So You Want To Write Fanfiction

Fantasy Settings: Creating Your World and Making It Realistic

Many authors, like me, enjoy creating stories about worlds that do not exist. Vampires, wizards, superheroes, werewolves and other creatures, as well as average people living in a very different world (The Hunger Games series, the Divergent series, etc.) are things we are interested in and would love to write about. But if they don't exist, then how are we supposed to make it realistic/relatable?

This is where it gets fun. The author gets to create the rules! The laws and the guidelines of the people in their imaginary world are in their hands. They can make them do whatever they want because they are in control.

But here's where it gets tricky: where do they start?

Think about the most important pieces of information that an author needs. First, begin with the main character. What can they do? What is their special power? Where does their power come from? Is there a certain body part that does something, i.e. shooting lasers from their eyes? Do they have to have special training? Are they born with this? Can their family do this too?

Keep asking as many questions about the character and the world they live in. Then, move on to another character and another. The rules and laws of the world will eventually unfold as these questions become answered.

One of the things that I do is I keep the rules of the real world and incorporate my imaginary world into the real world. For example, in "Zap!", there is a group of people who are wizards, but for the rest of the world who are not wizards, they are just average people moving on with real life. I only had to focus on the world of the wizards and although they have magical powers, they do live in real life for half of the time (school, etc.), so that made it easy for me. All I had to do was create a small world and incorporate it into the real world.

Now that this world has been created, the author is ready to start writing about events that take place. But don't forget this: they have to follow their own rules. Once they have explained some to their readers, they have to make sure their events match up with the rules otherwise they'll confuse their audience. And if they come upon a situation where they don't have a rule yet, they get to make one up! That's the beauty of an imaginary world.

I've been talking more about how to create an imaginary world, so now how the heck does it become realistic?

Don't think of the word "realistic" as the real world. I'm mainly talking about how to write events that make sense. Before writing, think about how the scene is going to take place and what actions are happening. Do all of the actions follow the rules? Do all of the actions follow each other? Would this action really happen? Is this action a good reaction to the first action (cause and effect)?

If an action doesn't seem like it could really happen (but because it's the author's world, they can do whatever they want), explain it. Give a good reason as to why this is happening. For instance, in "Zap!", there is a magic-made hurricane that will hit the coast of Australia and if it is not destroyed by wizards, it can take over the world. Now, I know hurricanes weaken when they hit land and because hurricanes are a natural occurrence, there is no way one can destroy a storm. But this isn't any ordinary hurricane; it's a magic-made hurricane, a storm a wizard accidentally created. It does not follow the rules of a normal hurricane because it has magic inside of it. That makes sense, right? This is what I'm talking about when I say that authors should give a good reason as to why something out of the ordinary is happening. Yes, it is not "realistic" because magical hurricanes do not exist, but readers shouldn't be confused if it doesn't act like a normal hurricane because I have explained to them that it is not normal.

To make little actions and details realistic, I normally just write them how it would happen in the real world (unless there's something from my imaginary world in the scene—which then I would just add in explanations for my readers if something doesn't make sense). If two characters are talking, have them talk just as if it were a normal conversation between people in real life. It's as simple as that.

Authors can even put in their own life experiences, too. They may have to change it around to make sense in their world, but basically all they have to do is incorporate it.

So now you know how to begin creating an imaginary world! I hope I didn't confuse you too much with the realistic part...it's kind of hard to explain. But hopefully you understand it a little more and once you start writing, it'll become easier!