Clinton D. Harding - Fantasy Author

Author of young adult fantasy and science fiction

  • Blog
  • Articles
  • Clinton’s Works
    • Our Monsters Chronicles
      • “Our Monsters” (Our Monsters Chronicles #1)
      • “Bad Monsters” (Our Monsters Chronicles #2)
    • Conduits – A Weekly Series
      • Conduits
  • About Clinton

The Craft | Cause and Effect Creation

October 30, 2015 By Clinton Leave a Comment

Share

Most people don’t know but I’m currently in the middle of writing a big epic fantasy. Trust me, that last line is not redundant. My blog. My rules.

I’ve always wanted to write sweeping epics. You know the kind. Lord of the Rings. Song of Ice and Fire. Wheel of Time. Shannara. Magic. Swords. Knights. Wizards.

But I wasn’t ready.

creating-worlds-aaCreating an epic is a lot of work. You’re building a world from scratch. A good deal of the world building happens up front. The shape of the overall story is sketched. A history written. A continent drawn. Races and religions to live there developed. Characters named. Magic systems created. But there is also some of the world building that is done during the actual writing. The way I’ve approached outlining is I leave gaps in the outline to fill with more details of the history, deeper character development, names of additional characters I didn’t know I needed. The overall structure of the world is there before I start but the little details only happen until later, when I dive in the deep end of the story.

My new world isn’t typical. It’s not sword & sorcery or sword & sandals. I wanted to create something different. No elves. No dragons. In this world a person just doesn’t wave their hand and magic spews out. This is not my point, though. The fact that this new world I’m playing in is different from the usual fair is only context and for those curious.

When building this new world, when building any world, I had/have to consider cause and effect. In other words, everything I created caused me to create something in relation, something that was a product of the previous decision or design choice.

Simple example: Say I create a world in which people live in the sky. Alright? People live in towers or hovering cities. With me so far? Naturally there’s a reason why people don’t live on the ground? Sure. The world below is populated by purple people eating monsters. People escaped to the sky a thousand years prior. Weird, but are you still with me? Right here I’ve created lore, history, just by rewinding the clock on the current time period the story takes place during. The people living in the sky have to trade with each other. There are multiple cities. To trade the people create airships. How? Doesn’t matter right now. Cause I say so, damn it! Anyway. Right there you have part of this sky world’s commerce. The how the sky people trade would be the next part. Build out from there.

Cause and effect.

World_building_by_omend4-d3l1shb-640x332

Nothing earth-shattering here. Just a… hold on… click… I just pulled a chain and turned on a light bulb.

In my life I don’t do things just because. I want to know the why. I want to understand the methods and the steps. Recreation, the schematics of thinking, is what leads to knowledge and mastery.

Food for thought.

Filed Under: The Craft Tagged With: Storytelling, World Building, Writing

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Free Short Stories from Clint

Merit Badges – a short story from the Our Monsters series

Three high school teens in the woods on a Friday night… some beers… skaters with a grudge… what could go wrong? Add in a couple of genetically created … Read More...

That Little Girl

A dark short story about one man’s oversight concerning his death.  Since dying was just not part of his daily routine, the man just went on with his … Read More...

Follow Me

Follow Me on FacebookFollow Me on Google+Follow Me on TwitterFollow Me on RSSFollow Me on Goodreads

Want to know what I’m reading?

Clinton's Bookshelf: Currently-Reading

Kinslayer
Kinslayer
by Jay Kristoff
Knife of Dreams
Knife of Dreams
by Robert Jordan

goodreads.com

What have I recently read?

Clinton's Bookshelf: Recently Read

Steelheart
5 of 5 stars
Steelheart
by Brandon Sanderson
The King's Blood
5 of 5 stars
The King's Blood
by Daniel Abraham
The Last Stormdancer
5 of 5 stars
The Last Stormdancer
by Jay Kristoff
All Our Yesterdays
5 of 5 stars
All Our Yesterdays
by Cristin Terrill
The Fall of Five
4 of 5 stars
The Fall of Five
by Pittacus Lore

goodreads.com

Contact | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use
Copyright © 2023 Clinton D. Harding