by Gail Z. Martin

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World building is arguably the most fun—and most difficult—part of writing. Get it right, and your world becomes as memorable as your stories and characters, a place that lives on in the imagination of your readers, as tangible as somewhere they grew up or went on vacation. Get it wrong, and you’re no more memorable than a truck stop on the highway—or worse, you’re memorable for all the wrong reasons.

I’m guessing there are as many ways to world-build as there are authors, and no single right way as long as readers like the outcome. So I’ll just share how I do it, and let you take it from there.

For me, world building, plot and character are all inextricably linked. I may begin with an idea about a plotline, or have a clear “vision” for a character whose story I’d like to tell, or a place that would be a great setting for an adventure. Whichever one I start with, I need to find the right two components to go with it so that it all goes together seamlessly.

If I start with a character, then I have to ask myself, “What society and landscape shaped this character?” We’re all influenced by the place in which we grow up, or make our home. What influences would have produced a person with my character’s values, interests, world view, prejudices, belief systems, abilities, fears, likes and dislikes? That’s going to go a long way toward helping me create the right kind of environment for the story, and it’s going to shape the story itself, because certain types of stories are more plausible in some situations than in others.

If the original inspiration comes from the plot, then I have to figure out what type of setting/environment will make the plot situation likely—even possible. I have to think about how my choices of setting could enhance—or dampen—the plot and whether I can envision those settings in a way that make them different from places that readers have been before. (The truck stop analogy again—we’ve all been to at least one, and they all look alike. Nice if you want consistently clean restrooms, but zilch for ambiance.)

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And if the setting is what I begin with, then it’s going to be unusual, and there’s something about it that draws me. Certain types of stories are more likely in specific types of places—crowded cities full of transients and intrigue, for example, versus a rural setting where no one leaves home and strangers are automatically suspicious. In this case, there’s something about the setting that will inevitably suggest the plot and sketch out the characters.

The fourth component is time/technology. London in 2150 is very different from London in 1250. This will determine everything from types of communication, speed of travel, methods of warfare, and other crucial details. Will your characters be spending gold coins or swiping a debit card? Is information known instantaneously around the world, or at the speed of sailing vessel (or horse)?

For me, the best kind of research mixes both books and experience. I’m a museum junkie, and I have been going to living history sites since I was a kid, so I’ve grown up with the sound and smell of a blacksmith’s shop, rudimentary knowledge of cooking on an open hearth, horse-drawn conveyances, and everything from period clothing to old-fashioned medicines, entertainment and art. If I can’t go a museum, there’s always the History Channel, or the Travel Channel, web sites, travel guide books, and even old-fashioned travelogues given at your local AAA, library or community center. It’s amazing how the smallest details that seem insignificant can end up adding to the texture of your next book.

It also helps to be a “critical” consumer. When you watch a movie or TV show/series or read a book, pull back enough to think about whether or not the world building is working for you. Does it immerse you in the story, or jar you out of it? Is it a distraction, or so integral the story wouldn’t be the same without it. What is memorable? What is clichéd? Could the characters be anywhere, or are they so much a product of time and place that they could be nowhere (and no-when) else? Plots can be recycled (think about Hamlet done in Shakespeare’s time and re-done into modern adaptations), but each time, the time/place alters the story—if it doesn’t, something’s missing.

Most importantly, have fun with it! If you’re not fascinated by your world, your readers won’t be, either. Enjoy!

Please enjoy this excerpt from my short story, “Among the Shoals Forever”, excerpted from The Mammoth Book of Women’s Ghost Stores: https://www.4shared.com/office/e5deWqV_/An_Excerpt_from_Among_the_Shoa.html

And this scene from “Buttons”, excerpted from Magic: https://www.4shared.com/office/20nwnf1S/Buttons_excerpt_1.html

While the new series was produced in the vein of This Is Us, which takes us from the past to the present and even future, Netflix’s Firefly Lane is actually a period piece. Its “present day” is the mid-2000s. But it doesn’t exactly scream 2000s until the early aughts details reveal themselves ever so slowly. So if you found yourself watching, wondering why the fashion was a little off, and then being utterly shocked when Katherine Heigl’s Tully begins giving a way a bedazzled Razr-style flip phone that can even take pictures to her studio audience, you’re not alone. And you may wonder why in the world this series so committed to 2003.

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Well, the answer is, quite plainly, math. Firefly Lane is based on the 2008 book of the same name, which follows the friendship between Kate (Sarah Chalke) and Tully after they meet as teenagers in 1974. That date doesn’t change in the Netflix adaptation, so what appears to be a present day storyline about their lives as adults just has to take place in 2003 for any of it to make sense. If it was any closer to 2021, Kate and Tully would be in their 60s (like Mandy Moore’s character is in the present day on This Is Us), and the storyline about their adult lives is very clearly a tale of middle age, aka mid-40s, woe.

Gallery: A tarot card reader's take on Dior Haute Couture (Harper's Bazaar (UK))

The series follows the timeline of the book, tracking the friendship through multiple decades, so the importance of these time periods goes beyond getting to show off vintage fashion and technology. Firefly Lane starts in what appears to be the ’60s — the series doesn’t tell us out outright — with a young Tully attending an anti-Vietnam war protest with her mum, Cloud (Beau Garrett). From there, it jumps ahead to 1974, when 14-year-old Tully (Ali Skovbye) moves across the street from Kate (Roan Curtis), and their lifelong friendship begins. The series also switches between seeing Kate and Tully (Chalke and Heigl in every scene that takes place after high school) in college in the late ’70s, as young first-time journalists at a local news station in the ’80s, and as 43-year-olds in 2003 and 2005.

There is a certain kind of appeal in jumping through the ’70s, ’80s, and 2000s, all of which need to be differentiated by visual cues if the timeline shifts are to make any sense to viewers. In the ’70s, we get flower-painted VW vans and high waisted flares paired with bold, chunky, large-rimmed glasses. In the ’80s, we’re served up Walkmans, neon colours in everyday settings, and voluminous ‘dos complete with bangs and oversized jewellery. Anyone who’s watched This Is Us is used to these cues, but it’s the references to 2003 that are somehow the most jarring. It’s not only presented as now, but it feels like it could be. Then all of a sudden there’s a reference to the 2003 George Clooney and Catherine Zeta Jones movie Intolerable Cruelty or someone makes a call on a Blackberry, and we’re forced to reckon with the fact that 2003 wasn’t five or even 10 years ago. It’s been almost 20 years since then.

In retrospect, the 2003 timeline was staring us in the face the whole time. Supposedly fashionable characters can be seen in skater skirts, silk tank tops, and zebra-patterned jackets. They’re typing on colourful iBook laptops, talking on landlines, and carrying miniature dogs in purses. An acceptable date was inviting someone over to watch the new American Idol episode, which had only just premiered in 2002 and was still appointment viewing. The music is also a clear indicator — despite some of the 2003 hits still being present on many a wedding playlist to this very day. While the ’70s scenes get hits like “No Matter What” by Badfinger and the ’80s are signified by “Tainted Love” and “We Got the Beat,” the 2003 timeline includes music like OutKast’s “Hey Ya!” — a song which actually came out that year.

Basically, Firefly Lane is forcing those of us who’ve tuned in for the Katherine Heigl of Grey’s Anatomy nostalgia (it premiered in 2005, in case you forgot) to reconcile the fact that the 2000s are just as vintage as the other decades in the series. It’s not not a gut punch for millennial viewers who hadn’t quite processed just how long it’s been since the early noughties. But hey, remember Blackberrys?