In Brendan Earle, my first book, world building was done by trickery. The trick was that my fictional author (Alistair Cameron) had nicked ideas from everyone, so the first time you see one of the central chacters the description makes it clear that he is dressed like Neo in The Matrix, but then changes into an outfit like Luke Skywalker's. The landscape is 'like Nothumberland' and the story gives enough clues that it has been stolen from Harry Potter that I think the reader will fill in a lot of gaps.
By the second book we are getting onto scenes that haven't ever been described in Cameron's books. It's a world that needs to be created, and, although there is a lot of 'magic' that can make things work, I've wanted to make them workable in a real world that doesn't need it.
This is one great source of inspiration. Natural builders use strawbales, adobe, cob, clay and lime plasters. Their houses look traditional, but have as many mod-cons as the builders want to put in them,which can often include high-tech in the form of solar panels and electricity producing windmills. They are also, very often, beautiful, as you can see here:
<iframe src="http://naturalhomes.org/show/pattern/slideshowwidget.htm" width="268" height="226" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>
I'm going to self publish through Smashwords soon and will include a link to these images (wonderful what you can do with a digital version), but will give this address in any print version that ever gets produced too.
The Pattern Language is an interesting concept and gives itself to the writing of fiction very easily. I think so anyway, I haven't worked out how in any detail yet. Okay, enough for today I think. There will be random posts from now which will include chapters from the book and discussion of them along with snippets, like this one, of places that give inspiration.
By the second book we are getting onto scenes that haven't ever been described in Cameron's books. It's a world that needs to be created, and, although there is a lot of 'magic' that can make things work, I've wanted to make them workable in a real world that doesn't need it.
This is one great source of inspiration. Natural builders use strawbales, adobe, cob, clay and lime plasters. Their houses look traditional, but have as many mod-cons as the builders want to put in them,which can often include high-tech in the form of solar panels and electricity producing windmills. They are also, very often, beautiful, as you can see here:
<iframe src="http://naturalhomes.org/show/pattern/slideshowwidget.htm" width="268" height="226" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>
I'm going to self publish through Smashwords soon and will include a link to these images (wonderful what you can do with a digital version), but will give this address in any print version that ever gets produced too.
The Pattern Language is an interesting concept and gives itself to the writing of fiction very easily. I think so anyway, I haven't worked out how in any detail yet. Okay, enough for today I think. There will be random posts from now which will include chapters from the book and discussion of them along with snippets, like this one, of places that give inspiration.
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