Worldbuilding for Masochists

Episode 98: Mysterious Worlds, ft. ANDREA STEWART

Is your world so big because it's full of secrets? From lost civilizations to prowling cryptids, from Unidentified Aerial Phenomena to covert cabals, people love a good mystery, in real life and in fiction. So how can you build these mysteries into your world? Guest Andrea Stewart joins us to explore the possibilities!

As you create your world, you might know more of its truths and secrets than your characters. What are you withholding from them? How much of their own world is known to them, and how much is beyond the fields we know, off the edges of the map, or hidden in plain sight? If something strange happens, what tools do they have for explaining it to themselves? Science, technology, religion, magic -- all these things and more may play a role in the mysteries of your invented world!

(Also, because Cass promised: It's spelled "Coelacanth".)

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Our Guest: Andrea Stewart is the daughter of immigrants, and was raised in a number of places across the United States. Her parents always emphasized science and education, so she spent her childhood immersed in Star Trek and odd-smelling library books. When her (admittedly ambitious) dreams of becoming a dragon slayer didn't pan out, she instead turned to writing fiction. Her short stories can be found in such venues as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Daily Science Fiction, Galaxy’s Edge, and others. Her debut epic fantasy novel, The Bone Shard Daughter, was a finalist for the Locus Award for Best First Novel, the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel, the Goodreads Choice Award for Fantasy and Debut Novel, and the BookNest Award for Best Traditionally Published Novel. She now lives in sunny California, and in addition to writing, can be found herding cats, looking at birds, and falling down research rabbit holes.

Episode 97: Perfect Pairing - Intersectionality and Worldbuilding, ft SUYI DAVIES OKUNGBOWA

When you're building a world, how do you think about all the different levers of power and privilege that your characters may encounter -- or manipulate, or be manipulated by? Guest Suyi Davies Okungbowa joins us to think about the matrix of identity and its potential in speculative storytelling.

Intersectionality gives us a framework for examining the pluralism of existence. Exploring these concepts allows writers to build more nuanced, vivid, breathing worlds out of all the layers of complexity in life -- gender, race, religion, class, and so forth. How do you show your reader what those layers are and how they interact in your world? Do you begin with a character in a situation where they're comfortable in their power? Or do you place them in a situation where they're less secure and supported? What choices will they make based on their relative positions of advantage and disadvantage in their world? These decisions not only give heft to the world, but also help writers find juicy plot hooks!

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Our Guest: Suyi Davies Okungbowa is an award-winning Nigerian author of fantasy, science fiction and general speculative fiction.He has published various novels for adults, the latest of which is Son of the Storm (Orbit, 2021), first in the epic fantasy trilogy, The Nameless Republic (the second book in the series, Warrior of the Wind, is forthcoming in 2023). His debut novel. David Mogo, Godhunter (Abaddon, 2019) won the 2020 Nommo Award for Best Speculative Novel by an African.

He has also published works for younger audiences (under Suyi Davies) such as Stranger Things: Lucas on the Line (Random House, 2022), Minecraft: The Haven Trials (Del Rey, 2021) and contributed to the instant #1 NYT bestselling anthology Black Boy Joy. His shorter works have appeared in various periodicals and anthologies, and have been nominated for various awards.

Okungbowa is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, where he currently lives. As a speaker and instructor, he has taught writing at the college level and spoken at various venues, institutionally and publicly. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Arizona.

Episode 96: The Big Blue World: Oceanic Worldbuilding, ft DARCIE LITTLE BADGER

In worldbuilding, we think a lot about the cities and towns that populate our worlds, as well as the enchanted forests, the treacherous mountain ranges, the gloomy swamps, and all those other terrains that adventurers on a quest find themselves trekking across. But what about the feature that makes up over 70% of our own planet and likely a significant percentage of the one you're creating?

Darcie Little Badger joins us to talk about worldbuilding on and under the water! From the teeming biodiversity of coral reefs to the fascinatingly weird creatures of the depths, what inspiration can writers take from the oceans and seas? How do the denizens of your world flourish with -- or in spite of -- the effects the oceans have on them?

 

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Our Guest: Darcie Little Badger is a Lipan Apache writer with a PhD in oceanography. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Elatsoe, was featured in Time Magazine as one of the best 100 fantasy books of all time. Elatsoe also won the Locus award for Best First Novel and is a Nebula, Ignyte, and Lodestar finalist. Her second fantasy novel, A Snake Falls to Earth, received a Nebula Award, an Ignyte Award, and a Newbery Honor and is on the National Book Awards longlist. Darcie is married to a veterinarian named Taran.

Episode 95: Building and Bending Gender, ft. G.R. MACALLISTER

When you're building a society's conceptions of gender and gender roles... where do you start? Do you want to draw from historical precedent (for good or ill), or try to create something from scratch? G.R. Macallister joins us to discuss thoughtfully incorporating ideas of gender into your world, whether or not you're making it a cornerstone of your premise.

We also discuss where gender intersects with other important worldbuilding concepts: religion, government, sexuality, family structures, and more!

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Our Guest: G.R. Macallister is the author of the Five Queendoms series, beginning with Scorpica, which Publishers Weekly called “a must-read for fans of Game of Thrones and Priory of the Orange Tree.” She also writes bestselling historical fiction under the name Greer Macallister. Her novels have been named Indie Next, LibraryReads, and Amazon Best Book of the Month picks and optioned for film and television. A regular contributor to Writer Unboxed and the Chicago Review of Books, she lives with her family in Boston. Scorpica is her epic fantasy debut.

Episode 94: Natural and Supernatural Disasters

Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, volcanoes... unstable wormholes, hellmouths, murder hornets, sharknados... When you're writing speculative fiction, the scope of disaster can be wild!

Do the local wizards cause occasional hails of turnips? Does Gondor have a tornado warning system? After a thousand-year flood, does magical FEMA show up to rebuild? Decisions about how your society plans for and reacts to disaster can imply a lot else about their infrastructure, government, religion, and other societal constructs.

Then there's the question of: Is the disaster the backbone of your plot, or just one plot element among many? That decision may shape the tone and even the subgenre of a book!

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Episode 93: Queries and Quandaries

Happy new year, listeners! In this episode, we take some questions from you! But not just any questions -- questions that probe specific worldbuilding conundrums you're facing, either in your own work or in popular media.

In response to your prompts, we discuss imaginary friends, villain tropes, the deficiencies of sci-fi obstetrics, cultural shifts, and grappling with originality.

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Episode 92: Ringing in the New Year

As 2022 draws to a close, your WFM hosts take a moment to celebrate winter traditions, especially those commemorating the start of a new year! But... what is a year, even? Does your culture have that conception? Is it tied to seasons, to floods, to the stars, or something else?

And if they do recognize a regular rotation of time, how do they mark the observation? Is it a time for gift-giving and wild parties, or for somber reflection? For cleansing and spiritual purifying, or for hedonistic indulgence? The decisions may say a lot about what a particular culture values, about how they relate to their history, or about their religion!

This episode also includes a few year-in-review highlights, as well as the excitement we've got coming up in 2023!

 

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Episode 91: Making the Incredible Credible, ft. CHARLAINE HARRIS

When you've added a fantastical, super-science-y, or paranormal element to your world, how do you make that feel well-integrated, baked-in, and totally normal for that world? Guest Charlaine Harris joins us to discuss using history, society, and your imagination to fill in the corners of a world and make it feel like a place you could actually go visit.

Sometimes, that work is about making sure a world is internally consistent -- and sometimes, it's about giving your werewolves fast food restaurants. What choices will make your reader an active participant in co-creating your world?

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Our Guest: 

Charlaine Harris is an American author who specializes in mysteries. She is best known for her book series The Southern Vampire Mysteries, which was adapted as the TV series True Blood. The television show was a critical and financial success for HBO, running seven seasons, from 2008 through 2014. A number of her books have been bestsellers and this series was translated into multiple languages and published across the globe.

Harris was born and raised in a small town in the Mississippi River Delta area of the United States. She now lives in Texas with her husband; they have three grown children and grandchildren. She began writing from an early age, and changed from playwriting in college to writing and publishing mysteries, including several long series featuring recurring characters.

Episode 90: The Editor’s Take ft. BRIT HVIDE

We're big believers in doing all the work when it comes to the worldbuilding, but when it comes to putting it in the book, how do you know how much you need to have in the text?  What do the readers need to know, and what goes in the ephemera or appendices?  Who can help you figure that out?  An editor, of course!

So we sat down with Orbit Books executive editor Brit Hvide-- who's worked with authors like N.K. Jemisin, C.L. Clark, Django Wexler, Andrea Stewart and many more-- to get her thoughts on what really works in fantasy worldbuilding.

Our Guest:

Brit E. B. Hvide is a writer and Hugo Award nominated editor. She studied creative writing and physics at Northwestern University. Originally from Singapore, she now lives in Brooklyn with her husband, their son, and their dog. Follow her on Twitter @bhvide or visit her website brithvide.wordpress.com.

Episode 89: Stealing the Best Parts of History, ft. LAURA ANNE GILMAN

Many fantasy authors draw from history to shape their worlds and inform their worldbuilding choices. Where do you draw the line between hewing to the record and just using it for inspiration? How much do accuracy and authenticity matter? And, when those research rabbit holes are so very alluring, how do you make yourself stop?

Guest Laura Anne Gilman joins us to talk about the various ways to approach historical research and integrate it into your worldbuilding, as well as what to do with the many, many tidbits of knowledge that end up in your head, taking up space. From antiquated toilets to questionably decorated tapestries, this episode explores some gloriously weird historical tidbits!

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Our Guest:

Laura Anne Gilman is the author of more than twenty novels, including the Nebula award-nominated The Vineart War trilogy and the award-winning Devil’s West series from Saga Press/ Simon & Schuster.  Her forthcoming projects include the Gilded Age historical fantasy, UNCANNY TIMES (October 2022),  and a series of paranormal romance novellas focusing on non-traditional partners, starting with SOMETHING PERFECT.

She has also dipped her pen into the mystery field, writing as L.A. Kornetsky (Collared, Fixed, Doghouse, and Clawed).