Hello everyone! It’s time to reveal the answers for all 12 questions answered by 12 author participants in the April Group Author Interview, in the 12 genres, 12 authors, 12 months and 12 questions series! The support from Fantasy/Sci-fi authors was amazing as we have 12 authors participating in this group author interview.

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So, the 5th question is “What goes into building a world?”

I primarily write urban and contemporary fantasy, which has fantasy taking place in the modern world. That means the surface world is the one we know, and my job is to create the world beneath it. So I have to decide how big this hidden world is. In some cases, it’s a whole realm, which means I have to think about where it’s located, how it’s hidden, and what kind of people populate it. In other cases, it’s more like hidden pieces of another world, buried in the fabric of modern society. In that case, it means figuring out how the world coexists in secret with our world, and just who the people that keep it secret are. It all depends on what kind of story you want to tell.

A lot of naming, some unsaid world history and rules of the setting, making characters that act according to their personality and not the plot, and a decision on the types of cultures that’ll be meshed together and explored in said world.

What I do is I plan a world that I would want to live in because I know that my readers would want to live there too.

I love the work of Karen Azinger, who wrote about how a world has architecture, religion, government and many other facets, just like our world. Mentioning those things within your writing makes it seem more real, even if that architecture is floating from the bottom of a cloud and the government is run by rodents. Making a deliberate effort to sprinkle those pieces into the adventure creates a world for me.

Everything that might exist within our own! Government, religion, culture, language, fashion, etc. But like I said for the second question, I try and only include what’s necessary to understand the plot and/or character(s).

You have to mix it up, from terrain to names of towns and cities. The first world I designed was the island of Avalon, so it was a little easy to reuse some traditional names from the British Isles for it, but I also created some of my own names in there. you have to match the personality of the creatures with the names and the terrain. Goblins like dark, dank places, as do Dwarves, but you need to add in grand architecture to show the difference in the races. The one good thing with world building in a fantasy world is that the sky’s the limit. If you want a floating island, you can have a floating island, as long as you can explain why it floats.

Words on paper and its translations

A lot of imagination.

Lots! You have to think about languages and their evolution across time and cultures, about people groups and their interwoven histories, about how they dress and speak and what makes them different from the other peoples populating the world… It’s a lot of intricate planning and development, but it’s worth it.

Creating imagery that really puts you there. In my book, you truly feel like you’re in the dark underbelly of Atlanta.

I feel setting the scenery is important, so the reader can sense your surroundings with you.

Imagination, organization and flexibility.

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Best regards,

Jasveena

Founder of International Book Promotion