Skip to content
Menu
Teresa Fannin
  • home
  • about me
  • what sits on my desk
  • what i read
  • contact
Teresa Fannin
03/18/201503/17/2015

every story has a world

Writing speculative fiction [as Orson Scott Card refers to the entire science fiction and fantasy genre] is a dream of mine. I’ve struggled with this world building concept and thought it applicable only to a couple of ideas I had about something outside the realm of contemporary or historical.

There have been a number of panels at SCBWI events on ‘world building‘. Why do I highlight that? Because most, no all, of the panel members were writers of speculative fiction. Sitting in the LA ballroom one year not too far back, I wondered. Why? Didn’t Jane Austin build a world in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE? Didn’t Sue Grafton build a world and sustain it in every one of the Kinsey Millhone mystery stories? Ellen Raskin in THE WESTING GAME? Jay Asher in THIRTEEN REASONS WHY? Anthony Horowitz ALEX RIDER?

I grew up reading Edgar Rice Burroughs’s JOHN CARTER ON MARS, Fredrick Brown’s MARTIAN’S GO HOME, Asimov’s LUCKY STARR, moving on to the LOTR trilogy, The GORMANGHAST TRILOGY, anything Frank Herbert, or Robert Heinlen, Frederick Pohl, Phillip Dick… you get the picture. I’ve probably spent more of my time in other worlds cumulatively than I have anywhere else.

The question was–why was world building only thought of in speculative fiction, in those science fiction, fantasy, paranormal stories? So when a world building intensive was offered this year at the SCBWI MidWinter Conference [with authors Henry H. Neff and James Dashner]  I signed up and brought my contemporary murder mystery set in Boston. And, interestingly, I wasn’t the only one. Although there were speculative-fiction type manuscripts at the table, there was on on discrimination in the south using the ghost of Medgar Evers, [okay, so paranormal] and one on a transgender child navigating high school.

Here’s the bottom line….

EVERY STORY HAS A WORLD

Whether it takes place on another world, in outer space, in the apartment building down the block or in a time period long past, that story exists somewhere. This isn’t just setting–as in where an event takes place, the physical. A world is so much more–it’s who’s in charge, who’s friends with whom, what is the belief system, how do they communicate.  The better the somewhere is described, the better you are able to fit the character into that description, the better the story. Makes sense, right? And well it should. This intensive made me question what was unique about my world? What ways the world impacted my story? What ways the world impacted my characters? It also made me question whether or not the world was complete, was I describing the MC’s world well enough that you could understand her predicament, how much did I develop and how much did I assume the reader would know based on the contemporary setting?  What did I need to change?

These questions helped me to be certain I had clearly identified the theme of my story. It helped me to see any inconsistencies in the way the characters behaved. And, it helped me to achieve an ending to the story that was in keeping with the character’s behavior, and it helped me to find a solution to identifying the murderers that was consistent with her world.

So. THIS WORLD. The world of my story, the one that my main character roams around in each day, this world in some ways helps define her, is important. I had to build this world, I needed to make her world complete enough that when the last page of the story is turned, this world is something you remember.

Because every story has a world. Every single one!

 

Musings from a reader first, lover of dark chocolate and Irish whiskey, tennis player, writer of mysteries, science fiction, and historical non-fiction.

Recent Posts

  • Cleaning Out
  • First and Normal
  • The Boy…
  • ENGAGE
  • THE GETAWAY POSITION

My Favorite Places

The Society of Children’s Writers & Illustrators
Sisters in Crime
SCBWI Carolinas

Categories

  • Art & Craft
  • Musing
  • Reading
  • Writing The Past

Archives

  • May 2025
  • February 2025
  • February 2024
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • February 2019
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • June 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • December 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • August 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
©2025 Teresa Fannin | Powered by WordPress and Superb Themes!