Guest Post: Alien World Building
Greetings to all!
Today please welcome sci-fi romance author, Debra Soles!
Debra surprised me by providing an excellent guest post that fits right in with the Designing Alien Cultures series I ran. Debra's post focuses on world-building, and makes a marvelous complement to the others in the series.
So without further delay:
In an interview this year at-
I was asked these questions. Here is my
answer, which I will expand on here in depth for our wonderful host, Mike.
“When you world build,
do you use a system? In
anthropology, researchers have a top-down or bottom's up approach. What's
yours? Do you throw everything in, including the kitchen sink, from line one.
Or do you slowly write toward the end and add layers as you're confronted by
them (I call this second approach painting oneself into a corner or pantsing
the world!). And if you paint the world, how many times do you revise the story
to layer religious, political, economic, technological, natural facets, etc.
into the world?”
In my Zogone saga, I give hints about what
the Zogone races’ world is like. As each book in the four book saga, progressed
I give more detail and more until the Zogone’s home planet of Adrivar and even
their surrounding universe seem real. But I can’t say it was all thought out
before I wrote any of the books. Actually the first book, Old Dreams, started
in Scotland. The monsters my character Arlene was dreaming of turned out to be
the alien Zogone race later in the book, along with aliens from allied
cultures.
I tend to let my worlds flow to me. As I
write, I let my characters move me in the direction that fits them. Do they
come from a harsh poor planet or a thriving green one. Something that important
would make the character the way they were.
Ritter and Petrus, twins from my newest
release Talkers, are from a healthy planet that is closer to well off. If they
came from a poorer planet like Talker’s heroine Shayle, living on a dieing
Earth, I don’t think the twins would be as outgoing and confident. Honestly, I’m
sure they would still be just as cocky though.
So, I’m more of a go back and layer type of
writer. Look, listen and add what is right for the characters. If a character
loses a family member, what would their funeral be like? Graveside? Fasting?
Long silent vigilance? Or their beloved planes flying overhead. I don’t think a
farmer would have planes or a playboy a Catholic style vigilance.
My what ifs, always make me end up editing my
books a couple of times, before I’m happy enough to pass them on to my
publisher, New Concepts Publishing. If
the character’s planet isn’t a
real home to them, then it isn’t the right world for them and I haven‘t done my
job properly. So, it is back to the drawing board to add yet another alien
planet to my already expanded galaxies.
My Bio:
Since, coming across her
first romance novel at twelve she has been enthralled. By fifteen she knew she
had to be a romance writer and help spread the love, but in a new more
spectacular way, thinking outside the box. Mainly writing Futuristic Romance,
she makes stories of vampires, witches, weres, aliens, a pirate found through
time-travel and even a contemporary about Native American Indians, to share her
own feelings on the L word. Debra grew up in the Carolinas, but now lives in
Massachusetts with her hubby Tim and their wonderful son T.J.
Twitter- https://twitter.com/debdebss
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/#!/DebraASoles
Site/blog- http://debraasoles.blogspot.com
Amazon- http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Debra%20A%20Soles&search-alias=digital-text
Can find my books on publisher site at- http://store.newconceptspublishing.com/debra-a.-soles/
Talkers info-
Rating: Spicy- Adult language,
violence and sexually detailed scenes.
My first Epic length novel.
Blurb:
When the safety of Ritter’s
band is compromised by stalkers his uncle recommends Shayle to protect the band
and catch the stalkers. Though famous, talented, gorgeous young men, they have
a secret from their past that makes them who they are and fuels a nasty stalker
problem. When Ritter decides Shayle is the love of his life, how will she ever
resist him.
One-liner:
Doing her job instead of melting into
a puddle of lust was harder than Shayle could have ever imagined.
Comments
Post a Comment