Do you use "Builder Worlds" in your writing?

[DaringNovelist]

Originally Posted by bthrowsnaill

Has the working definition of "builder world" drifted a bit during this discussion? ... But it sounds like Steven Lake creates settings that diverge from the actual story settings and plop the characters into these worlds to see how they react (eq: like dropping your Sci-Fi hero into "High School Musical", or something equally bizarre?)

That's how I read it. And yes, that's how I do it.

However, it doesn't have to be ridiculous. It can just be... different. Like those games you play on the internet "If you could be a master criminal, what kind would you be?" Doing that sort of thing with your characters could be interesting.

The other thing I use as a "builder world" is my own life sometimes. For instance, my creative writing classes in grad school were interesting pressure cookers of human interaction. For years afterward I would sometimes drop my characters into a typical creative writing class and watch not only what kind of stories they choose to tell, but also to see how they handle the extreme battling egos.

Try it some time. Put your character into a situation that doesn't fit into your story - a different genre, time travel, put 'em in charge of the office at your day job. Put them in group therapy with other characters, make 'em learn a new trade.

Camille

[Steven Lake]

Exactly. Another way to look at a builder world is to see a place that's a conglomerated mish-mash of all your favorite ideas, plot elements, characters, personalities, technology, magic, etc all bundled up into a gigantic soup and gleaned for ideas through a process of mix and match, almost like pulling from a gigantic grab bag. Just reach in, pull out ideas, and then try them over and over again in various scene settings until you find something you like, after which you simply write about them.

[basilsands]

I guess I'd have to say that my builder world has so long existed in my mind that I had not realized it was not the real world. Working for realism in novels has to me meant putting my characters in daily life situations and added those terrifying moments where the person shows what they are made of. That as opposed to creating a scene then inserting a character or vice versa. It all just kind of blends.

Of course, my lovely Muse may have something to do with that. She keeps whispering stories in my ear whole and complete. Violent girl, she.

[DavidRM]

I've done something I think is similar. My novel, The Summoning Fire, grew out of characters that I used in a couple of stories, and those characters came out of a short RPG campaign. I used the stories to flesh out character worldviews and to explore how certain concepts worked together (half-devil crime boss, magical pump-action shotgun, etc). The stories were invaluable. They helped create the foundation the novel was eventually built on. The stories are not "canon" or prequels for the novel. They were trial runs of various ideas.

I did something similar with a YA novel (not yet published). I had the characters more or less defined and the novel outlined, but I wasn't able to start work on the novel yet. So I wrote a couple of stories with the main character to explore how I would write from her viewpoint. In this case, the stories are prequels to the novel, and some of what happened in the stories was later referred to in the novel.

I don't know if those examples qualify as "builder world", but they seem close.

-David

[crich70]

From what I've read in books and articles on writing that published authors have written I think you have hit the nail on the head bobavey. It's likely that even well established authors can't put into words how they go about writing a book. There are just too many variables that go into how a given book went from an initial idea to a finished and published manuscript. And many of those variables probably only occur in the writer's mind on an almost subconscious level. Something just feels right about how this event or that one plays out etc.

Originally Posted by bobavey

After reading the post, my first inclination was to say "I'm a writer and I've never used anything like that -- but after giving the idea more thought, I think most writers probably create and use Builder Worlds. If they're like me, however, the Builder Worlds exist only in their heads, and they probably aren't aware of the existence, until someone brings it up. Something like that.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

So, with that said, do any of you have builder worlds,

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

Well, even with people who write "from the hip" use one form or another of a builder world.

Didn't you just answer your own question - or suggest that anyone who answered in the negative was mistaken?

[Steven Lake]

TGS: No, that was a gigantic case of foot in mouth. (That's what I get for trying to multitask and reply to a post) It should read: Well, even if people write "from the hip", they *can* still use one form or another of a builder world, but only if the story is founded around a world, and not constructed from the character level. You can "shoot from the hip" and not use a builder world. However, you are just as equally likely to use one. The only real differentiating point between them is how the story was founded. IE, from a world, from an element, from a plotline, or from a character. The only time builder worlds come into play is when a story is founded around either a world or a plotline. I hope that explains it a little better. ^_^;;

[crich70]

That makes some sense. Plot isn't so much what happens as why it happens in the way it does, and the world in which a story is set will often have a bearing on which possibilities are the most likely ones to occur at a given point in a given story.

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

TGS: No, that was a gigantic case of foot in mouth. (That's what I get for trying to multitask and reply to a post) It should read: Well, even if people write "from the hip", they *can* still use one form or another of a builder world, but only if the story is founded around a world, and not constructed from the character level. You can "shoot from the hip" and not use a builder world. However, you are just as equally likely to use one. The only real differentiating point between them is how the story was founded. IE, from a world, from an element, from a plotline, or from a character. The only time builder worlds come into play is when a story is founded around either a world or a plotline. I hope that explains it a little better. ^_^;;