video games set in a fantastic world. Right now I’m playing The Witcher 3, which won tons of Game of the Year awards last year. It takes place in a richly detailed world with lots of history. The author of the novels, off of which the game is based, must have taken years to develop that.

I imagine fantasy and sci-fi authors find enjoyment in creating a whole new world from scratch. I figured if I enjoyed exploring those worlds I’d also enjoy creating them. Nope. Unfortunately, I learned that was not the case. As I wrote my first novel, which partly takes place in a magical world, I began to get frustrated having to come up with details I didn’t care about. A writer friend and beta reader would constantly ask me questions about how the world I created worked. I didn’t care. I just wanted to get to the story. But because I was already deep into the novel, I pushed through my frustrations and worked out those details. Not fun.

I realized that a writer doesn’t always enjoy writing what he likes to read. 

But I still felt conflicted about it. I’d be bored writing literary novels like John Green. That’s just not what I want to write right now. So what was I going to do? Thankfully, as I continued to read other novels, I quickly found the solution. Magical Realism was the answer. Urban fantasy. Fantasy set in the real world. Brilliant! I didn’t have to create my own world. It was already there. That also helped grounded my characters in realism. I want my characters do deal with real teen issues. Naturally, that’s much easier when the characters are here in the real world. That makes them more relatable.

Harry Potter is an excellent example of magical realism, though it doesn’t seem that way. Think about it, Hogwarts is in the UK, not in some made-up magical world. Harry’s aunt and uncle live somewhere in England. This is the real world with a magical bent to it. So, J.K. Rowling didn’t create an entirely different world; she made a secret magical society and history that existed in our own world. Clearly, a lot of people, including myself, loved it.

My next novel takes place in Los Angeles. I’m really really thrilled to start writing it. Now that I’m not bogged down by world-building details I can hone in on a solid story. I hope my readers embrace it and love it as much as I do.