Charles Christian - Creating Imaginary Worlds: The 12 Rules

Creating imaginary worlds - The 12 Rules

Charles Christian

Charles Christian is a professional writer, editor, award-winning journalist and former Reuters correspondent.

His latest science fiction and fantasy books are This is the Quickest Way Down: 13 Sci-Fi, Horror and Urban Fantasy Stories which was long-listed for three national and international book awards, Secret Cargo (2013) and Tomorrows Ghosts (2014). His latest non-fiction book is A Travel Guide to Yorkshires Weird Wolds: The Mysterious Wold Newton Triangle. His work, both fiction and poetry, have been selected for anthologies and collections in the UK and US.

Christian also devised Ink Sweat and Tears taking it from zero to the most widely-read poetry site within four years and has compiled, edited and published one haiku and three poetry anthologies.

He has published books and written for legal, medical, insurance and financial markets, is a barrister and the founder/publisher/editor of Legal IT Insider, the legal IT industrys leading news resource.

In 2012 he started his own SF&F blog, Urban Fantasist, the speculative fiction genre where the weird meets the mundane in a what if... world that is almost (but only almost) normal. It has grown quickly and has now expanded to cover sci fi, fantasy, paranormal and horror. www.urbanfantasist.com

Urban Fantasist is regularly updated with news, images, ideas, apparitions, images, weird stuff and now - NEW! - showcases selected fresh SF&F fiction and poetry - free to readers. (There are paid opportunities for authors published - contact Charles Christian for more details: ).

Published by Urban Fantasist

Oak Lodge, Darrow Green Road, Denton, Harleston, Norfolk IP20 0AY, UK

ISBN: 978-1-907043-07-9

Copyright Charles Christian 2014

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For Jane who makes everything groovy.

This book was born out of a talk I gave to the Reading Writers group in the South of England. I said Id write up my notes for them but then began to have so much fun with the project that I decided to turn it into something longer that would appeal to both writers and readers.

What fascinates me about this subject is the way genre fiction seems to have so many unwritten rules, conventions, tips and trips. Although you may not be consciously aware of them when you are reading a story, if they are absent or deliberately flouted, they can destroy a storys credibility and alienate the readers sympathy and patience.

So hopefully you will enjoy this short guide or what Sherlock Holmes, a resident of one of the most memorable imaginary worlds ever created, would describe as a trifling monograph, and see how many Ah, yes moments of recognition you can spot.

...Charles Christian

It is all too easy to get carried away (and, in some instances, obsessed) with the trappings of an imaginary world the physical setting, the gadgets, the clothes people wear, the things they say, even the colour of the wallpaper in their houses and in the process overlook that these are only one aspect of a storys broader picture.

To create a credible world you must also have

• strong, credible characters

and

• a solid, credible plot or story arc

Avoid wooden clothes peg characters

The science fiction, fantasy and horror (SFF&H) genres are one of the greatest culprits when it comes to breaking this rule. Authors all too often focus way too much attention on the minutiae of, say, how the Roman Empire would operate if it were still in existence today, or how communities would exist in floating castles, or how an advanced civilisation could create Dyson Spheres (for good Dyson Sphere-type stories, read Larry Nivens Ringworld books) that they overlook the fact their characters display all the personality of wooden clothes pegs and that the plotting is so weak the reader has worked out the denouement by page 5 and given up on the story by page 6.

In its most extreme form, this can become a veritable brain dump with the author filling a book with excessive detail, not so much to pad out the story but apparently to show off the depth of research they have carried out. Thanks to the internet, this phenomenon is sadly on the increase.

Yes, by all means you need to have a Big Idea, the high-concept narrative what if scenario that nobody else has ever tried before. We all get a little thrill of excitement when we encounter totally new ideas but the key is not to stop there.

People and society not just hard science

Joe Haldemans 1974 sci-fi classic The Forever War has at its core the theory of space-time dilation and the high-concept of what if the protagonist William Mandella only ages a few subjective years while in space whereas over a thousand years have elapsed back on Earth. Interesting but no cigar. What transforms this book into a classic is its exploration of Mandellas alienation from the rest of mankind, as Earth society evolves in directions that are incomprehensible to his late 20th century mind. And (and there is always an and) Mandella is also a sympathetic character with whom he reader can empathise, not a gung-ho Rambo.

It is the same with the James Blish Cities in Flight series from the 1950s. What if somebody invented an anti-gravity device (called the Spindizzy drive) that allowed entire cities to lift off from Earth and travel through space? Now you have to admit that New York City, complete with the Chrysler and Empire State buildings, transformed into a giant spaceship makes for impressive imagery but if that was all there was to the tale, it would make an intriguing short story but never enough to fill four full-length novels as Blish managed.

But, once again these are also people stories. The hard science is there but so too is the characterisation and the political and social commentary. In fact the first novel in the series They Shall Have Stars can be read as a critique of the McCarthyist paranoia that was rampant in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

As we shall see further along in this guide, you must have the appropriate trappings to make an imaginary world credible but you must also have strong, credible characterisation and a solid, credible story arc.

RULE #1 SUMMARY

• Create a good high-concept narrative what if scenario that will intrigue readers