World Building

Since this is supposed to be a writer's blog, and while life influences writing, some time should be devoted to well...writing... So without further ado....

Depending on the genre you write, world building can have different meanings. When I attend conferences, usually romance oriented, because I write mainly romance - with my own twist, but romance nonetheless, there is sometimes topics about world building and giddily I go, hoping to learn the secrets of quick, sure fire techniques of world building, but invariably these 'world building' workshops are actually focusing on the complete setting of your novel...for example - if your novel takes place in Battle Creek, Mi near Fort Custer during WWI, then the world is all the pieces and parts of the setting - the place(s), language, clothing, expectations, assumptions, and characteristics that are accurate for that story at that time.

On the other hand, the 'world-building' in the Sci-Fi books (because I have not attended one of these conferences) is literally world building - deciding on planet size, class, moons, gravitational pull, suns, and atmospheric content - among other things. Which is fine, and it could be considered a more accurate definition or example of world building, though both are technically correct, as the setting in any book is the world in which your characters live, regardless of the actual scope or milage of the world. The entire world in a novel could be the three acres that make up the grounds/compound the characters live in or it could be several hundred galaxies as the characters zoom from one place to another in some attempt at something or other.

However, to me, world-building is more than the physical plane on which the story takes place, it is building a new culture. Not just extrapolating what future earth society will be like or taking an ancient society and modernizing it or taking that into the future, but creating from scratch a new society - a new culture. This where it gets complicated - think of everything a culture includes - just the major things - books, art, music, entertainment, religion, law, government, family units, currency, medicine. And there is still minor things like dialects, history, myths, legends, their creation story, gender roles, education, family roles, traditions, and architecture. This is the part that makes worlds come alive. Face it, Lord of the Rings would have far less of a following if all of that and then some hadn't been created. So much detail went into Tolkein's World that there are compendiums, and histories and books of legends that we can read -- imagine what never got published. Or try a more modern example such as Harry Potter by JK Rowling. The wizard world is a world within a world that must co-exist peacefully with the mundane world of the muggles who know nothing about it. As Harry walks into the world of the wizards we see the details she created for him, the backdrop for all that would happen. The language, the traditions, the creation stories, myths, histories, and legends. Little details like not needing computers, email, or phones, because there are magical quills that will write as you talk and you can use magic and a fire place for a face to face interactive phone call. That is the type of world building I enjoy doing, and why it takes me time to build a world. There is no quick way to do it, but I would love to attend a workshop on getting those finite details to work, or just a peek into the notebooks of those world-building geniuses to see how they organized everything. Each world must be unique, vibrant, and real to the reader, but it'd be great to have a cheat sheet of all the things to think about while creating that world.

Cooking --

--- with kids --

It's a fear that chased my SIL's mom instilled in her -- Her mom didn't want to clean up a mess and so neither does she.... This was not a terrible or messy experience. It doesn't have to be. It helps if someone, preferably the adult, in the kitchen knows how to cook. :)

It's nearly winter here, and the snow will pile up (especially if you listen to Poor Richard's Almanac) to the roof tops -- well not that bad -- but still -- I'm not driving if I don't have to. Couple that with the nice winter breeze coming through the windows and doors (it's a rental, eh) and it's the perfect weather to bake and cook. So Thursday night I made bread, an Amish White Bread, - mine did NOT turn out like the picture (bit denser) - but it's still good - especially if it's toasted with some homemade apple butter. (yum!).

Tomorrow, I'll make some more and maybe knead it less after the first rising. But tonight, I promised My Joy that we'd make cookies. She chose one and I chose one. We used a mixer, but she did do most of the work. It takes longer this way because we had read the recipes, gather all of the equipment and ingredients and then discuss how things were used, why we use a knife to level off dry ingredients, how to crack eggs (she'd done this before and this time there no egg shells!!), which setting to use on the mixer, how to use the mixer, why we preheat the oven, and why she needed to taste molasses (the face she made was one I hadn't seen before :) )

So we made chocolate chip cookies - which turned out wonderful and snickerdoodles - which are still baking. She did do most of the work - except the part that deals with the oven and hot cookie sheets - and there was the repeating of a couple of steps because she wanted to do more. Then I got to break it to her that we used lots of math and science while cooking. She was introduced to mixed fractions. I'm still smiling. And overall it was a great experience. We cleaned as we went, followed the directions, learned a little bit, and didn't have a flour fight, which is probably a good thing, especially if you saw the size of my kitchen. Not quick, but painless and fun.

Veteran's Day

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - Dept. of Defense Photo
(Guarded Every Hour of Every Day Without Exception)

In Honor of Veteran's Day -

Thank A Veteran.

Remember those who have gone before, pray for those who serve today, and for those who serve tomorrow.

Guilty -

I did it. I don't have the time. I haven't been writing up to this point, but it's NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month - and in the end, I couldn't and didn't want to resist. So, I acquiesced and signed in. In my defense I managed to wait until the 3rd before joining. I've done NaNoWriMo since 2002, I couldn't not do it.

My goal is not the 50,000 words by the end of the month, and I was hoping to at least beat my total for last year, but really, I'll be happy if I get to 500 words this semester - ah year -

I am working on something completely new - which is always exciting. I like this book, and I will finish the one I put aside at the beginning of the semester in December, when things go back to abnormal are less harried for me.

The graphics of the stats between me and everyone else are sad....my measly ten words (it was a boring lecture, but I did need to take notes) and the thousands by everyone else.....there is always next year.