Writing
Science Fiction “World Building”
I just read this article in the Guardian Lifestyle section – many lessons, a few confirmations and some surprises.
Graphics by Stefan Keller, Kellepics and Pixabay.
Alastair Reynolds has always struck me as an author who provides one of the richest and most consistent backgrounds to all his stories. What a shock to discover how he does that! I have always used the likes of Alastair Reynolds and Arthur C. Clarke as my model for how every story needs far more background research than one would ever expose to readers. Now it seems two diverse paths can lead to the same destination…
My approach is inherited from working on complex software systems for millions of concurrent subscribers. Each human participant has their own view of the story, but the underlying logic must be absolutely solid. To make this happen, I architect the story universe in a completely logical (almost pedantic) way, but only a cross-section of that universe is revealed through the eyes of the characters. Here, I am more like Nnedi Okorafor, Becky Chambers or EE Doc Smith.
But one might say I take a more extreme view of the methodology than Nnedi – my opinions and cultural background are rarely part of the story. If my character sees the world differently from me; be it physically, socially, or ideologically; that’s the way it is presented. I find confirmation of this approach in the reviews of my books, where reviewers often take away wildly contradictory stories. That’s the way it is in the real world, even when we all try to find our Truth. Both Ann Leckie and my gods of Teacakes and Damnation describe this chaos nicely – for the gods, these “Alternative Truths” are their “slices”.
