Story Plan Checklist: Setting part 2

[ladyseishou]

Setting exists so that the character has someplace to stand,
something that can help define him, something he can pick up and throw,
if necessary, or eat, or give to his girlfriend.

- John Gardner



And more about the the "where" for our story...

Yesterday we took a brief look at the physical description for our story. Today, we're going to consider the more social aspects of our worlds - what is sometimes called Human Geography.

Working from my thumbnail setting description from yesterday:

One of my protagonist owns a tavern, the only tavern in a small, border town. It is early morning (the tavern is empty) and he sees and hears that a wooden barrel of ale he has tapped is emptier than he would like when two local boys come in with news that several strangers have arrived in town.

There are many details about my world here that imply a larger social structure:

Political: a small town that has been established on or near the border of two countries

Economic: commerce (a tavern)

Cultural: food and drink (ale), family groups (boys)

Technology: wooden barrel for storage

These observations are all from my main character's POV. From these notes, I will expand the descriptions as the story develops.

A very important cultural aspect that I have not addressed specifically in my setting sketch is the naming of things. Fine beginner's advice is offered by Holly Lisle:

...it does pay to know what the dialects or languages would be like, how the grammar works, and what sounds the native speaker can and cannot comfortably form in casual conversation. This will allow you to hint at accents, suggest alien grammars, and whisper of far away places and foreign climes...

Here are several websites that Nano Writers may find helpful as they create the social aspects of their worlds:

How Much of My World Do I Build by Holly Lisle (mentioned before but deserving of another if just for the advice she offers for naming your characters)

A Naming Language - "Inventing a language for naming people and places" (good overview of a complex topic)

Words Maketh the Culture

What's In A Name?

I also like the advice offered by John Scalzi:

I try to build my worlds at least two questions deep — that is, you make your creations robust enough to stand up to a general question and then a more specific followup question.

As an example:

Question (to my main character): what kind of drink can I buy in your tavern?

Answer: A good, honest ale.

Follow up question: (after tasting the copper-amber drink) Earthy, sweet. What am I tasting here?

Answer: A winter brew. Six-spike barley. Potato. Wheat if it's been a good year. (smiles) Mostly potato.


So how about you, Nano Writer? Post something about your world and we'll ask your character about it... can you pass the two-question test?

Comments

[cheyinka]

Hmm... well, in twelve hours from the start of the novel, Katherine (and the rest of the scientists on [still unnamed ship]) are going to land on Mars. Does that prompt any questions?

[ladyseishou]

Is Katherine one of the scientist? If yes, what kind of science? If no, why is she going to Mars?

How long was Katherine traveling to Mars? What kind of ship did she use?

That was more than two. Pick the one you would like to answer (and its followup). If you'd like more... ;-)

[cheyinka]

1) Yep, she's one of the scientists! She, uh... hmmm. She studies, um... extremophiles! Yes, that's it. It's not that they've found Martian extremophiles, but they're using Earthborn extremophiles to begin the (centuries-long) terraforming process.

2) Quite a while - eight months, counting a stop at the Moon to pick up liquid oxygen, hydrogen, and liquid water. The ship is in two segments - the part that's gotten them to Mars, and with which they'll reunite later, which is a large cylinder, and the part that'll get them down onto Mars and then back off Mars, which is more like a beet, complete with leaves.

3) Her liquid breakfast (mentioned in the previous post) tastes like blueberries. That's because it is in fact made from blueberries. They don't eat that one very often because it stains so readily.

[ladyseishou]

Eight months! So does Elizabeth's relationships to the other scientist change over this time (closer or more distant)? Are there other female scientists/travelers?

Does Elizabeth like blueberries? What will she be eating on Mars?

[cheyinka]

She gets closer to them by necessity at first - she's very strongly introverted, and during launch preparation and the trip to the Moon, she's content enough to interact no more often than necessary. Once they've left the Moon, though, she realizes these are the people with whom she'll be spending the next five years - isolating herself will only make her miserable and less able to concentrate on her work.

She loves them, but they're only part of this one breakfast variety during the trip; on Mars there'll be dried blueberries in granola, but there's also enough gravity there to keep cereal in a bowl. She'll be eating mostly food that they've brought from Earth, with some locally-grown hydroponic vegetables. Once they find the Cavern-Dwellers, she'll be offered mushrooms, beans, eels, and frogs to eat.

[lea_hazel]

Ohh, that's a good question. My three protagonists, Orane (f) Kasha (m) and Ulla (m) are all traveling cross-continent from City A to City B (neither of which have names yet, I am looking for ideas). Orane and Kasha plan to settle there, Ulla has no plans.

[ladyseishou]

How are Orane, Kasha and Ulla traveling to City B? Why did they choose this method (money, availability, stealth...)?

I'll be good and stop there. Let me know if you would like more ;-)

[lea_hazel]

A long train ride, probably a week or longer. It's the quickest mode of travel in their world.

As many as you can come up with. :)

[ladyseishou]

Did your protags meet on the train or did they plan the trip together?

How do they travel - general seating or a private car?

What is the most important thing each brings with them?

[lea_hazel]

Orane and Kasha travel together. Orane meets Ulla on the train and they fall in lurve.

They travel in a first class sleeping car, and Ulla is in second class because his finances are more limited, and he does a lot more traveling than either of them. Kasha was born in City A and has basically never been outside it in his life.

Orane's most important item is her hatbox. Kasha brings his wood etching knives. Ulla brings crocheting needles and skeins of green and red silk.

[ladyseishou]

A hatbox! This begs two questions: when does your story take place? and what's in the hatbox?

And of course the knives are very intriguing... Chekhov's loaded gun?

Do the needles belong to Orane or are they mementos?

[lea_hazel]

I'm not working in an exact period or Earth analog, but it bears some resemblance to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Hats are actually not very in style, but Orane wears very concealing clothing because she has to hide the fact that she's not human.

The knives are actually the least interesting. Wood etching is a hobby for Kasha.

Ulla crochets because it's part of his job. He just needs to have the colors pre-matched for him, because he's color blind.

[ladyseishou]

What about Orane would a keen observer note is not totally human even disguised? Does her disguise set her apart (are any other passengers wearing hats or is this something that causes tongues to wag)?

Why are Orane and Kasha traveling together? What about them tells something about their relationship (body language, clothing or jewelry, etc.)?

[lea_hazel]

Over time, the observer would note that she never, ever reveals more than her hands, forearms and face, and often less than that. An Occam's Razor theory might be that she has a very bad skin condition and maintains a terrible fashion sense to hide it. She is also very retiring and frequently claims headaches or vague symptoms as an excuse to be away from general society. Many other women of her class wear broad hats, low necklines and very bright floral patterns, but she wears things like pinstripe suits, blouses with buttoned sleeves, and lots of dark or drab colors.

Orane is Kasha's official mistress. She has legal status, although not as much as a wife. Their body language is very familiar, and a casual observer might mistake them for being relations. Although her role is to provide sex and companionship, they have never had sex and don't relate to each other as lovers. When in public, they usually walk arm-in-arm. There's no token like a wedding ring, since the relationship is not meant to be public, so she doesn't need to be seen as affiliated with him.

[cheyinka]

How big is the continent on which City A and City B are located? Are cross-continent trips the kind of thing that someone might make for business or vacationing, or are they something only people planning on moving typically do?

[lea_hazel]

The distance is about 10,000 km. Because the trip is more than a week, the type of business or vacation would have to last several months. Families might take the train to visit with relatives for a season, and Kasha is ostensibly going for a six month visit to establish his family's business interests on the coast, but he's setting up the ground to settle there. He just can't reveal that yet because his wife is pregnant.

[the_wanlorn]

Both my original fiction stories are set in the same(ish) universe: one in a coastal MA fishing village like Gloucester but smaller, and the other in a city halfway between Worcester and the Five Colleges area.

Um, idk what else to say about it. In the first story, Abby hasn't heard from Red in a couple weeks before the story starts. In the second story, Carrie is a sidekick and Ray is the superhero she pals around with and drags with her to visit her parents in northern-Western MA sometimes.

[ladyseishou]

When do your stories take place (year and time of year if important)?

Where does Abby live (house, apartment...)? What is her relationship with Red?

Where does Ray the superhero live?

[the_wanlorn]

I want to say that the two stories are occurring concurrently, but in slightly different dimensions. I'd just have them happening in the same time/place, but I can't come up with a reason why shapeshifters would be seen as second class citizens but superheroes would be A-OK. In any case, both occur now. Gadget Girl happens during the late fall, to provide atmosphere and all since I want it to be half-horror. It's a story about death, so what's better than the time of year where everything's dying, right? And then The Bodyguard Case is set during winter, when the smell of dead fish and the sea isn't as strong.

Abby lives in a rundown apartment that's on the harbor. I kind of picture her town being set up like Newport, RI. There's the summer people and their big fancy houses, but once you move outside that central street, it's all the poor fishermen and stuff. And because Abby has more heart than good sense, she can't really afford much more than a rundown apartment in a bad area that stinks of dead fish and the wind blowing off the sea.

Her and Red are... complicated. They met down on the dock when Abby was hired to find out who was trying to kill her client, and Red was trying to kill her client. When the client tried to double-cross both of them, they grudgingly worked together to bring him and his gang of line-cutting lobstermen down. And then Red just kind of... kept hanging around. She's kind of "off" and odd and her actions don't always keep with the idea that Abby's her best friend, but she's fiercely loyal and that makes up for it.

Plus, there's that she has an epic crush on Abby and has no clue what to do with that.

Ray has a huge self-sacrificing/martyr complex, so while he could afford an apartment much nicer than Carrie's, he lives in a dump of a one-bedroom that gets broken into more often than, uh, something that gets broken into a lot. Because he doesn't deserve a nice apartment, you see, not when there are people living on the streets of his city. He lives downwind of the sewage treatment plant, which is why Carrie demands that all of their meetings occur either at her apartment or in public.

[ladyseishou]

Sounds like you have a good understanding for your characters and their place in your world! I could easily imagine that shapshifters might be seen as a threat to society (how would you ever know who you were talking to?) where "superheroes" might be perceived as helpful, even necessary (fight crime and all that) for a society.

So as a followup question for you: how do your shapeshifters fit into your world? Are they visibly tagged? How are they identified (at birth? genetically?)

BTW, I really like your setting descriptions!

[the_wanlorn]

Well, they're really just your typical boring urban fantasy shapeshifters. The general public idea is that they're animalistic and lack control and thus are dangerous. The problem being, of course, that some shifters just never learn to control their shifting and when emotions are running high, they start to (literally) turn into an animal. Which feeds into the stereotypes. And some people who can control themselves most of the time can't during the full moon.

So there are signs like "No 'shifters need apply" and shit. I don't know, I haven't really thought about this part much because it's difficult and can very quickly go from great to faily. And, of course, my refusal to really think about how it'll all work means it's more likely to be hugely faily, but whatever.

And thanks! I really want the setting to be lovecraftian, but the story not to be, if that makes sense? Because I don't think I can juggle urban fantasy + a mystery + horror all at the same time. So I've been spending my time mostly writing background stories, like about the well on the Foggarty property that starts to scream when the temperature drops below zero, or that spring back in '72 when things crawled out of the sea. And about how the sea takes everything back.

Everything.

[ladyseishou]

The more you know about your world, the deeper you can pull your reader inside. So background stories are a good thing.

And there's no such thing as "fail" for a first draft, right? All rough drafts are crap (to paraphrase Hemingway) and Everything's Fair Game! But you might think about what it is about your shapeshifters and their place in society that you are avoiding. Certainly if it's a sore point, leave it alone for now. It may be that it's not part of the story you need or want to tell. And it may all come to you sometime during November.

[dragonscrawl]

I had to actually stop and look at what I'd said about my story before, simply to refresh my memory.

The story opens in Dalesworth, the capital city and royal seat of Linnondale, which is also a commerce-driven city and center of the social season for the nobility. Samuel comes from one of the merchant houses; Kit's from the nobility. George's only ties to either group comes through working aboard a merchant airship.

From Dalesworth, my cast is setting off via airship to Cyprenon, which I...don't know that much about, unfortunately. Cyprenon and Linnondale aren't on the friendliest terms, though. And, of course, there's the ever-present danger to merchant airships of corsairs, who are airship pirates.

[ladyseishou]

This sounds very exciting! So many things I'm curious about, so many questions...

As a representative of your nobility class, what is Kit wearing and what does she bring with her for this trip? What is Kit's full name (how much would I know about her background from her name)?

What is Samuel wearing? How does it represent his merchant class status (or how would I tell the difference between Samuel and a nobleman from Linnondale)?

Does George come Linnondale's working class? What is he wearing?

[dragonscrawl]

Kit's first appearance is during a masquerade. She's more typical noblewoman of her country then, with long skirts that reach the floor, sleeves fuller near the shoulder and narrower toward the wrist, a moderately demure neckline, and a corset (not that she really needs the last very much). Fabrics mostly likely are velvets, satins, or silks, but I haven't thought the details of the costuming for the masquerade through yet. Kit wears her hair long at this point. While nobility, Kit's status as the youngest of four, her looks, and her inclination to mess with things mechanical makes her the "unmarriageable" daughter, and this information makes the rounds among society. Kit's attire, even at the masquerade, reflects this. However, she very quickly ends up dressed in a brightly colored shirt, goggles, a dark vest with places for her to keep her tools, and dark pants. She also cuts her hair short at this point. That's all more practical for her work as an airship engineer, a role she plays for the majority of the novel. Kit, it turns out, is not a typical noblewoman and is not content to be mistress of any household. Indeed, Samuel first mistakes the engineer Kit for a boy, only to discover the truth moments later.

Working this trip instead of traveling for leisure, Kit mostly brings the tools she needs to keep the engines in shape. Indeed, the trip occurs on relatively short notice, and as the chief engineer Kit's time is spent keeping the engines in order. Her spare time typically comes down to rest, as she must be prepared to short herself sleep on even shorter notice should the airship be attacked. Given the option (and the unplanned trip to an airstation the Infinity makes partway through), Kit would bring playing cards along, as she knows there's always at least one game she can play with them if she desires entertainment. She hasn't taken an airship journey on her own leisure for quite some time now, though, so doesn't tend to think about that when packing for a trip anymore. She does pack some spare clothes since grease stains are a job hazard.

Kit's full name is Katherine Adelaide Beasley. One thing I made a point of doing for the Linnondale nobility was ensuring they had three names, versus the two that the middle and lower class do. And although Kit's full name doesn't itself speak volumes about her, her mother's name offers a hint of some of Kit's lineage that she's quick to dismiss. Kit and her mother Lady Lenora Ashworth Beasley, are distant relatives of Linnondale's royal family, the Ashworths. And while Kit prefers "Kit" as a nickname since it suits her less feminine inclinations better, her family continues to call her "Addie", mostly out of habit from days when they tried to get her less interested in things mechanical.

Samuel...is alas, not very communicative. I know he dresses "like a gentleman". For him, this largely means tailored trousers, waistcoat, white shirt, and tailored coat. Samuel's hair is kept neatly trimmed. Samuel's family is high enough in the social ladder that Samuel's accustomed mode of dress is not unlike that of the nobility. Most of the difference would likely lie in fabric quality, but the difference even there would be slim indeed. Indeed, it's entirely due to his family's high social status tied with their merchant house connections that Samuel's got the task he spends the novel trying to complete. However, under his crew's influence, Samuel slowly breaks from that "gentleman" manner of dress in favor of the less restrained style of an airship captain. While he keeps to the tailored trousers and white shirt by the end of the novel, both the tailored coat and waistcoat are discarded. His hair also loses some of the carefully maintained look.

George was lower middle class, I believe, prior to joining Linnondale's military. He left that after a leg injury, but spent just enough time there to push his social status up a little. However, his life has since revolved more around airships and their culture/society. George thus doesn't worry much about his groundside social class these days, since his knowledge and training centers around a job found only aboard airships. Still, his military past is sometimes evident in the way he dresses, mostly through the cut and style of his attire. George largely wears a shirt and trousers, and keeps a cane nearby at all times to help him deal with the limp his leg injury left him with.

[brutal]

Well my world's already exist in this world, so I pretty much just place my characters "in" it. Though I did make up the names of the schools simply because I didn't want to get sued.

Set in Great Britain in the late 70s.