It's My World; Now Live in It

The world we live in has rules. There's gravity, for instance. Much as I might like a free-floating space walk, the world I live in means my feet stay planted to the ground.

So the first time I wrote a paranormal or fantasy book, I was like a kid in a candy shop. I could make up all these rules. I could create a whole world the way I wanted it. My story was about vampires. I'd always loved vampire stories. I would have to check, but I am pretty sure I dedicated the book to my dad, because in NYC, they used to have this thing on WPIX, the "Creature Feature" on Sundays. And he got me hooked on Dracula and Frankenstein. I was terrified of both of them (my sister was even MORE terrified--she used to have major nightmares until she was forbade to even watch the Creature Feature). But I also knew, even then, the poor guys were kind of misunderstood.

Anyway, I had a modern-day vampire story. My vampire had gadgets that helped her. For example, she had this totally awesome security system and a windowless room. No coffin-sleeping for her. She slept on Egyptian cotton-thread sheets. And my vampire was a Buddhist. Yeah . . . I know. How did I pull THAT one off? But I did. My vampire could also enter churches without any problem, and even prayed in a cathedral one time. Because in my world--and I am not the first to think this up--it's all about belief. If a vampire believed in holy ground, then he or she wouldn't enter a church. But my vampire wasn't frightened by holy water or relics. She was okay with living, at least partially, in the proverbial light. But then, like my very own God with my very own rules, I ran into some problems. It was trickier than I thought. For instance, beheading, in my vampire world, killed them. And modern-day Manhattan (story setting) is a pretty wild place, but walking around with a samurai sword (her weapon of choice) MIGHT get noticed. Suddenly, the world had its own difficulties.

My November release for MIRA, is a fanasty, I guess. It's a world with angels and demons--and the guys in between who can go either way. The devil has contracts and hiring bonuses. The angels like a nice cocktail. There are rules. There is a No Man's Land, a bar where both demons and angels hang out. The bartender is an angel. And the jukebox only plays ABBA. Because in my world, God is well aware of the demons, and SHE (my world, God is a woman) has angels to do her bidding. But God's "kryptonite" is ABBA. She can't hear a thing when they are playing (finds their harmonies distracting). Anyway, I just got my revision letter and a four-week deadline from hell. And in one scene, Albert Einstein (works for the good side) inhabits a body as disguise--the body of a lithe, gorgeous, faintly porn-star-looking woman. And my editor posed the question: If God know all, doesn't she KNOW Albert is that woman in disguise?

CRAP! My world. Broke one of my own rules. God knows all.

Now, the fix is easy. Because God DOES have kryptonite. So that night, at the sushi place where Albert, as porn star, is spying on my heroine and her date, the manager will put on the endless loop tape restaurants play, and it will be busy and crowded (it's a hotspot), and it will be well into the night before the manager notices he's been playing ABBA all night. Fixed.

But the thing is . . . world building is a helluva lot trickier than one might think.

I am writing a children's fantasy trilogy, the first book of which is due to my editor in March sometime. I have a story bible with my "rules." But, before I even write down a rule, I find myself pondering it like a philosopher. Can I live with all its ramifications?

Playing God in a book is sometimes a lot more complicated than I would have thought.

So . . . anyone run into this problem? Anyone write paranormal or fantasy and find themselves smack up against one of their own rules? And if you don't, and you COULD play God, what rule would you institute?

Welcome to My World

Expect exciting news here soon. In the meantime, as related to that exciting news, I am doing some world-building.

I am going to be working on a very complex project--multiple books and a family tree complicated enough to make me dizzy. Shifting time. Centuries of story. YEARS (and I mean years) of writing time. And suddenly I realized that storing it all in my brain wasn't going to be enough. I realized that . . . well, I was creating something a bit different. An entire world with rules that aren't like the rules I follow. Rules that break fundamental elements of the universe relating to time. Space. That Einstein guy.

So I've decided to get a notebook. Me, the writer who has always stored everything in her head, who never takes notes . . . is filling a notebook with sketches and photos and storylines, and family trees, genetic lineage and costumes, maps and most especially rules.

It's a whole new world, and for me, as writer, whole new territory. It's totally fun, a creative exercise because I'm not crafting sentences yet. No, just a world.

So I began to wonder . . . how do most writers keep track of their stuff. Yesterday I wrote about index cards. Today a notebook. I know some people store stuff on their computer. Some use photos. Storyboards. I had a friend who used flowcharts. Do you need visual aids? Do you scribble things down? Do you keep a notebook by your bed? Do you talk to your dog? (Don't knock it. Cosmo, Chip, and Dreamer ALL get plot run by them. Cosmo gets plot more than the others. Chip . . . he gets to hear when I am depressed and frustrated by characters.)

Come on . . . share your writing oddities. How do you build a world?