Welcome back, Inkcouraged! Today we continue onward in our series, A Whole New World, in which we talk about world building in all of its glorious forms. This week, we dive deeply into contemporary fiction and the type of world building that has one author working extremely hard to create a reality that feels eerily like our own.
To this you say, “Well, duh, Carmen, that’s because it is our own.”
Ah, but is it? Certainly contemporary worlds do feel like the one we live in but, like all good fiction, these worlds are dramatically condensed into a series of heightened moments because, let’s be honest, nobody wants to read a book that explores the mundane reality of everyday lives.
No, in contemporary fiction, authors find that moment—that defining moment that changes everything. And so much of the work done here hinges on the arrival of an unprecedented but plausible situation and a character ripe for the changing. These are the portals by which the writer enters the story to design the lives that veer from our own courses but inform our trajectories.
It’s hard work. In the absence of fantastical diversions (see side bar) so much depends on an author’s masterful ability to chart the moments between the moments in order to illuminate the personal connections that profoundly alter the reader.
So how to do this?
First we’ll hear from Carrie Arcos, whose debut novel, Out of Reach, was a 2012 finalist for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature. Her next novel, Neruda in Love, about an “unlucky-in-love sixteen-year-old boy with a penchant for poetry but an inability to write his own…” will be published in 2016. (Mark your calendars, folks.)
Then regular contributor and award-winning author Brian Katcher—whose most recent novel is The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak, “about two teens recovering from heartbreak and discovering themselves on an out-of-this-world accidental first date”—will bring us home with his humorous take on the tools of this craft. Here’s a vague spoiler: Lord of the Flies + Saved By the Bell + Hardy Boys ≠ Contemporary Perfection.
So, grab a pen (as I will) and prepare to jot down a note or twenty. Our journey begins here.
CARRIE ARCOS ON CONTEMPORARY WORLD BUILDING
Whenever I begin a story, I need to have a sense of place. My characters aren’t really grounded, so to speak, until I know where they walk. It's not that I write these long descriptive passages, but it's more about the little details that give the story it's character and culture because of where it takes place. So for me, place becomes almost a character in its own right. This is true whether I am writing realistic fiction or something more SciFi.
So I start with character and place. And as I play around with my main character what I think she wants, needs, etc.… I start to do what I call layering. And this is what I guess I’ll refer to as world building. All writing involves world building. Even when the setting is a real place, you still have to make the world believable and plausible. In fact, I might suggest that it is harder when you are writing from a realistic setting and time because you are confined by that.
The layering process for me is where the plotting of the story is really taking place. I may have a good sense of where the story is going, but here is where I will play around with characters and how they live and what’s at stake for them and their relationships. I don’t have any rules, except that it has to be plausible and moves the story forward.
Determining the type of family my main character comes from is a significant part of the process. Should she have siblings? Should she go to school? Every decision narrows and broadens. For example, in my second book, There Will Come a Time, I knew I wanted Mark, my protagonist, to experience a great loss in his family. I didn’t want it to be a parent, but I wanted it to feel closer than a sibling, so I determined a twin loss would be interesting to explore. Since I wasn’t only writing about Mark’s experience, I needed him to realize that other members of his family were grieving too. I included a younger stepsister, a stepmom and a dad. I intentionally gave him a good relationship with his stepmom because so many stories show the stepparent as an outsider and as a person wanting to cause the child harm. Mark’s stepmom is instrumental in his healing. I also gave him a strained relationship with his mom because the main journey that Mark is on is really about forgiveness—of himself and of others.
These relationships are carefully chosen not just to give my main character more dimensions, but also to further the story. Everything should further the story, which really boils down to the main conflict the character or characters face. That’s the question to always keep in mind when going back through the writing: how does this move the story forward? And if the how is working, then this is continuing and building the story’s world.
BRIAN KATCHER: CONTEMPORARY WORLD BUILDING IN OUR WORLD
Since I only write realistic fiction, I shouldn’t have to worry, right? I mean, it’s not like I have to invent an entire language like Tolkien, an elaborate system of rules like Rowling or Asimov, or just make everything up as I go along like Collins. I mean, we live in this world, so I don’t have to reinvent it.
Well... kind of. As I writer, I’m creating a fictitious alternate earth populated by imaginary people. Some things are going to change. So how is the world of the teenagers in my book different from the real one?
Lord of the Flies Syndrome: In YA literature, there is often a lesser adult presence than there is in real life. My friend and fellow author Brent Hartinger explains that teenagers are surrounded by authority figures in real life. They don’t want to sit down and read about an imaginary kid getting hounded by his parents about missing curfew or a teacher about turning in an assignment. Unless the adults are pivotal to the plot, it’s kind of fun to invent a world where no one has to skip hanging out with their friends because they have to be home for dinner.
On the other hand, this can be overdone. Readers will know that in real life, you can’t just up and leave school in the middle of the day without catching hell, and they might resent your characters who can get away with that.
Then there’s Saved by the Bell Syndrome. This is where every authority figure is either pointlessly cruel or hopelessly stupid. When I was a teenager, there was no love lost between me and my teachers. I certainly didn’t want to read a book preaching how ‘someday, you’ll appreciate the value of a good education.’ It’s nice to read about a world where the mean teacher, the punitive cop, or the jerk boss are shown to be as petty and obnoxious as yours. This, of course, can be taken to ridiculous extremes. I’ve read YA books where some of the teachers’ antics would get them called before the school board (or a UN tribunal).
Finally, there’s Hardy Boys Syndrome, where the characters seem to have unlimited money, free time, and resources. No one ever has to miss the big concert because they just don’t have the cash. There’s always time to drive up to the lake with that special someone instead of spending Saturday mopping floors at Taco Bell or mowing the lawn for your parents. And homework? What’s that? What’s school? Right, it’s the place where we hang out with our friends.
How we wish we lived in that world. But when your characters are off on the unforgettable adventure of a lifetime, you don’t want it to end simply because they only have ten dollars between them and one of them has a big history paper coming due.
How exciting it is to create these teenage utopias. Not completely realistic, but who wants to read about minimum wage and nagging parents?
Also, my worlds have no real celebrities, technology, or slang. Nothing dates a book faster than those things.
Final Notes
Thanks so much for joining us, Carrie and Brian! You’ve given us a lot to consider and I hope there will be plenty of follow-up questions in the comments section!
And thank you, Inkcouraged, for checking back in. Be sure to leave your thoughts, questions, and experiences with world-building below. We can’t wait to hear from you!
Stay tuned for our next post: historical world building! We can't wait to hear what the next set of stellar authors can tell us.