World Building and Demolition

[skip.knox]

My fantasy world, called Altearth, is elaborate and detailed, mainly because I keep most of normal Earth history then mix in fantasy elements. While I have written various bits of backstory, I mainly try to concentrate on writing an actual novel or short story and create the new elements only as needed for the story.

Lately, I have noticed a phenomenon. Call it story lock or narrowing horizons, the phenomenon is where I have decided to have a fantasy element appear at a time and place, now that becomes a fixed event. Certain things cannot happen because of that event. If I have elves appear in great fleets on the Atlantic coast because their homeland sank beneath the ocean, and this happened in the seventh century, I can't have them appear in a story in the fifth century in Egypt.

The more events I lock into place, the more restricted are my choices. The most significant effects so far are decisions about *why* things happen (why did their homeland sink?) and *how* things work, especially how magic works. Once those decisions are made, all stories must conform.

This was unexpected. I tell myself it will be a spur to creativity, and on alternate Tuesdays I'm convincing. But I also am toying with the Tobacco Road model (blow it up, start all over again). I can still get away with this by saying, well, that's how people *thought* things worked, or where legend *says* they came from. Or, that they did appear much earlier but left no permanent mark (think Leif Ericsson and Columbus).


I was wondering if other folks have encountered this narrowing of choices and how they've dealt with it. I do know that established authors have sometimes had to resort to living with inconsistencies and even with contradictions, as their understanding of their own creation has evolved.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I've experienced similar things in creating my world, The Odd Lands.

Currently I have a vision for what I want the technology level of the world to be, but the way the world works is getting in the way of achieving this in a believable way. I'm not too keen on allowing for inconsistencies so my options for dealing with it are to either change the world or my vision.
At the moment I'm leaning more towards a change of vision as going back and messing with the fundamental building blocks is likely to have a ripple effect on other things I won't discover until much later.

 

[ThinkerX]

Call it a spur to your creativity. For example:

Lately, I have noticed a phenomenon. Call it story lock or narrowing horizons, the phenomenon is where I have decided to have a fantasy element appear at a time and place, now that becomes a fixed event. Certain things cannot happen because of that event. If I have elves appear in great fleets on the Atlantic coast because their homeland sank beneath the ocean, and this happened in the seventh century, I can't have them appear in a story in the fifth century in Egypt.

My solution for this would be the 'exiled elves' approach: two centuries before their homeland sunk, one elf faction lost a power struggle of some sort with the dominant elf group, one so severe they packed up and left the homeland enmass. As far as the homeland elves are concerned, this is a fluke event best forgotten, and as far as the denizens of the land they migrated to, they're just weird looking people with strange abilities who now have an enclave of their own.

Or alternatively...an advance colony party: pick out some prime real estate and found a settlement, because some bright leader back home has reached some disturbing conclusions about the long term future of the home isle.

That said, yes I've encountered the narrowing thing. I usually opt for a 'regional out'.

My main nation, Solaria, is a highly organized nation starting a long term technological revolution.

Yet, I also wanted to write some tales set in a more sprawling, less civilized area. Enter Cimmar, literally an ocean away from Solaria, roughly patterned after Kievian Russia. Originally, I had Cimmar as part of another world altogether, then I realized...

...big as it was, Cimmar didn't come close to needing a whole world, AND I had a lot of big blank spaces on my other world.

Your situation reminds me a bit of Kate Elliots current Cold Fire / Cold Mage series: the map is drawn from earth, and so are many of the nations...but North America is the domain of sapient dinosaurs, a zombie plague has devoured much of africa, and a lot of prime real estate is buried beneath a mile of magically maintained ice, because the fey want it that way. No clue yet what the tale is in South America, Far East, or elsewhere.

If you are in a block in one continent, shift to another.

Or get creative.

 

[Devor]

Believe it or not, you have to have limits to be creative. Limits create problems which need creativity to be solved.

I don't think it's a good idea to ignore the limitations you set on yourself. Taking the elf situation, based only on what you've said, I would think it's a sign you might have a gap in your pre-elf history and should come up with something creative and new to fill it.

That isn't to say that you should never reconsider things, but every word in your novel is a decision, and you need to get used to it.

 

[Saigonnus]

Lately, I have noticed a phenomenon. Call it story lock or narrowing horizons, the phenomenon is where I have decided to have a fantasy element appear at a time and place, now that becomes a fixed event. Certain things cannot happen because of that event. If I have elves appear in great fleets on the Atlantic coast because their homeland sank beneath the ocean, and this happened in the seventh century, I can't have them appear in a story in the fifth century in Egypt.

Just because that event occurred in the 7th century, on the east coast of america, doesn't mean they haven't always been there on their island up to that point, or possessing seafaring capabilities (thus making them available to the 5th century egyptians if you wish it). I think you have to consider the general longevity of the species in question... when did they diverge from human stock (assuming they did so)? How long have they been on the planet? If you have answers for the general questions like that then at least you can piece together a timeline from what general events you already have. History is always riddled with long periods of basically nothing significant happening, so don't worry about what they were doing in the 3rd century a.d. (for example), they were simply living life on their island and nothing special happened.

 

[skip.knox]

Thx2all for the replies. I'm not too stuck, probably because I'm still too new at it. It was just something I had not anticipated as I started building the world in earnest. (well, where else would you build a world)