How can I create a fictional history?

[Writer’s_Magic]

FifthView Both creating one and make it visible/understandable for author and reader.

 

[skip.knox]

What happened to your book? Now you're working on a movie script? No film company is going to care about a history; they will want only to see the script, or a treatment. What's the fifty-word pitch for this movie?

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

skip.knox It’s not a book. It’s gonna be a horror movie. But if you wanna know it:
Luna (the protagonist), a female vampire, and her best friend/warlock Raymond are "asked" by the werewolf Remus – rebel and ex-slave – to help to free his family (wife & kids/puppies) from the slavery of the vampire king Ambrose.

 

[skip.knox]

When you first started asking questions here, it was about writing, which most of us naturally assume means writing a novel. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Writing movie scripts is rather a different endeavor. You might want to find some discussion groups devoted specifically to screenplays.

 

[elemtilas]

Probably the easiest way is to compose a Chronicle. The basic formal is (YEAR) (MAJOR EVENTS THAT HAPPENED DURING THAT YEAR)

Here's a sample from my own work:

5000 bpa -- Descendants of the Proto-Punt found new settlements in Kimet (Nile), Mesopotamia (Tigris/Euphates) and India (Indus). Daine of the steppes teach horse domestication to Men. By 4000 bpa, these settlements form the bases for new Mannish civilisations which are smaller than the previous age of archaic civilisations. 4000 bpa, Kemitian civilisation; 3500 bpa, Sumerian civilisation; 3400 bpa, Minoan civilisation.

4063bpa -- revolt and civil war in Old Hoopelle end the First Dynasty

3900bpa -- realm of the Warlords founded away south of the Eastlands

3000 bpa -- Men begin to devise their own writing systems, based in part on Daine models.

This basic model can be applied to worlds, countries, races, clans, or individuals as needed.

 

[ThinkerX]

skip.knox It’s not a book. It’s gonna be a horror movie. But if you wanna know it:
Luna (the protagonist), a female vampire, and her best friend/warlock Raymond are "asked" by the werewolf Remus – rebel and ex-slave – to help to free his family (wife & kids/puppies) from the slavery of the vampire king Ambrose.

And there is your history.

That statement tells me a number of things:

1 - Vampires are organized into kingdoms. Needing extrapolation - how did these kingdoms come about?

2 - These kingdoms keep slaves. Do these slave include werewolves? Did the vampires create the werewolves, or attempt to expand into an area controlled by werewolves?

Answer those questions and you are most of the way towards having a history.

Things to keep in mind: historically, the overwhelming majority of 'recorded history' is actually 'one sided propaganda' written to please those in power. Towards this end, all manner of abuses, coups, and other 'bad things' by those in charge get 'swept under the rug.' Likewise, even trivial offences by the subject peoples become grave and serious crimes, worthy of draconian punishment. Or, to put it another way, the vampires and werewolves will have directly contrary versions of said history.

Also, ordinary people, including the soldiers are going to be historical illiterates, knowing nothing about the roots of the conflict, merely a few slogans.

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

ThinkerX Yep! The vampires got a kingdom. No! The werewolves are an own species with own evolution and not created by the vampires. But they’re kept by the vampires as slaves. Humans as well.

 

[elemtilas]

ThinkerX Yep! The vampires got a kingdom. No! The werewolves are an own species with own evolution and not created by the vampires. But they’re kept by the vampires as slaves. Humans as well.

Looks like you're well on your way towards writing out the history of your world / setting. Now go forth and get writing!

 

[ThinkerX]

ThinkerX Yep! The vampires got a kingdom. No! The werewolves are an own species with own evolution and not created by the vampires. But they’re kept by the vampires as slaves. Humans as well.

Now, you are making progress towards a history. Further questions to refine the history more:

Are all of the werewolves slaves of the vampires - or just some of them? If there are large group(s) of 'free werewolves' then how did they escape enslavement with the rest? Did they stage a mass escape? Did they have their own realm that managed to partially defeat the vampires? Were the vampires hindered by internal politics? If 'vampire politics,' then did a vampire king and or other high ranking vampire aristocrats end up slain in the conflict? If so, at whose hands - human, werewolf, or vampire?

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

ThinkerX I like your questions. So, here are the answers. A few werewolves are slaves. But enough to run more than one mine. There is a rebel group, who fight against the evil vampires and help other rebel groups (e.g. the vampire rebel group). Yep! The werewolves have their own realm(s), they live in smaller packs like real wolves. But the vampires don’t care about the limits of the realm. No. The king doesn’t end up slain in the first movie! (Spoiler!) The opposite happens. He survives and want to see my two protagonists (a female vampire and a male warlock.) dead.

 

[ThinkerX]

ThinkerX I like your questions. So, here are the answers. A few werewolves are slaves. But enough to run more than one mine. There is a rebel group, who fight against the evil vampires and help other rebel groups (e.g. the vampire rebel group). Yep! The werewolves have their own realm(s), they live in smaller packs like real wolves. But the vampires don’t care about the limits of the realm. No. The king doesn’t end up slain in the first movie! (Spoiler!) The opposite happens. He survives and want to see my two protagonists (a female vampire and a male warlock.) dead.

Getting there.

Now...

1 - How did your vampire King become 'king' in the first place? Is this a literal vampire aristocracy (his parents were vampires) or was he a human monarch who became a vampire?

2 - Was the vampire kingdom always such, or did the vampires migrate in from elsewhere and conquer it? If they migrated from elsewhere, what prompted it? A stronger foe? A severe shortage of humans to prey upon?

3 - A vampire kingdom would make neighboring human nations extremely nervous, especially if said vampire kingdom was once a human realm. Do such nations exist?

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

ThinkerX
1. Nope. He was a born vampire noble.
2. It was always such. But it’s in the middle of nowhere in Romania. Although the story starts in America.
3. They’re in the middle of nowhere.

 

[Skybreaker Sin K'al]

So I think I can say without much interruption that history is just plain complicated. The same holds true with fantasy fiction. I don't really have anything else to say apart from this, just try to reflect it. Of course, it also depends on the age of your world. You can have dark patches where no one really knows what happened, etc, etc. Nuance throughout, that is (what I have found to be) the most important.