I'm pretty much finished with part one of Red Hood's Revenge. Actually, I think I may have been finished with this part a week ago. The past 5000 words or so have been all about getting from one place to the next. I suspect a lot of that will get condensed in revisions, though I kind of like today's bit. But this means I can't procrastinate anymore. If we're going to another land, I need to get my butt in gear and actually do some worldbuilding.
This is both difficult and fun. Difficult, because it's research. I'm not going to put them in a true-to-life version of Alaska, for example. But I also don't want all of my cultures and lands to look and sound and smell the same. That means reading about other cultures, other times, and finding inspiration in experiences not my own. This can be tricky. I still struggle with the difference between trying to create a realistic balance of cultures in a fantasy world vs. appropriating or even stereotyping other cultures.
Arathea, where part two will take place, is a desert land. So last night I started reading about Egypt. I'm not trying to make Arathea into a fantasy version of Egypt; rather, I'm trying to learn what the people need to do and be aware of in order to survive and thrive in this environment. What kind of buildings work best. What's most important? How does farming work? What are the dangers? If all goes well, I'll be doing some reading on other desert-based cultures as well, learning from them all and using that knowledge to figure out the culture of Arathea.
Sadly, this means Sly Mongoose may be the last book I read for pleasure for a while. I went through this phase in the last book as well, setting aside fiction to read up on ocean zones and marine life and everything else I could find to help make my mermaids more realistic. It's work, but it's also fun. Even reading the first few chapters on Egypt last night left me with new ideas for Arathea, and in the end I hope it will make for a stronger book.
And they say fantasy doesn't require research. Pbbt!
 | Reading Sly Mongoose, by Tobias Buckell Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy |
Writing Red Hood's Revenge |
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Comments
Anyone who says fantasy doesn't require research hasn't written a fantasy book. I spent almost half an hour online one night researching the average thickness of city walls in a certain time period so I could write one sentence. I spend hours and hours researching all my books, mostly so I don't look like an idiot.
And if you haven't thought of it, the Gobi Desert is one of the coolest deserts ever. Totally different climate than Egypt, but still a desert.
Gobi Desert. Got it - thanks!
Buildings, definitely take into account that in a lot of desert areas (particularly "low" desert) there's not a lot of wood (and what there is tends to be stunted and twisted, not suitable for building). Adobe (mud bricks, with a little straw to help them hold together) was a major building material here until the 20th century, and is still in use. Any wood Tucson had in the early days had to be brought down from the mountains surrounding us. (See icon for dilapidated view of an adobe house. This was one of the officer's quarters at Fort Lowell.)
I guess it depends on what sort of region you're choosing. The US has a lot of what is technically desert that is tree-rich and gets snow in the winter (sections of Southern Utah and northern Arizona, parts of Colorado, central Washington), but that's not what leaps to mind when most people think of "desert."
Sorry for the long-windedness up there. Right now I'm hooked into learning all I can about 1880's Tucson so all this (probably useless) information is foremost in my brain.
When we go up north to Michigan's upper penninsula every summer, the dirt and dust are reddish because of the incredibly high iron content. It's another useless detail, but one that would be great for a story.
You are welcome to use it as a landmark if you like.
A friend of mine is writing a reader's advisory guide to Science Fiction. I was helping him come up with a definition of "Science Fiction" when I stumbled on this charming quote from John W. Campbell, "The major distinction between fantasy and science fiction is, simply, that science fiction uses one, or a very, very few new postulates, and develops the rigidly consistent logical consequences of these limited postulates. Fantasy makes its rules as it goes along...The basic nature of fantasy is "The only rule is, make up a new rule any time you need one!" The basic rule of science fiction is "Set up a basic proposition--then develop its consistent, logical consequences."
Introduction, Analog 6, Garden City, New York, 1966
Obviously, you are doing something wrong. ;)
Still worthy of a sporking, though.
Hum, I currently have ten books stacked at the foot of my desk--and that's just those I need on a regular basis...
(and yeah, what's already been said: be careful about the overimportance of the Nile in Egyptian culture. You might want to check out other nomad cultures like the Tuaregs to see what different people tried to adapt to desertic conditions).
I think borrowing cultural models without the mythological models could be very cool. Unlike a Certain Author who did it the other way around; that came out very peculiarly.
Of course, if you want to poke around at the verge between the two, I can recommend Daily Lives of the Egyptian Gods by Meeks and Favard-Meeks. It's very good for the sociological mindset. Heavy scholarly language, though.
I've already got some religious/mythological stuff lined up, so I really can't do too much with what's already there. Though I am expecting some of the hardcore Christian extremists to ban me by the time book three comes out...
The best one was a fairly in-depth book whose title completely escapes me. (This was about a year ago.) Argh! It's the book I was reading in this picture, but Toby cropped out the actual book!