From the Ground Up

[Velkyn_Faer]

I've recently started a new SF book and I'm trying to build the world up before I start writing, so it doesn't look slapped together, but it seems like such a huge undertaking. I've made a rough outline or two, mostly of Earth, the center of the government in the series, and of the people trying to break away from the Republic of Earth. But, other than that, I don't have much. Internal affairs, politics, weapons, ships, FTL travel systems, basic technology. Does anyone have a chart or template or something they follow for any book they write, especially if it is SF? If not a template, then just a set of steps they follow that work for them? Or even half work? I'm kinda outa my depth here.

Thanks a ton!

Velkyn

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

IDoes anyone have a chart or template or something they follow for any book they write, especially if it is SF? If not a template, then just a set of steps they follow that work for them?

You may not like this, but for SF: first, make the astronomy work. Don't put a habitable panet round a colour of star that can't have planets, and make sure you check how hot your star is, how far away your planet has to be, and what its year-length is. (This in the example of working with a planet.)  Then, plausible physical features for your planet - I hate rectilinear mountain-ranges, I do, unless someone ahs engineered them that way on purpose; make sure the climate makes sense given that layour and isn't hugely unstable - unless, again, that's what your plot wants; then think about what makes sense to have evolved to fit those conditions in terms of native life, and by the time you have the biology and environment solid, you have the constraints that will affect the evolution of a culture.

This is, I freely admit, lots of work.

[King of De Nile]

I tried planet building once for a story. After about two weeks of drawing, crossing things out, writing up the governments, etc. I found that the story I had intended on writing wouldn't fit into the world I had just drawn up. The factions took a life of their own, and their was no longer the necesary conflict to work with. neurovore hit it right on the head as far as the physical planet; the best drawn up planets feel natural. For your politics, though, try deciding what the final make-up you want is first, and then stick to that as you work your way back through the years of history. Also, don't work on one faction at a time; do them all at once. You get a more believable development if you don't build the various histories in a vacuum.

I assume this is for a full-length novel rather than a short story, right? If it's a short story, it's better not to build a whole world and history, but just think up enough background to get through the story. Vague hints at past events rather than detailed histories are a short stories best friend.

[Josh]

I'm a big fan of structure in my writing, and so I've dug up several sets of tools, mostly from other writers, on worldbuilding and ways to give the story itself at least a bare-bones skeleton to work from.

It also depends on the scope of your story. Realize that a lot of what you develop in the worldbuilding isn't, and in fact shouldn't appear in the story unless it is absolutely essential to the plot. Yeah, it's fun to make timelines and develop whole languages with grammar and syntax..but honestly, how much of that is actually going to further the story? How many of your scenes are going to require a planet-wide setting? Development and detail it is good, but remember that you don't have to cram every fact or element of history into the page. That backstory and development is more for you as the author to benefit from.

Anyways, here are some links to resources I've found helpful:

For basic story structure and plot outlining, I generally follow the steps found in Randall Ingermanson's Snowflake Model.

http://www.rsingermanson.com/html/the_snowflake.html

You start with a single line and eventually work your way up to a rather comprehensive outline of your plot, including character sheets, culture outlines and so on. You can follow as many steps as you find helpful. I tend to go through them all, and then set the results aside once I actually start writing, using the structure I created as a springboard for the plot, even though the story tends to quickly veer away from what I drafted at the beginning. It's great groundwork.

Now, for worldbuilding itself, my first big dose of it came from Holly Lisle, who has written some superb fantasy with complex, living, breathing worlds and non-traditional cultures. I know you're writing science fiction instead of fantasy (she has a workshop on SF worldbuilding too), but the principles are pretty similar across the board, in my opinion.

http://hollylisle.com/fm/Articles/rules-of-ecosystems.html

http://hollylisle.com/fm/Articles/faqs8.html

These links and author sites (plus a few more) are also on the Links portion of my site.

www.jrvogt.com

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

It also depends on the scope of your story. Realize that a lot of what you develop in the worldbuilding isn't, and in fact shouldn't appear in the story unless it is absolutely essential to the plot. Yeah, it's fun to make timelines and develop whole languages with grammar and syntax..but honestly, how much of that is actually going to further the story? How many of your scenes are going to require a planet-wide setting? Development and detail it is good, but remember that you don't have to cram every fact or element of history into the page. That backstory and development is more for you as the author to benefit from.

Agreed, but I'll add that it needs to be there anyway.  In the long run, you are much more likely to get the feel and context of a throw-away reference to the Nasal Scanner War right if you yourself know all the details of who fought it and why, even if only that one line ever shows up in the book. (Yes, you should do this sort of thing. For realism.  Real people in realistic settings  mention, for example, Hitler in passing without then stopping for three pages to explain the Second World War for the benefit of anyone who happens to be reading their mind at the time.)

[blgarver]

I'm sure this will be a big 'ol "duh" to most people who are writers on this board, but I thought "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy" by Orson Scott Card was very interesting.  It was mostly about Science Fiction, however, and wasn't terribly useful to me, but I thought it was a good one nonetheless. 

I haven't tried any scifi yet, so I was reading for the fantasy element, but the world building concepts he described were insightful to me.  I think I"m going to use the D&D worldbuilding technique for a story, at least once just to try it out.  It gives a pretty thorough process.

[Josh]

I think a lot of the science fiction worldbuilding elements can still be applied to fantasy worldbuilding. You're still dealing with people, cultures, emotions, etc. Pretty fluid building blocks, no matter what universe they've been grown in. Magic and technology are the catalysts for the stories and inspiration to form out of the imagination, but those essential elements are going to remain the same.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I think a lot of the science fiction worldbuilding elements can still be applied to fantasy worldbuilding. You're still dealing with people, cultures, emotions, etc. Pretty fluid building blocks, no matter what universe they've been grown in.

Agreed, though some of the best SF out there is dealing with what fundamentally alien psychology with emotions that are different is like, as for example Cherryh's atevi books.

[Velkyn_Faer]

Sorry I took so long to reply.

I've decided that aliens, for the moment, are too much trouble. Besides, mankind doesn't need some extraterresterial race to fight. (It is military sci-fi) We can kill ourselves off alone, thank you very much.

So, I've done a bit of worldbuilding, mostly setting up the galaxy it all takes place in, as well as each sector. And, I've mostly figured out the issue with moving about the planets, which will transfer over well into the story as a big issue.

Does anyone else have suggustions on what to do next?

Taylor

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Does anyone else have suggustions on what to do next?

Get yourself some people.

Preferably kids, people from cultures other than the ones they find themselves in, or people interestingly on the edges.  That way, you have legitimate reason for them to ask questions, and other people to explain stuff to them, that the reader needs to know.

[The Corvidian]

Figure out how the technology works. Do they have (F)aster(T)han(L)ight travel? How about their medical tech? Then go from there. You could also have a few aliens, just make it where they stay away from humans.

[x-tricks]

I’m going to say something that totally goes against what everyone else here has told you.  Don’t worry about the damn stars, how your spaceships work, or if plastic eating aliens are waiting at the edges of our solar system.

Write the story first.  Write the story first.

Because, basically, you can justify almost any event, plot point, creature or location in science fiction with enough semi-imaginary words (thank you Star Trek) and tight story-telling.  But you can’t do shit if you don’t have the story.

A first draft of a story should have almost no research in it.  It should be your characters, your plot, and the progress of events.  It’s your second (and third) drafts that you spend time looking up current string theory science.  You don’t know the name of the planet your crew has crash-landed on?  Put ‘##” there and go back later.  Don’t know how the aliens communicate but know what they’re going to say?  Put in quotes and worry about how it got there, actually, later.

If you look around the ‘net, you’ll find thousands of people who are ‘oy, I’m building a whole new universe, how do I do it?’ and most of them … they never get to the story that inspired the months and months of research.

Research is a killer for writing stories.  Do it later, not first, or it will both eat up your time and put you in a nit-picky, editorial mind-set that isn’t good for writing the actual story.

The only time this type of story first work shouldn’t be done is if you are a hard SF author – and you are specifically writing about a point of alien ecology, future technology or planetary science.  These types of hard SF authors are often scientists themselves, exploring how a point of physics they understand intimately would work in a fictional setting.  OR, if you are a gaming writer, as I am, and you have both a short turn-around for your work and the game itself needs to stand up to the curious minds of hundreds of gamers wondering how people fly from planet to planet and won't take 'they just do it' for an answer.

Some examples of science fiction that didn’t use much in the way of science fact:

Start Trek
Star Wars
BladeRunner
Outland
Stargate etc
BattleStar Galactica
You may or may not like those films or shows but any ‘hard science’ (like the reams of ‘Star Trek Tech’ books, and same for Star Wars) came after the shows gained popularity.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I’m going to say something that totally goes against what everyone else here has told you.  Don’t worry about the damn stars, how your spaceships work, or if plastic eating aliens are waiting at the edges of our solar system.

Write the story first.  Write the story first..

Because, basically, you can justify almost any event, plot point, creature or location in science fiction with enough semi-imaginary words (thank you Star Trek) and tight story-telling.

This isn't just bad advice. This is well-poisoning.  If all you care about is writing junk that doesn't hold together, by all means do so, but don't pretend it's anything else.

[x-tricks]

This isn't just bad advice. This is well-poisoning.  If all you care about is writing junk that doesn't hold together, by all means do so, but don't pretend it's anything else.

Remarkably enough, lots of research dosen't make something not junk.  And writing a complete first draft before I get bogged down in fact checking works very well for me, because I have a complete piece of work to review, which helps me determine what's important in the story and what isn't.  Research dosen't allow for that sort of triage of importance.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Remarkably enough, lots of research dosen't make something not junk.

Nor arguing that at all.  What I am arguing is that lack of research does at very least, open a whole pile of ways for something to be junk that aren't there otherwise.

And writing a complete first draft before I get bogged down in fact checking works very well for me, because I have a complete piece of work to review, which helps me determine what's important in the story and what isn't.  Research dosen't allow for that sort of triage of importance.

How not ? If you're writing SF with any sort of underlying coherence of physical law some things are going to be physically impossible.  Seems pretty fundamental to be clear on what they are before you build a plot depending on, for example, your characters travelling from the Moon to Jupiter in ten minutes  - and if you do have a physics hack which lets them do that, you'd damn well better have thought through what that sort of tech means, what else it allows, and how it will affect society, and have the consequences in and solid, if you want the thing to be evn slightly believable.

Writing mainstream is even worse, because you don't just need to do this with science, you need to do it with history, geography, and all sorts of other stuff as well.