Hello everyone. I'm planning on writing a novel that takes place in an apocalyptic setting, some undisclosed time in the future. I want the world to have regained a "primitive" form of organization, with the population, settlements, and order to be scattered. My issue is that some of these ideas just come and go, and I have trouble developing them. As I've never chosen to develop a story as much as I am now, I wanted to know, how do you guys keep your ideas concretely stored to help you visualize them? Pictures? Brainstorm "maps"? Just write? Cheers, Tomb
I enjoy ground up world building. I think it makes writing easier when I know something about the setting. For the novel I’m working on now, I spent about a month getting ready to write. Technology Communication Trade Politics Religion Material Culture How members of different social classes spend time, what rights they have, and how they decorate. Technical details of day to day living Dress Specific Places and People History As I come up with more and more, I’ll go back and change things until I feel like the world is believable to me.
The central idea of the story you want to tell can inform your choices. If you know you want to tell a story about a wealthy person traveling on foot to meet their lover, and how there is no reliable way to send a message, you will be able to narrow down your setting choices to fit it.
Interesting. So you focus on the plot, and branch out, noting your ideas as you go? What I had done so far (results in quite a fuss) is take certain aspects I wanted to include and try and build around that. May rethink my approach. Cheers!
I tend to write and research as I go ... done this way you have to expect the first draft to need some polish, but thats okay you can't edit a blank page
@big soft moose Is this post visualization? Do you write and research AFTER knowing what a world will look like, or how you've shaped it, or do you improvise as you go?
Apart from coming up with the inciting idea i visualise as i go. So for example my current book 'Darkest Storm' was based off the concept of an english hitman going to the states to rescue his gay friend from a 'treatment' camp (that came out of a conversation with @Wreybies about his fears of how the states could go) Everything between those two lines and the 50k odd words I have now I made up/rsearched on the fly
@big soft moose Wow... what a riveting story idea! So you "research and write" upon having the idea. I feel like that's the approach I'd take as I try to develop ideas. How do you organize your ideas? Spreadsheet? Cheers mate.
I literally do it in my head - and then onto the page. I'm also a linear writer (that is I start at the beginning and make it up as i go along). The only time i write a structure is after the first draft is complete - at that point i go through and sumarise each chapter into the essential plot points so I can check that nothing is missing. I keep an ideas sheet as a word doc on which I make unrelated notes - ie stuff that I've thought of that doesn't belong in the current book (this also includes bits of text that I've edited out). I use that sheet to spark other ideas... for example the original chapter 1 or Darkest Storm wasn't working because it included a character who although good wasn't right for the story - so i cut it off, filed it and wrote a new chapter 1 the original start, became the start of the prequel novella 'Honest Intent' with the character concerned having a much larger role. That also brings a second point - ie don't agonise too much over your start as it may well get editted/changed anyway. (I would stress that this is what works for me - it doesn't automatically mean it'll work for you)
@big soft moose (sorry for tagging you, quoting isnt working) How experienced are you with writing? Have you published any novels? I'm inquiring because I dont think I have the "skill" to do it the way you do. By this I mean Im not sure I can properly visualize my stories without developing them in some way. However, I will continue to try and learn
Not especially - I'm as yet unpublished (outside of magazine articles*) - Honest intent will be out early 2018, with Darkest storm following in the summer (also the non canon novel After the Wave will be around the same time) - I'm choosing to self pub not go looking for an agent/publisher (*to be clear i'm talking about journalism not writing in literary magazines) Prior to writing After the wave I'd tried and failed to write two other novels - The Bad guy which stalled at about 44k words (a large chunk of the work for this wound up in Honest Intent), and Wild Justice which frankly was crap and stalled at about 23k when it became clear i had no idea what I was doing. (that was also my only plotted novel - and was the experienced that taught me that the various plotting structures don't work for me) Also to pick up your point - no one can visualise stories/characters or whatever without development - it is just that in my case the development is happening as i write
Prepare for the forum to groan at my most repeated of answers, but I think the initial seed has to be a why. Why are you wanting to write: What are you wanting to say with the story? When you know the answer, that will be what drives and underpins the setting.
Just thinking about it have you read the "Deathlands" books - they are somewhat pulpy (and theres a lot of them but'd Id recommend the first one Pilgrimage to Hell) but its definitely one approach to what you want to do. I'm not saying do that necessarily but read a lot of Post apoc books isn't a bad plan for working out what you want to do (and what to avoid) see also The Road, Day of the Triffids, The 5th wave and so on
@big soft moose Very interesting. Wish you well with your novel and publication. I'll definitely do some reading to help me learn how to develop a world
@Wreybies My story will be the development of the protagonist through discovery and understanding of certain hints that went unnoticed. Tattoos, names, etc. Thoughts?
I'm talking about bigger and deeper. Examples of other Dystopian settings: Hunger Games - This story is a cautionary tale concerning the current rise of oligarchic control in the Western World. The setting is a reduction and literary conceit that is formed out of this idea. Maze Runner - This is a story about generational divide and incompatibility with the sentiments, wants, wishes, and future vision of two disparate generations. It's talking about Boomers vs Millennials. Again, the setting is a reduction and literary conceit that is formed out of this idea. Divergent - This story is similar in theme to Maze Runner, but focuses on different facets of the same cautionary tale. In this story, the focus is more on over-simplification of what we think of as desirable traits, and the problems with creating a merit-based system based on this over-simplification.
@Wreybies The atmosphere and setting comes into play here - The world is destroyed by event "Armageddon". I then throw the reader an undisclosed time into the aftermath, where one tyrannical apocalyptic group try to rebuild a new world by destroying all evidence of the previous world in order to create a new world. The protagonisr will discover their personal relation to a preservation group. Thoughts?
Taking my books I'd say Honest intent is about trust and betrayal and also communicates my disgust with how veterans are treated by our govt and society as a whole *. (on the surface its a heist - a team of vets robbing a secret vault room in the houses of parliament) Darkest Storm is about the dangers of the drift to the right, the stupidity of thinking of homosexuality as a disease that can be treated (as a number of right wingers have recently suggested), it is also about love, loss and redemption (on the surface its an action story and a road trip through a proto fascist america) After the Wave - is harder to conceptualise as its basically an action story without a message, ( I disagree with Wrey that a message is essential - but if you don't have one it makes it harder to develop a coherent plot) Code of Honour (sequel to after the wave) Is about commitment and honour and the hard choices that have to be made when your oath of duty conflicts with what you know to be right. *Point of note I have committed to give 10% of the net profit from the Dusty Miller series (that is the first two, plus others as yet unwritten) to Help for Heroes
So then it feels to me like the why of your story concerns the folly of failing to learn the lessons of the past. Does that feel right? Does that feel like the idea that's driving you to write this story? If the answer is yes, then think about things that can happen in the plot and elements of the setting that speak to that idea.
I just have a set world-building documents. I write some before I start writing, and then add bits as I move through the story that might be relevant later.
@Wreybies How many novels have you published? Just the way you write in the forums... I suppose why is a great question that "blankets" the novel. I enjoy starting vague; Having the reader ask questions and seek to understand (as does the protagonist), to gradually put together the clues, and hit a major climactic ending. Maybe even a cliffhanger
I'm not a pre-planner when it comes to worlds, I tend to develop it during the first draft. Before I start I sometimes don't have more than a label, like "Steampunk city" or "contemporary small town", but it grows like fungus after that. For storing my ideas I do a rough chapter outline, but mostly for plot and character. Later on I may draw a simple map of the world, but I don't have a worldbuilding-bible or anything. I usually end up with only a handful of documents outside the writing doc. It sounds bad, but keeping a lot of notes updated is a struggle because my drafting process is pretty quick. I keep most story things in my head, where it may or may not get lost. We're all so different when it comes to processes. Some writers get really motivated by a lot of worldbuilding before writing the story, and that's what drives them to write. But it just doesn't work for me, and I tried several things before I got there. It was kinda frustrating at times though. I wish you the best of luck with your dystopian story, which sounds really interesting. And also: Welcome to the forums.
Changes and further building. If I need to make travel distances I will often make a map. If people are going to eat I'll decide on food, though that is normally very early on.
