I’ve been lucky enough to have written several series—four, in fact—and each one was a fun experience. However, I’m certain whenever someone opens one of my books, he doesn’t think of the effort going into creating either the story or the world in which that story is set. Nevertheless, anyone who’s ever written anything will tell you it ain’t easy.
Let’s explore being a creator of worlds, using my novel Wizard’s Wife as an example.
All worlds contain two components: place and people.
A FEW GENERALITIES:
If you’re setting your stories in the contemporary venue of good old Earth, anything you write will have to be confined to those parameters, filled with modern people, places, and events as well as language. Even if your modern-day Earth contains magical/supernatural beings waging a war unseen by mortals, you’ll be somewhat constricted by your environment. Of course, if you do have magical/supernatural beings, you’ll a great deal of freedom to bend those constrictions into those paranormal boundaries.
If you’re into sci-fi or space opera, or any kind of fantasy, go for it! Here, your imagination can know no bounds except the limits you place upon it. You are the creator. Go for it! (NOTE: Hard sci-fi is another matter. There, you have to keep to the laws of science/physics, etc.)
How and what you do with your world may demand some research to supplement your imagination. In Wizard’s Wife, I did a great deal on Irish myths, as well as Gaellich, the language itself. My story—and the title is self-explanatory—is about a young woman who discovers her husband is a wizard, one of the so-called “little people” who feature prominently in Ireland’s legends. Sounds good so far, but how do I keep it from being merely another story about a mortal and a magical creature falling in love?
I started by having the magical creature be from another dimension.
“ . . . A world called Ais Linn, where his people the Ailiff Fae lived, a people blessed with the gift of Power. Of their discovery of secret openings, portals leading into another plane, a planet called Earth. Of their moving between those worlds…”
Of course, this particular wizard, one Tavis McMuir, will have to return home sometime, and there’s where the world-building begins.
Ais Linn’s wizards are vaguely Dr. Strange-ish, the society medieval in structure. It’s a completely realistic setting, except that everyone—from the king to the peasantry—are naturally equipped with magical powers.
I did a great deal of reading up on the medieval social structure, including castles and knights (and those guys weren’t as chivalrous as we’ve been led to believe). Trimming and embellishing as I went along, I fashioned Ais Linn into a land governed by two factions, the Lords of Dark Fire and the Lords of White Fire, two balancing sectors, one utilizing dark magic, the other white, but all within the Middle Ages venue where challenges were issued with a thrown-down gauntlet or hostages could be taken to ensure a hostile sovereign’s capitulation.
The countryside is also magical with green hills and flower-filled meadows, with talking unicorns graze and leprechauns living in the boles of giant oaks and a Dark Wood where no one travels after dark.
The thing I had to remember about creating this world as opposed to the contemporary one on the other side of the portal was that in Ais Linn, magic was a normal part of life.
All right. The setting is more or less in place. Now for the people.
Simple enough on Earth. Everyone’s dully normal. They go to work then come home. In Ais Linn, it isn’t so simple. There’s been dissention for generations between the two lords and an event is about to occur that will bring it to a head. Also, everyone in the kingdom is fae, and not all fae are created equal.
The Trooping Faeries, are not “little people” at all but are as tall as humans (Tavis is 6’2”) and so shockingly beautiful anyone meeting them is certain to fall in love. Naturally, these are the ruling class in Ais Linn where everyone uses his powers according to which lord he’s pledged his allegiance to. Thus the knights of White Fire are the good guys and those of Black Fire—and a good many of them are shifters of the wolfen kind—are the baddies. Nevertheless, good or bad, they still possess those human attributes making life worth living—greed, anger, lust, and the desire for revenge.
So far, we have the place—medieval-style dimension where magic is the norm—and the people—feuding beings with human emotions but supernatural powers.
Now for the plot.
As Tavis McMuir explains it to his shell-shocked bride who’s just discovered her husband is not the man she thought:
“Our astronomers have warned that some time soon there’ll be a planetary alignment. A harmonic convergence. Every planet in your Solar System, includin’ Pluto—pity ’tis no longer considered a planet—will be lined up directly with th’ sun. When that happens, th’ wards on th’ portals will weaken as will each guardian’s power. Th’ Dark Lords will find it easy to get through. That’s one reason I was sent.”
As the son of the Tiarna d’geal tina, Tavis McMuir must shield the Earth from this invasion with the complication of protecting his new wife who’s just learned his real identity. He’s up against a villain as strong as he, and one I’ve written in such a way I hope my readers will find him both alluring and repellant. After all, Exieter Dubhtina, the Tiarna d’doit tina, is a Trooping Faery too, so he’s as handsome as he is evil.
ANOTHER NOTE:
Harmonic convergences happen all the time. This particular one occurred on August 16-24, 1987, and was well-touted in the newspapers and online beforehand. Using this actual life event mad the story a little more realistic.
This is barely skimming the surface of creating the world in which a series begins. As more books are written, this fictional universe will expand, characters will appear and grow, age, and perhaps even die. It’s an evolving process, for readers demand the environment, like the characters and plots, not remain static.
It can be an educational undertaking for the author as well as an enjoyable one, and occasionally, a little painful as well.
About Wizard’s Wife:
Welcome to Ais Linn, where unicorns graze and werewolves prowl the Dark Forest in search of pixies to terrorize…where a faery wizard and his mortal wife defend the Earth against the Lord of Dark Fire … and the Harmonic Convergence nears…
EXCERPT:
“Damn it, Megan!” He made an angry gesture, slapping his hands against his thighs. “What can I do to make you believe me?”
“Prove it.” Call his bluff. There’s no way he can prove what he says is true. Perhaps that’ll snap him out of it.
“What?”
“You heard me. Prove to me you’re a faery, I mean a wizard. Go on. Show me how you look when you’re in Wizard-form, World-Champion-Defender-class.”
“All right.” He didn’t even pretend to think about it, just stalked a few feet away and turned back to face her. He thrust both hands in front of him, fingers outspread, palms toward his body.
“You’re serious.” Abruptly, Megan was frightened. He really thinks he’s some type of extra-terrestrial supernatural being. Oh, David!
“Damn right.” The hands moved apart, one above his head, the other hovering near his waist. He brought them together. They passed each other. “There! Would you be thinkin’ this better?”
Now it was Megan’s turn to stare.
David. But not David… Oh my God, this is definitely not my husband!
It was the same handsome face, Megan admitted, but changed. Thinner, paler. Copper brows winged above his eyes, not arching as they had before, but arrow-straight. And the eyes themselves… Green like David’s but…there’s no white in them. They were like an animal’s, the entire eye a deep green iris. That, however, wasn’t the most disturbing thing. Protruding from his forehead were antenna. Not butterfly-like but smoky, feathery tendrils floating in the air above his head. They wavered back and forth, like seaweed drifting in a stream, then stiffened and pointed in her direction.
As if they’ve sensed me…homing in…
He turned his head slightly, an ear twitching, and Megan stared. Nearly lobeless, peaked on top. Hello, Mr. Spock! The left one sported a small golden ring with an emerald set in it. She recognized it. It was her wedding present to him.
OK, so this is David… the real David… and I really don’t have an argument with the way he looks, even with— I guess the main problem is the wings.
Dragonfly-like, they didn’t come from under his shoulder blades as she’d always suppose wings should, but grew on each side of his upper spine. Not the tiny things shown in drawings of fairies either, but equaling David’s height. Delicately translucent in bronzes and golds, the colors of a Monarch’s wings magnified. When they began to flutter, Megan had to dodge to keep from being struck as the right one swept upward, shedding a fine dust which sifted gently onto the antique Persian carpet. It glittered a moment before disappearing.
Reaching out, she touched the wing, running her fingers along the heavy mast-bone. It was soft and furry, felt like a swatch of velvet, and warm. Megan pressed her fingers against it, letting its heat flow into her hand. She would swear she felt a pulse beating against her palm.
The wing began to quiver. It suffused crimson.
“Meggie, please.” David’s voice trembled in unison with the wing’s movements, quite a different sound from his previous belligerence. “My wings are one huge erogenous zone. If you do na stop touchin’ it, darlin’, I’m after sportin’ an embarrassin’ woodie. An’ I’m thinkin’ th’ parlor’s na th’ proper place for that.”
If you like stories of knights in armor battling it out with broadswords, with touches of leprechauns and faery glamour, a glib, feisty heroine, a sexy, brave hero, and an equally sexy, non-repentant villain and villainess, try Wizard’s Wife.
Available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wizards-Wife-Toni-V-Sweeney-ebook/dp/B01D7WSKRC/ or exclusively in paperback from the publisher: http://www.classactbooks.com/cat-romance/cat-fantasy/wizard-s-wife-105-1062013-04-26-02-29-35-detail
Recommended Articles:
J. Schlenker – The Synchrocity of Writing
Michael Bray – From Fiction to Reality: A Year Spent With a Paranormal Investigation Team
Matthew Keith – Indie Authors: It’s About Enjoying the Ride
LC Champlin – Truth is Stranger Than Fiction: Using History and Real-Life Events in Fiction
Thanks, Molly. I did a great deal of research but had a lot of fun writing the story. Hoping one day to do a sequel for I did leave the ending kind of open.
Oh Toni, Wizard’s Wife sounds wonderful! Love how you describe your world-building!