Post #147 December 3 2018

“Systematic Imagination”

One of the great joys of writing fiction is building and fleshing out an imaginary world.  In science fiction, this is usually called world-building.  In this post, I want to elaborate on this and explain how I use systematic imagination to create a believable fictional world for my readers.

In writing the seven novels in my series Tales of the Quantum Corps, I found it expedient, even necessary, to do whatever I had to for consistency and believability.  Toward that end, I wrote up a Backgrounder on what life would be like in the late 21^st and early 22^nd century.  I listed these areas to expand on:  General, Politics and Governance, Crime/Law Enforcement/Public Security, Business and Trade, Arts and Entertainment, Life and Culture, Science and Technology, Philosophy and Ethics, Education, Transportation, Food and Agriculture and Energy.  For each category, I wrote anywhere from a paragraph to several pages of background.  This structure forced me to take a methodical approach to building out my world.

Was this a lot of work?  Sure.  But it helped build a solid, consistent, accurate and believable foundation for all seven novels.  Doing this helped me avoid the syndrome where a character was blond in one story and bald with a moustache in another.  Any changes I made were deliberate and considered, fitting in (I hoped) to the overall world.

I did something of the same thing in The Farpool Stories and even made an Appendix out of my background which was included (a la Dune) at the conclusion of several of the stories.

How do I go about systematic imagination?  Like this:

1. Establish the setting.  Is it a new world?  Is it Earth two centuries from now?  Maybe it’s Earth of 1 million B.C.  Whatever it is, get the setting, the place, the locale firmly set in your mind.  Make a few notes. 
2. Work through the details.  This is the essence of systematic imagination.  With my Back-grounder, I had a structure into which I could pour all kinds of nuggets from my feverish imagination.  The structure kept me on track.  It pointed the way toward ideas and details I needed to pin down.  It even offered suggestions and ticklers to my brain about connections I hadn’t originally thought of, things I could use in the story itself.  Ask questions, lots of questions.  With molecular assembler technology widespread and cheap in Tales of the Quantum Corps, what would that mean for clothing and fashion, what people eat, how they fall in love?  It was during this process that I developed the idea for angels, para-human swarm entities that were so well configured they could pass for humans, even though they were really just clouds of bots.  That one idea suggested literally scores of other ideas, plot developments, conflicts and all kind of things that added to the stories.  Beyond asking questions, make maps and charts.  I often do that so I can refer to ship layouts, city plans, details of weapons or unusual gear and be consistent in what I write.
3. How to work all the fruits of your imagination into the story.  First of all, don’t ever do an info dump.  After thinking up all this whiz-bang stuff, there is an irresistible temptation to load up your story with long stretches of explanations and history, etc.  Don’t do it.  A little bit of detail goes a long way.  Let your readers use their own imaginations to fill in some of the details and do some of the work.  They’ll appreciate the story even more.  The best way to work details of setting and your imagination into the story is to know them so well that you absorb them and they come out naturally as you write, as you tell the story.  I know this sounds nebulous, but it you allow yourself to become so immersed in the background of the story and the characters, the details become second nature and will find their way into the story at just the right moment.  Try it. 
    
   Use or apply your imagination to create a fictional universe by using a systematic, planned approach.  This avoids waiting around for the muse or some kind of inspiration to strike you; who has time for that?   Use systematic imagination to build consistency, accuracy and believability into your stories.
    
   Your readers will notice and they’ll thank you for it.
    
   The next post to The Word Shed comes on December 10.  See you then.
    
   Phil B.