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There are murals on the flood walls that protect Portsmouth Ohio from the occasional fits of anger that the mighty Ohio River hurls at the city. Murals that depict the city in various stages of its past.
Among the murals is a particular favorite of mine which shows life on Main Street some magical evening during the 1940′s. The artist painted the grand scene in such a way that I am drawn into wanting to walk down the street and feel like I belong in 1940′s Portsmouth.
This is how we want our writing to act. We want our readers to feel like they are standing beside the characters. In many ways our world building means as much to the story as the plot or the characters we create.
Sure, we can write a story that is a conversation between two young adults talking about their pain, desires, dreams and realities, and we may pull it off really well, but what if we placed them on a busy street corner in Little Italy? What if we give the surrounding scene all of the nuances inherent to that neighborhood. The smell of sweet sausage wafting through the air as it cooks. Accents and dialects unique to that section of the big city of those who pass by the two youths. The attitudes. The laughing children playing stick ball as they dodge traffic.
What kind of world building would we perform for two people who find themselves picnicking just off road in a rural part of North Carolina. What kind of trees will provide shade for them? What is the ground cover? For that matter, is there ground cover? How can the choices add to the scene to give validation?
World building adds weight and credibility to our stories. Done with care, world building can guide us to profound resolutions of our plots. It can give us a frame for character behavior.
Take Extreme Caution In Creating A World
Unless we are writing science fiction/fantasy, then our readers will have some experience in knowing the world we place our characters in. They will spot our mistakes, such as the drugstore being on the west side of main street in chapter 2, and the south side in chapter 8.
Choose the correct language, dialects, and names, because if you don’t, then your story will look thin and wrong.
But, if we pay attention to what we create, then we will sell the story because we know that sycamore trees are only good picnic shade if the picnic is near a body of water, and our couple just went off road a ways, most like in and amongst the conifers. This in turn means a soft ground cover of pine needles that have been cast from the trees over the years.
A budding courtship, a picnic blanket, and soft ground could mean that someone is going to be late getting home.
See, I didn’t have to write about any physical act, yet most of you were there to witness it, more importantly, you may have felt the warm sun and the gentle breeze. Maybe you heard the mountain birds as they sang a lovers’ aria.
This was because of my little attempt at world building to give the scene life.
How important is world building to you? Do you give much thought to it as a reader, or a writer?
© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.
Give Your Story Depth With World Building http://goo.gl/fb/2IO7g #writing #writingtips #fiction #worldbuilding
Give Your Story Depth With World Building http://goo.gl/fb/2IO7g #writing #writingtips #fiction #worldbuilding
Revisited: Give Your Story Depth With World Building – There are murals on the flood walls that protect… http://is.gd/fVfk0 #ewn