Creating New Worlds: Part Six: Race and Styles
Author: Anastasia V. Pergakis // Category: World Building
Moving forward with this series here, I have good news! Part of this post does not require research! *confetti falls* Really, when you see the worksheet at the end of this, you'll see it's not as complicated as it sounds. I'm just going into major detail here and giving your examples. So it seems like a lot, but it really isn't.
Race
This part requires no research! The wonderful thing about Fantasy and Sci-Fi is you can make this part up entirely from your imagination! The hard part is deciding what they look like and keeping it consitent and logical. Obviously you would have a dominent "look" but remember that races and genes get mixed all the time! So keep that in mind a you write and make up new characters. People are not always cookie cutter - well unless that is what you are going for, but it you'd have to explain why or your reader will think you're crazy.
In my novel "The Faery's Tale" I have one race of faeires that have green skin, antennae, no wings and most of time red hair. Another race, that lives under water, have purple skin and fins intead of wings. A third race has horns, brown skin, and dark hair and eyes. In the "Adventures of Ryn and Ciyme" I had to think of races (or even species) for dragons, lizard people, and humans! It is great fun to create new races of peoples! I find great joy in it, which is probably the main thing that spurred me into the fantasy genre.
The "research" I did was really image searching to find something to inspire me. I printed them out and put them with my notes to keep reminding me of the vision. You don't have to do this if you don't want to - I did during a slow moment when I was stuck in order to get the writing going again. It spurred three new chapters!
Styles
This may or may not require research on your part. What I mean by styles here is what people wear - how they dress. Again, logic is important here. You wouldn't want a group of people living in the desert wearing heavy wool sweaters!
All of my novels have clothing styles based on medieval style of clothing. I don't know why really, I just love the dresses they had back then. So I did a little bit of research to make sure I at least had the terminology right for certain headdresses and such. But you don't have to do this. It's your world so make them dress how you want them to.
I also do image searches to find images that inspire me. I print them out and put them with my notes of course. It goes a long way to make sure I stay consitent within a story and to really cement in my brain what my characters have on at any given moment.
The only other time I ever did research for this are was to determine the differences between a dress for a noble or rich woman and a dress for a poor woman. It varies greatly I have found - at least for the medieval ages period. Even still, a little tiny bit of research here could help if only to give you some inspiration and insite into what people wear.
Race
This part requires no research! The wonderful thing about Fantasy and Sci-Fi is you can make this part up entirely from your imagination! The hard part is deciding what they look like and keeping it consitent and logical. Obviously you would have a dominent "look" but remember that races and genes get mixed all the time! So keep that in mind a you write and make up new characters. People are not always cookie cutter - well unless that is what you are going for, but it you'd have to explain why or your reader will think you're crazy.
In my novel "The Faery's Tale" I have one race of faeires that have green skin, antennae, no wings and most of time red hair. Another race, that lives under water, have purple skin and fins intead of wings. A third race has horns, brown skin, and dark hair and eyes. In the "Adventures of Ryn and Ciyme" I had to think of races (or even species) for dragons, lizard people, and humans! It is great fun to create new races of peoples! I find great joy in it, which is probably the main thing that spurred me into the fantasy genre.
The "research" I did was really image searching to find something to inspire me. I printed them out and put them with my notes to keep reminding me of the vision. You don't have to do this if you don't want to - I did during a slow moment when I was stuck in order to get the writing going again. It spurred three new chapters!
Styles
This may or may not require research on your part. What I mean by styles here is what people wear - how they dress. Again, logic is important here. You wouldn't want a group of people living in the desert wearing heavy wool sweaters!
All of my novels have clothing styles based on medieval style of clothing. I don't know why really, I just love the dresses they had back then. So I did a little bit of research to make sure I at least had the terminology right for certain headdresses and such. But you don't have to do this. It's your world so make them dress how you want them to.
I also do image searches to find images that inspire me. I print them out and put them with my notes of course. It goes a long way to make sure I stay consitent within a story and to really cement in my brain what my characters have on at any given moment.
The only other time I ever did research for this are was to determine the differences between a dress for a noble or rich woman and a dress for a poor woman. It varies greatly I have found - at least for the medieval ages period. Even still, a little tiny bit of research here could help if only to give you some inspiration and insite into what people wear.
Great post.
Both are topics that can either be made up or require a lot of research. When writing creatures that a common use in the genre, it is a good idea to at least do a little research, even when making them different. I've done some look into elves for example, but will do more when I'm close to writing that series. Sure, mine are going to be a little different but it's good to know what the norm is first.
Look forward to your next topic. :-D
Even though I'm not actually creating a new world for the current WIP, this series has been super helpful to me. My MC comes in contact with a lot of odd creatures and species and some of them are very intelligent. I have been using your tips to help me make all these oddities unique. Thanks so much for all the useful ideas and information!
Cool post. Some good ideas there.
I sometimes find images to inspire me too. Not even for any particular purpose.. just to get the mind stimulated... you never know when that image might spark an idea.. or cure a problem..
=]