Nerd for Hire

Worldbuilding

I’m currently reading Muraski Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji—or the first volume of it, at least, which I think is probably where I’ll stop for the time being, considering the burgeoning height of my TBR stack.

For those unfamiliar with it, The Tale of Genji is often cited as the world’s first novel, written in the 11th century by a Japanese noblewoman. Its main value for modern historians is its depiction of court life during the Heian period of Japan, as the events in the book are thought to have been based very closely on Murasaki’s real-life experiences as a lady-in-waiting.

While it’s called the first novel, The Tale of Genji doesn’t completely hold to what modern readers would expect from the form. It does have characters who recur throughout, and the primary protagonist (Hikaru Genji, son of Emperor Kiritsubo) does age, grow, and change over the course of the plot. I’m using the term “plot” loosely here, though, because the book doesn’t have the tight cause-and-effect type of forward momentum we expect from novels today. Instead, it has more the feel of an episodic TV show—there are threads that run across multiple chapters, but the arc is more a series of humps than an overarching narrative. Other essential features of storytelling today are used, but in a way that modern novelists (and readers) would look askance at, like its cast of roughly 400 characters. Comparing it to modern novels is an intriguing study in how the form has developed over the centuries.

Leer más...

A lot of the mythological and fantasy creatures that have endured in cultural awareness are European in origin—things like fairies, elves, dwarfs, mermaids, or ancient Greek mythological creatures like gorgons, sirens, harpies, or cyclopes.

Using these familiar creatures in your fiction has advantages. Your readers have likely already heard of them, in some form, so they come into the story with some background and details already in mind and you don’t have to provide as much description or explanation in the text.

That pre-knowledge can also be a kind of baggage, though, and could limit your creative freedom to use the beings the way that best suits the story. They can also run the danger of reading as cliché or referential.

And the truth is—these European-derived critters are just the tip of the iceberg. There are tons of other mythical and supernatural beings from all corners of the world and all eras of history.

Leer más...

I adore Star Trek. But one common (and fair) critique of the series is the fact that most of its alien characters are really just humans in a mask—and not just on a physical level. Many of the aliens in Star Trek generally act and think the exact same way that people do, and it’s far from the only universe that’s guilty of this. Star Wars has more weird-looking aliens, but a lot of them are still functionally humans. The Mon Calamari look like squids, for example, but they use the same spaceship controls and don’t seem to have issues breathing air.

I use a lot of non-human characters in my stories, so this question of what makes them truly feel like a distinct being—and not just a human in an alien suit—has been at the front of my mind lately. The key, I think, is ultimately in the worldbuilding. The writer has thought through the environment and culture these beings would live in, and that is reflected in how they look and act. This makes the details of their appearance or behavior feel purposeful, like they’re driven by an in-world logic.

Leer más...

Just about every culture has its share of monsters, and whether they’re slain by a hero or said to be still haunting the deepest, darkest, children-shouldn’t-go-there-iest parts of their landscape, these creatures can be excellent fodder for the storytelling imagination.

Part of my mission during my recent deep dive into world mythologies was to learn more about some of these lesser-known cryptids, critters, and beasties. Here are some of the ones that most tickled my fancy.

 

Leer más...

Categories:

Book reviews Folklore and Mythology Freelancing advice Publishing advice Worldbuilding analyses Writing advice Writing prompts and exercises Other sundry thoughts and musings

Book reviews

The Actual Star by Monica Byrne All That Was Asked by Vanessa MacLaren-Wray Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi Binary Star by Sarah Gerard Can You Sign My Tentacle? by Brandon O'Brien Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdez A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge Dune: Book vs. Movies The Fallen Odyssey by Corey McCullough Goddess of Filth by V. Castro The Guilty by Juan Villoro Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami Herland and With Her in Ourland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman How to Carry Bigfoot Home by Chris Tarry Kindred by Octavia E. Butler The Last Vanishing Man by Matthew Cheney The Librarian (anthology) Orlando by Virginia Woolf Outside by Gustavo Bondoni The Princess Bride: Book vs. Movie The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo by F.G. Haghenbeck Sister Suite by Christine Stroud Star Eater by Kerstin Hall Swarm Theory by Christine Rice Symbiosis by Nicky Drayden The Things We'll Never Have by Hilary Hauck This. This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love. by Jennifer Wortman Unsaid Things by Joanna Acevedo Waiting for the Miracle by Jason DeYoung Welcome to Nightvale by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor Whiskey, Etc. by Sherrie Flick The Wizard's Homecoming by Elwin Cotman

Back to top

Folklore and Mythology

13 Fun Monsters from World Mythology that Haven't Been Written to Death Yet in Western Fiction 27 Cryptids and Monsters from the Americas The Epic of Gilgamesh Worldbuilding Analysis A Litany of Little Folk Mythology and Folklore Research Resources On Adam and Eve, the Suspension of Disbelief, and the Power of Stories On Ghosts, Wraiths, Revenants, and Other Things that Linger On the Hero's (And Heroine's) Journey On the Pervasiveness of Dragons Wheel of Time: Myth Connections (And Potential Inspirations) for the Forsaken The World's Oldest Stories

Back to top

Freelance advice

3 Tips to Start a Successful Freelance Writing Career 7 Handy Things to Always Pack for Traveling Writers and Digital Nomads Must-Have Skills for a Freelance Writer (Other than Writing) On Career Progress as a Freelancer On Work/Life Balance as a Creative Human Why Slow Traveling is Better for Digital Nomads

Back to top

Publishing advice

3 Tips for Introverts to Make the Most of Writing Conferences, Conventions, and Book Festivals 7 Unique Lit Mags to Read and Send Your Stuff To 15 Journals with Guaranteed Feedback that Are Open Now (January 2024) 17 Publishers of Fiction Chapbooks 30 Publishers that Pay for Reprints 60ish Markets for Novellas and Long Short Stories AWP 2024 Bookfair Discoveries How to Know When a Short Story Is Ready to Submit How to Submit Work to Journals Step-by-step How to Suss Out What a Journal Publishes When You Can't Read Their Back Issues How to Write Cover Letters for Fiction Submissions in 2023 Insights from Duotrope's Editor Interviews Let's Talk Rejections On Journal Acceptance Ratios, What They Mean, and Why They Matter Should You Self-Publish? Should You Submit to Contests?

Back to top

Worldbuilding analyses

Dune (part 1) Dune (part 2) The Epic of Gilgamesh Nope (Jordan Peele) Star Trek: Deep Space 9 (part 1) Star Trek: Deep Space 9 (part 2) Wheel of Time Books 1-7 (part 1) Wheel of Time Books 1-7 (part 2)

Back to top

Writing advice

3 Amateur Fiction Writer Mistakes (and How to Fix Them) 3 Tips to Write Better Dialogue 5 Free Newsletters for Writers 6 Steps to DIY an MFA 9 POV Approaches for Fiction Writers Authentically Alien: What Makes a Non-Human Character Read as Truly Other? The Challenges of Writing Sports (and Tips for Dealing with Them) Creative Feedback: How to Give It Effectively (and Get the Most Out of It) Genres Explained Part 1: What Does Genre Even Mean, Anyway? Genres Explained Part 2: The Big List of Speculative Fiction Subgenres Genres Explained Part 3: The Many Shades of Realism Grammatical Gender 101 for English-Speaking Conlangers How to End a Story How to Focus a Story Using Orson Scott Card's MICE Quotient How to Know When a Short Story Is Ready to Submit How to Start a Writing Group Insights from 2023 Confluence Convention and Wildcat Lit Fest Insights from the In Your Write Mind Conference Literary Worldbuilding: Why You Need It (and How to Do It Right) On Ghosts, Wraiths, Revenants, and Other Things that Linger On High Body Counts, Horror Tropes, and the Fall of the House of Usher On the Hero's (And Heroine's) Journey Passive vs. Active Voice (+ Other Options for Conlangers) On Writing Food in Fiction Planning Tips for Choose-Your-Own Narratives Tips for Using Other Languages in Fiction What Actually Is the Difference Between Science Fiction and Fantasy? What Makes a Character Three-Dimensional (And Do They Always Need to Be?) What's in a Name? Why Fiction Writers Should Watch Reality TV

Back to top

Writing prompts and exercises

3 Ways to Start a Story Everything's a Writing Prompt part 1: Board Games Everything's a Writing Prompt part 2: Everyday Objects Everything's a Writing Prompt part 3: The Grocery Store Everything's a Writing Prompt part 4: Traveling The 12 Prompts of Christmas (Everything's a Writing Prompt part 5) Everything's a Writing Prompt Part 6: Pets Everything's a Writing Prompt Part 7: TV Everything's a Writing Prompt Part 8: Cryptids and Monsters

Back to top

Other sundry thoughts and musings

5 Star Trek Episodes Every Conlanger Should Watch A Brief Survey of Interesting Conlangs from Across History Every Zodiac Sign if They Were Alien Cultures from Star Trek Fun Finds from the International Cryptozoology Museum Just What Is a Cryptid, Anyway? On Becoming Human: The AI in Star Trek On Cats in Space On Killgrave, Preacher, and the Power of Suggestion On Reading in a Second Language On the Cage in the Menagerie (or How a Failed Pilot Spawned a Franchise) On the Evolution of Captain Pike On Trills and Timelords

Back to top

High fantasy has a long-standing tradition of borrowing from myth and religion, and anyone with even a surface knowledge of world mythology will see that right away reading Wheel of Time. I think I noticed some of this even when I read the books as a kid, but my current re-read coincides with a deep dive on world mythologies, making the familiar names and concepts stand out even more vividly than on my past reads through the series.

(Note: Thar be Wheel of Time book spoilers ahead—if you haven’t read the whole series and care about such things, probably best to stop reading now)

Leer más...

Last week’s post looked at the big-picture worldbuilding in the Wheel of Time: the magic system, the language, and how Robert Jordan established the physical and temporal reality. But every good worldbuilder knows reality is a product of specificity. You need to have rules for your world (and follow them), but the details you include are what bring the world to life.

Of course, in a world this size, there are a lot of details. In this post, I’ll focus on the ones that I see as the most distinctively Wheel of Time and the most interesting from a worldbuilding perspective.

(As with part 1, this post contains some spoilers for Wheel of Time books 1-7, so if you want to avoid those it’s best to stop reading now).

Leer más...

The Wheel of Time series was my introduction to epic fantasy as a child, and the first invented world I really sunk my teeth into when I decided to start building my own. Coming back to it as an adult always feels a bit like returning home.

Of course, re-reading it as an adult, I can also understand the common critiques about the series. Regardless of whether you enjoy the story or not, though, there is no arguing that Robert Jordan was a master worldbuilder, in my opinion on the same level as Tolkien. The bulk of this worldbuilding happens in the first half of the series (books 1-7), and if you’re thinking “how the hell can it take someone 7 books to build a world?”—well, that’s the scope of the lands and history that serve as the foundation for the story.

(Note: Thar be spoilers up ahead. If you haven’t read the first 7 books of Wheel of Time and care about such things, probably best to skip this post).

Leer más...

Nicky Drayden 313 pages Harper Voyager (2021)

Read this if you like: Vernor Vinge, unique worldbuilding, interpersonal and political intrigue tl;dr summary: Far future humans living inside giant space creatures navigate personal and political upheaval in their aim to live more symbiotically with their host.

See the book on Bookshop

Leer más...

One of my favorite things about Jordan Peele’s movies as a whole is that they don’t fit neatly into any genre box. A big reason for this is Peele’s worldbuilding style and prowess. His films take place in worlds that are just slant of reality: normal on the surface, but with one strange, horrifying difference lurking below—quite literally, in the case of Us, and metaphorically in his debut Get Out. It’s a similar thought experiment model that underpins many episodes of Twilight Zone, and it makes sense that Peele is at the helm of that reboot.

(Note: Thar be spoilers past this point. If you haven’t seen Nope and care about such things, probably best to stop reading now.)

Leer más...