Need Pointers on Worldbuilding? Here’s Some Advice From N.K. Jemisin

[Featured image: The city of Gujareeh, from the cover of The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin]

Whether you’re writing a single novel or you’re constructing an expansive science fiction or fantasy epic contained in several volumes, you’re engaging in worldbuilding of some kind. Lacking a well-developed culture doesn’t just rob your weird fiction of strong settings in which it can unfold. Storytelling doesn’t just rely on plot, but also requires multidimensional characters and settings to create a self-contained universe for your narratives. We’re happy to review some sage advice about worldbuilding from award-winning author N.K. Jemisin, whom you remember we discussed in our Black sci-fi authors roundup this past November.

Immersing Readers in Your Fictional World

In a 2015 Writer’s Digest Online Workshop presentation, Jemisin addressed the common adage that only 10% of your worldbuilding should be apparent in your writing with the remaining 90% beneath the surface like an iceberg. She challenges that assertion when it comes to creating settings in your weird fiction, suggesting that it promotes the view of the “hidden” 90% as scary.

Moreover, she reveals that this “rule” can be skillfully broken and leaves us with sound advice for immersing readers into our fictional worlds. She proposes an “immersion pyramid” with three levels of absorption into your novel’s native culture:

  • High immersion, in which the world’s bizarre qualities are conveyed via context as opposed to direct explanations in the narrative
  • Moderate immersion, which includes occasional breaks for the narrator to explain aspects of the culture
  • Low immersion, in which the narrator frequently stops to explain details about your fictional world

She cautions weird fiction writers that deciding on an appropriate level of immersion can be tricky, since each person needs to strike a balance that keeps readers invested in their stories. Her own advice is to increase the level of immersion as the amount of difference between the “primary world” (the world most of us live in) and your distinctive fictional secondary world increases.

Don’t “Reinvent the Wheel”

Jemisin is herself a master when it comes to creating original and unique universes, but what’s notable is that she repeatedly defies the usual trope of making magical and supernatural worlds based on medieval northern Europe. Her first series of weird fiction novels, The Inheritance Trilogy, depicts a realm in which gods and mortals frequently intermingle within a collection of multicultural societies that regard race and social ranking as important. Bustle writer Charlotte Ahlin cites Gujaareh from Jemisin’s The Killing Moon as one example of a non-European fantasy world in a 2016 article, noting that it was roughly based on ancient Egypt and calling it “a complex and multi-cultural desert society.”

Jemisin also pointed to a “fear of worldbuilding” in her workshop, citing it as one possible reason why many fantasy realms tend to be based on medieval northern Europe. Writers of weird fiction set in distant-future societies may want to take a hard look at the cultures they create as well and consider building distinctive alternatives of their own, avoiding the trap of borrowing heavily from space navy-style tropes such as what’s present in Star Trek and similar works. Of course, if you’re going to borrow, you may choose to go the path of clever subversion — but that’s for another post.

Infrastructure, Environment, and Culture Support Your Story

We already know that setting is a critical component of crafting literature, but Jemisin calls attention to how your speculative fictional worlds impact your plot and characters. In her workshop, she mentions that inhabitants of your imaginary cultures will adapt to the climate, land, water, flora, and fauna present in their environments. Io9 writer Charlie Jane Anders supports Jemisin’s arguments by listing a lack of consideration about basic infrastructure and failing to account for how unusual technology or magic affects a society as just a couple of her “7 deadly sins” of worldbuilding.

Furthermore, Jemisin’s own Broken Earth novels prove these points abundantly. Stillness is wracked with daily deadly earthquakes and other destructive climate events. Without this setting, there would be no need for the series’ orogenes, the class of individuals with seemingly magical abilities who can control these forces. So the Stillness’ inhabitants fear of orogenes, thanks to their fantastic powers that can both heal and destroy, is no surprise.

AutPress Loves Weird, Wonderful Fiction

We’ve discussed some of the major points that Jemisin makes, but her full Worldbuilding 101 workshop outline is available on her own blog for your own reading. As you’re writing, don’t forget to feed your need to read. Check out the AutPress store for great suggestions like Verity Reynolds’ debut novel Nantais and Ada Hoffman’s collection, Monsters in My Mind.

 

 

Into the Wormhole: Weird Fiction to Read in 2018

How does a speculative fictional work leave its mark on you? You might read or watch it repeatedly, or reference it in your day-to-day life. If you’re a content creator, you might even find that elements from the original inspire you and influence your own creative output. Whether you’re a spectator, a creator, or both, venturing into the realm of weird fiction makes you delve into the depths of your own consciousness and emerge with treasures that coruscate like distant glittering constellations, or horrify and fascinate like the captivating void of a black hole.

That, friends, is what Autonomous Press offers in 2018. Keep reading to find out more about our new science fiction titles, some re-releases planned in the coming months, and a groundbreaking webcomic publishing weekly content.

Nantais: A Non-Compliant Space Opera

Author Verity Reynolds describes her newest novel Nantais as a space opera that’s not just a space opera. Sure, it’s full of intergalactic intrigue and action along with a cast of compelling characters. But it’s also weird fiction that does a few key things you might not expect.

You remember all those sci-fi works featuring monolithic alien civilizations with only one universal culture and language for their entire planet, right? Not to mention those human-centered narratives, heteronormativity, and diversity that isn’t really diversity? (Looking at you, ST: TOS.)

Thankfully, you won’t find any of that nonsense in Nantais.

Instead, you’ll meet the Niralans, a people with rich multifaceted cultures and intricate methods of nonverbal communication. You’ll also encounter a multiverse full of queerness, watch as protagonists deal language barriers and cultural differences, and enjoy witty satirical moments in this immersive weird fiction saga. That’s along with the rogue computer virus, space pirates, and a scramble to solve a complex mystery in deep space. All of that, packed into 231 pages.

Monsters in My Mind, Weird Luck, and More

Before we sign off, we wanted to mention a couple of other things. We just released a spectacular collection by Ada Hoffman, Monsters in My Mind. Filled with over 40 pieces of speculative fiction and poetry, Hoffman shows readers a multiverse full of reimaged fairy tales, artificial intelligence, queerness, velociraptors, and more. Two AP partners, Nick Walker and Andrew Reichart, are the mastermind writers behind the weekly Weird Luck webcomic series illustrated by Mike Bennewitz. Speaking of which, Argawarga Press will relaunch this spring as an AP imprint. Upcoming releases include Dora Raymaker’s debut novel Hoshi and the Red City Circuit as well as an updated edition of Andrew Reichart’s Weird Luck novel, Wallflower Assassin.

More details forthcoming in a future post, but in the meantime, be sure to visit the AutPress store for more great reads.

Author Interview: Ada Hoffmann Discusses Monsters in My Mind and Other Projects

We sat down with Ada Hoffmann, author of Monsters in My Mind, to talk about speculative fiction, the state of the writing world, and what’s next.

AutPress: Why MONSTERS IN MY MIND? Why speculative fiction generally, and why this collection?

Ada: I grew up around speculative fiction. It’s a childhood love, and one of those things that was always there. Literary realism never felt grounded to me – it felt small, stifled. Consciously cut off from all the realms of imagination that could have been.

I’ve been publishing short speculative fiction and poetry since 2010. Short fiction is a delight to me – I probably read more of it than novels. I’ve also written a lot, and I wanted to make that writing tangible. A physical object that I could hold in my hands and give to people.

I organized MONSTERS IN MY MIND around a loose theme appropriate to NeuroQueer Books – the theme of being different, monstrous, or out of place, and hoping to somehow be accepted that way. I grouped stories and poems so that they moved through different ways of engaging with that theme in a way that felt, in a very abstract sense, like its own story. A few short works I loved didn’t make the cut, not because there was anything wrong with them, but because they didn’t fit into that “story”. Maybe they’ll go into a future book!

As for the title, I don’t remember where I got it, but it happened fairly late in production. I’m not the first person to have used the phrase. If you want to assume cryptamnesia, then it probably comes from the song “Happy Hurts,” by Icon For Hire.

AutPress: What are some of your favorite sources of inspiration? What/Who else do you read or recommend?

Ada: Sometimes ideas just happen. It isn’t glamorous. “You Have to Follow the Rules” was based on a dream that my friend A. Merc Rustad had. “The Chartreuse Monster” came partly from a random number generator. “Centipede Girl” was inspired by an actual centipede that crawled on my keyboard, and “The Mother of All Squid Builds a Library” was based on a list of tropes that another friend of mine liked. One of my best ways to generate ideas is by going to a classical music concert, where I’m forced to sit in a chair for two hours, listen to pleasant noises, and let my mind wander. And my go-to method for coming up with more poetry is just to binge-read any poetry at hand until my mind starts automatically arranging its thoughts into verse.

In terms of other authors who inspire me, Catherynne M. Valente’s collection “A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects” was the reason I got serious about poetry. Meda Kahn’s short story “Difference of Opinion” pushed me to be better and braver about autism representation. I would love one day to build worlds like China Miéville, develop characters like Lois McMaster Bujold, dispense careful wisdom like Rose Lemberg, build up a sense of scale like Robert Charles Wilson, quip and twist the plot like Joss Whedon on a good day, and tap into the depths of my id like Tanith Lee. Anybody wanting more of the queer and neurodivergent themes from MONSTERS IN MY MIND should check out A. Merc Rustad and Bogi Takács, among many others.

AutPress: What’s the most unexpected thing that happened while you were working on this collection (or any particular part of it)?

Ada: Once I had all the stories, putting the collection together was pretty straightforward. Though – one unexpected thing that happened while the collection came together was that I landed an agent for a novel I’d written. That was very distracting, in a good way.

[Full Disclosure: The interviewer was a beta reader for this novel, which fully deserves all the love an agent can give it.]

AutPress: Where is spec fic/dark fic/weird fiction headed? What does it need more of?

Ada: I don’t think spec fic will ever go in just one direction. It’s a big tent with a huge number of things going on.

It’s clear, though, that at least some parts of spec fic are moving towards more diversity and better representation. There’s an increased interest in diverse characters, in diverse authors, in concepts like #ownvoices – and also in the range of new ideas, not just writing about themselves, that marginalized authors bring to the table. I’m really enjoying all the recent counter-Lovecraftian fiction, for instance. Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Innsmouth Free Press was doing this for years, but now it’s been joined by some higher-profile friends: Ruthanna Emrys’s “Innsmouth Legacy” series and Victor LaValle’s “The Ballad of Black Tom”, to name two.

Of course, this trend comes with pushback; you don’t need me to tell you the story of the Sad Puppies. It would be naive, especially in 2017, to say that things will clearly keep changing for the better. But we’ll see what happens.

AutPress: What are you currently working on, and what’s next?

Ada: Well, my agent is shopping my novel around, and I’m replenishing my store of short fiction and poetry. I’ve written some really daring short pieces that I’m very excited to share when they find a home. Two collaborations that I love are coming out in the next year or so – one with Jacqueline Flay in Persistent Visions, the other with A. Merc Rustad in Lightspeed. I’m also working on a collection of dinosaur poetry called “Million-Year Elegies”. That’s about 75% done, and a few early pieces from that series are already published online, if you want a teaser. Of course, I’m also still working on my PhD research, in which I teach computers to write their own poetry. My biggest challenge is finding time for all these projects and book promo, too!

Visit Ada Hoffmann online at http://www.ada-hoffmann.com. Pick up a copy of Monsters in My Mind on Amazon or via the AutPress store.

Add These AutPress Science Fiction Titles to Your Fall Reading

Take one look at the folks running Autonomous Press and you’ll understand why we’re passionate about science fiction. On any given day when we’re not discussing press operations, we’re chatting about our exploits playing Fallout or Mass Effect, talking about the characters and episodes from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or Doctor Who, or critiquing books like Ender’s Game from a social justice standpoint. Naturally, our love of sci-fi extends to the AutPress catalog and we’ve already got some great suggestions to add to your bookshelf or e-reader this fall.

Get Hooked on Mirror Project

 Whereas authors like Philip K. Dick presented questions about the personhood and rights of artificial intelligence and androids, Mirror Project speeds far past these basic premises in science fiction in its riveting story of an AI fighting against abuse and incarceration. Created by a combination of human memories, brain scans, and an artificial reality simulator, Lynn Vargas contends with repeated attempts to violate her bodily autonomy and sexual overtures from her creator. As she fights back, she not only faces questions of who she can trust but also what makes a life worth living.

Coming Fall 2017: Nantais

Imagine: you’re the first officer of a starship that’s stranded thanks to a rogue computer virus. Meanwhile, your captain’s son is missing, and one of your only leads to solving these mysteries is an alien whose species may be facing extinction. What would you do? Nantais, a science fiction novel by Verity Reynolds, explores this question in the form of spectacularly weird fiction that easily immerses the reader while breaking away from literary conventions in the genre. We’re very excited about this upcoming new book release, so watch for its appearance in the AutPress store this fall.

Stayed Tuned for More Releases

In addition to Mirror Project and Nantais, we’ve got a lot more speculative literature in store! Keep your eye out for future releases by Nick Walker and Andrew Reichart in their Insurgent Otherworld series. Also, stay tuned for Hoshi and the Red City Circuit, a science fiction novel by Dora Raymaker, and Time Travel in a Closet, a book of time-traveling poetry by N.I. Nicholson.