Let's Build a World: Day 7 - Recent History

[ladyseishou]

History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew.
But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.

- E. L. Doctorow



It's Day 7 for Nano Writers's Let's Build a World. Read over Day 7: Recent History from Stephanie Bryant's 30 Days of Worldbuilding. Pull out those notebooks and start today's exercise:

Spend 15 minutes outlining the major historical events of the last 100 years before your novel begins.

Include in your timeline:

• Dates when power shifted in your civilization(s) (through coup, death of a monarch, revolution, election, etc.), and whether the power shift was smooth (as it might be when a monarch dies and their offspring takes their place)
  
  
• Dates when a natural event reduced or increased the amount of natural resources (food, usually, but also water, timber, and other resources).
  
  
• Dates when an unnatural event (such as a magical or technological event) changed the resources as well.
  

Each of these factors (power shifts and resource shifts) puts pressure on the civilizations. At the high-pressure points, write "battle/conflict"-- those are points at which violence may have erupted between cultures (or, if you have non-violent people, perhaps conflict that's expressed in other dramatic ways). Events may also be interrelated-- a technological event might give the edge to one power group, which forces other groups to respond, often with confrontation.

The last dates to write on your timeline: Date your novel begins, and the date your character was born (so you know what part of history he or she directly remembers).

Here are a couple of links to check out:

World History - interactive timeline of world history from prehistory to 2009. Inspirational!

Timeline Generator
From the site: "Simply type in the name of your kingdom, the starting year for your timeline, the years between each major event, and the number of events to generate, then click the Generate Timeline button."


Let's make a date to meet here tomorrow, Nano Writer!

Comments

[facet]

I really like this series because, while I've done all of these things, I haven't actually organized them. These exercises have given me a more structured framework for world building.

[ladyseishou]

What I've really appreciated about the exercises is the additional insight - so many things that I might not have given consideration as I worked out my plot. I believe that this year's NaNo story will be richer (or at least I hope so ;-) for working on the exercises.