Your world, your rules.
I am part of a Facebook group for sci-fi and fantasy authors. I have seen a lot of writers have questions about how certain matters are workable. The powers of Gods and Demigods, means of intergalactic space travel, attributes for specific characters, magical rules, and so on.
One of the best things about being a writer is that you control these worlds that are inside your head. You make the world, you get to make the rules.
Take Steampunk for instance. There are pretty much no set rules or guidelines for working in a Steampunk world. But there are a few things that tie stories into Steampunk that can’t really be ignored. Victorian garb with added leathers, metals, gears and goggles; airships and steam-powered technologies; difference engines and analytical engines, and maybe lasers. Whether you do your Steampunk in an alternate Victorian age, or on another planet, there are many options and possibilities before the writer.
There is of course an important matter to not ignore. Plausibility and Relatability. If you create a character with too much power and too much omniscience, odds are you will lose your reader along the way. Further, if the rules that drive your world have zero explanation and just ARE, you can also lose your readers’ interest.
Conflict comes from different places in a good story. Sometimes its internal conflict on the part of the protagonist. Other times you have an intriguing antagonist who must be dealt with. There will be a “thing” of some sort which will drive the action.
The Rules of My World are Not the Rules of Your World
All of us have different approaches to plotting out our stories. We also take different approaches to writing. For example, a friend of mine plots out a chapter-by-chapter outline before she begins to actually write the story. Me? I have a scene in my head, and write it out. Other scenes come up in sequence, and before I know it I have a story.
I visualize my characters and worlds. I see how they interact with their environments, one another, and various external factors as they come up. Often, though, I can write hundreds of pages before I have a totally clear understanding of the actual plot.
Why do we write? Because it is in our DNA. We have these ideas in our heads, whether it is fiction or non-fiction, and they can’t just stay there. Neither can we just talk about them. We have to write them out. Sometimes these things are private – I have six or seven journals full of stuff nobody will ever read but me – and sometimes we put them out there (visit The Ramblings of The Titanium Don to see what I blog about three times a week.)
The rules of the worlds we create are going to share some similarities, but one thing that makes them unique is that each of us is unique. What do you believe about how magic works? Is faster-than-light travel possible, and if so how does THAT work? Lasers and Steampunk? What powers do your superheroes have?
Most importantly, in my opinion, is that writing should be joyful. We do this because we feel compelled to, and we create amazing worlds and flights of fancy because if we don’t, we feel as if we might just burst.
When you write the world, you set the rules. If you enjoy reading what you create, odds are someone else will, too.
Keep at it!
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