Problem: A world without character(s)

[meursault]

Hi,

My first thread here. Here's my issue/problem, would appreciate any feedback.

I intend to write a "science fantasy" novel (or series) set in the far future after catastrophic global warming and the depletion of almost all fossil fuel resources. All the most powerful states are, by necessity, clustered around the Arctic Circle; most of the mid-latitudes and tropics are too hot to support agriculture, or even mammalian life during the summer months.

There are about 100 pages in MS Word detailing this future world's history, economic structure and technology (not "modern", as in today, yet not "primitive" or "pre-industrial" - or should that be "post-industrial"? - either), flora and fauna, nations and cultures, militaries, influential transnational organizations, etc. There is also an original (AFAIK) and interlinked metaphysics system and magic system. And there is a "dark lord"-type antagonist.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with the world I've built. The plot is very hazy, but that can be resolved in the process of actually writing the novel. But the biggest problem by far hampering progress is that I have no idea about what kind of characters there'll be, or who the hero is (or heroine? heroes? - yes, it's that vague). As it currently stands the dramatis personae in my world are mere blanks (not even cutboards); a world that is very detailed is, in effect, without people.

Has anyone encountered this problem? Should I spend more time trying to come up with believable and detailed characters, or just start writing and hoping that the characters "write" themselves (at the risk of making them inconsistent and/or one-dimensional)?

Finally, since this world is already realized, would it be a good idea to publish a guide to it in a wiki like form on my website? (Obviously, without mentioning any plot spoilers). That is something I would like to do, and I hope that my readers' input could help me improve it further and maybe even provide some ideas for characters. But could such a project involve too high a risk of someone unscrupulously plagiarizing off it?

Thanks.

PS. As an aside note, the registration process wasn't intuitive. The link from the forum root page leads to the FAQ, not the registration page.

 

[Fitzchiv]

Did you ever play make-believe as a youngster? My friend and I spent hours and hours in the woods etc acting out fantasy stories, being rangers, warriors, wizards, elves etc. I used to be the same type of character every time: a rangery elfy ninjary type bloke full of one-liners.

I'm writing a few scenes at the moment to try and bring a central character to life, and the starting point I've used is to think of that character I always played, and have him grown up a bit - just like me.

Food for thought, but perhaps plonking what you'd like to be/played/enjoyed reading about in there and get some monologue going etc - see where it takes you.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Or you could totally wing it and just bring some new, fresh species to life.

 

[Toby Frost]

You've got a setting and a history, but it doesn't sound like you've got an actual story for this book. Certain types of stories breed certain types of narrators: you're much more likely to meet tough, silent loners in a road movie than a domestic drama, say. So why not have a think about the sort of story that is going to happen in this world, and the kind of people you might find in it?

 

[AnyaKimlin]

To be honest the world may change as you write your story - I'd leave it until you have a character and have told some of the stories to publish the world in anyway. I'd pick a state and decide who lives there - zone in one a city or village and decide what everyday life is like for the people there. Out of that may come a character or a story it will throw up conflicts give an idea to their dress and homes etc

 

[Susan Boulton]

Without a story no one is going to want to 'visit' your world. It is through a 'human', story that you can show your readers your world.

You need to find a 'conflict,' of some kind to pit your characters against. I don't mean a war, though you can use that. I mean an event, either world shattering or personal.

Personally I feel no matter how detailed a world is I feel it is always a backdrop for the character and their story. Which is why all my work starts with a character and a rough idea of what he/she is doing. Sometimes it does not go beyond a rough draft of a scene, other times it turns into a novel.

 

[TheTomG]

How to find characters? Think of yourself maybe, if you were born in this world, what would you have become? What education would you pursue, what job, what role in society and stance on the issues facing the world around you?

What about your parents, what would they have been under these circumstances? You sibling children, spouses (well I hope you only have one at a time), friends, coworkers? What about colorful notable famous people of today, what would they be if they had been born under the circumstances you have created?

Taking real people, imagining what good or evil this might bring out, picturing what would stay the same about them and what would change, could give you ideas for characters.

Hope this helps!

 

[Malloriel]

If I remember correctly, Tolkien himself built a world, complete with races and languages, history, cosmology, seasons, weather patterns, etc., and THEN populated it with characters, through whom his world could be experienced and shared. So, Muersault, you're certainly not alone in this approach, or problem.

In my own experience, I started with the idea of three characters, two as a team, and one independent of the others, and built a world around them. Now, I was about fifteen at the time, and what I thought was inspired and creative then was only the foundation of what the world and characters would become. The more I created, the more I found to explore. Characters I never anticipated encountering were born of a need to explore these new aspects. For instance, developing a new race and ascribing them traits is not the same as creating a character from this race, and writing about their exploits and reactions to the world and people around them. In order to gain a better understanding of the race as a whole, so that I can more easily share the details with a reader, I was inspired to create several characters. Not every character created in this way became essential to my various narratives within the world, but knowing that they exist gives me a pool from which to draw, connections to make, and complexity to add without feeling like I'm reaching too far for something that doesn't exist, that feeling of "I should put something here! BUT WHAT?!"

Say the hero is headed into the mountains to seek a rare flower, which is rumored to be the only cure for a particular ailment, but the mountain is nigh unsurvivable. I've got a character from a race of mountain dwellers who can act as guide and savior already, she can help him.

What's that you say? Your young hero has been exiled and needs to learn the highest level of swordsmanship in the land? I've got a character to mentor him.

And another for showing the destructive side of a particular brand of magic, another for exploring the Dark Tribes, another for demonstrating the power of the human empire, one for showing how magic interacts with humans in the "Present", and yet another for illustrating how different magic was for humans in the "Past". For each aspect you develop, you have the opportunity to make a personality to more personally elaborate upon it. The more you as a writer connect with the world, the easier it will be to help your readers do the same.

So, my advice would be to explore portions of your world AS various characters from various locations. Pick a time period within the events you've established, understand approximately what it is your Dark Lord is doing and the influence he has, and then go adventuring.

 

[sabolich]

You might start by putting yourself into your world: I am a young man living in a village at the edge of the Arctic Circle (or middle-aged woman, or fifteen-year-old girl, or old man). I am a hunter/weaver/fire tender (whatever) and my biggest problem day to day is (whatever). Life is (good/hard/wonderful/whatever) and I refuse to listen to stories of "the old days" told by the grandmothers because those days are gone. This is my world, and I cannot imagine another, but I have heard that there are still places that know the old ways. I want their technology/medicines/whatever). My mother is dying. I need to know how to save her.

Whatever! Put yourself into your world and try to imagine daily life there. From that I would guess that some pressing need will quickly become apparent, one that is not easily filled. From that can come all sorts of conflict, from sheer survival in this harsh place you've created to tribal rivalries and fights over resources and how to manage the remaining game. From that your plot will arise organically against the backdrop of this world that governs how people are able to survive. In this case, you've gone the Dune route, where the environment completely governs every aspect of life, unlike many stories where the setting is kind of an afterthought to the action.

 

[Paladindrake]

This may be crazy, but in a world like that, why bother with heroes or main characters? I think it would be really neat if the story was simply about various people survining day to day, no main characters, no over arching plot, just people surviving.

 

[Fitzchiv]

This may be crazy, but in a world like that, why bother with heroes or main characters? I think it would be really neat if the story was simply about various people survining day to day, no main characters, no over arching plot, just people surviving.

Like that idea actually, if not that then go for the anti-hero or reluctant participant. Someone caught up in things completely out of their comfort zone

(this is in no way influenced by having just watched An Idiot Abroad..)

 

[meursault]

Thank you for your responses.

I will have to mull over them so more, but your advice to imagine what I would do in my future world as, well, myself is especially inspiring. This has set me thinking along the tracks of modeling the main character after a speculative near future version of me who happens to land into the far future world by means of time travel via cryonics. I hope this doesn't come off as too much of a trope.

One major advantage of this device is that it could be a very effective vehicle to highlight the details of that far future world. The obvious problem with doing that in a novel involving only period characters is that they are used to their world, and thus having them commenting in any detail on it (or God forbid comparing it to the distant past!) comes off as too artificial. But a "time traveler" conveniently mitigates that. There can also be plenty of comedic opportunities as the time traveling hero goes WTF at everything and desperately tries to fit in with plenty of embarassing mishaps.

Or you could totally wing it and just bring some new, fresh species to life.

Not sure I understand why you mean by this.

You need to find a 'conflict,' of some kind to pit your characters against. I don't mean a war, though you can use that. I mean an event, either world shattering or personal.

Just to clarify, I already have the general theme (as opposed to plot) of the story. The Dark One-type entity is... well, anything I say on that will be huge spoilers, unfortunately. And there will be a war, or rather a struggle, of a certain kind. The general mechanics of how He will be defeated, or how He will triumph, I also have them nailed down.

The main character has special talents or innate features that enable him (her?) to act as the locus around which the fate of the world will play out. E.g. think of the Dragon Reborn and ta'veren in The Wheel of Time. Here there are two issues facing me. First, why is it that the hero character is the one to have those special talents or innate features as opposed to anyone else? (Robert Jordan has an explanation involving repetitions of Ages and souls being eternally reborn; my story, being based in the "real world", does not yet have an explanatory mechanism and that is something I have yet to think of). Second, there is the already mentioned problem of what the character, personality, etc. of that hero character is going to be. Ultimately, the easiest way as you guys mentioned is to loosely model him after myself, since in that case I wouldn't have to "step into someone else's shoes" but just think about what I would do in a situation that I happen to find myself in.

Taking real people, imagining what good or evil this might bring out, picturing what would stay the same about them and what would change, could give you ideas for characters.

Thanks. It did!

If I remember correctly, Tolkien himself built a world, complete with races and languages, history, cosmology, seasons, weather patterns, etc., and THEN populated it with characters, through whom his world could be experienced and shared.

I was under the impression it started off with the Hobbit and the classic dragon-gold-adventure tale and then developed from there, I didn't know that Tolkien's ultra-detailed worldbuilding preceded it. Good to know my issue isn't unique then.

So, my advice would be to explore portions of your world AS various characters from various locations. Pick a time period within the events you've established, understand approximately what it is your Dark Lord is doing and the influence he has, and then go adventuring.

That sounds like a good plan. I'd hate for any part of the world to go unexplored.

In this case, you've gone the Dune route, where the environment completely governs every aspect of life, unlike many stories where the setting is kind of an afterthought to the action.

Thanks for reminding me to read Dune. To my shame, it's still on my to-do list, but I really have to especially seeing that most of the world south of the Arctic coastline is desert.

This may be crazy, but in a world like that, why bother with heroes or main characters? I think it would be really neat if the story was simply about various people survining day to day, no main characters, no over arching plot, just people surviving.

There are two problems with that:

1. Despite the deserts and technological regression, this isn't a Mad Max / Waterworld type of future. Civilization still survives. What is now Siberia, Alaska, and northern Canada actually host some fairly coherent and powerful nations. Many aspects of "modern life" are now totally impractical, e.g. mass automobile ownership, because of hydrocarbons depletion. Only the wealthiest and most powerful keep cars as status symbols. No advanced computing either because of its reliance on rare metals and highly complex supply chains. But other facets of modernism survive. Nothing stopping electricity being generated by hydroelectric dams. Firearms survive - a Mauser or Kalashnikov can last for centuries, after all, and they're not that hard to manufacture.

The reality is that while life is often hard and unfair, for most people these days its not a matter of post-apocalyptic horror.

2. There's a detailed metaphysics, magic system, and dark lord. Hard to work them into individual vignettes of this sort.

Possibly such stories will appear, but if so they will be outriggers for or prequels to the main epic.

 

[chrispenycate]

And there is a "dark lord"-type antagonist.

Well, there's your first character right there. What are his aims, his motives, ambitions, his limitations? While he (all right, possibly "she" or "it" – the "type" removes your need to specify) might spend a large quantity if the book in shadowed obscurity, you have to know him. Is he shallow enough to have world domination as a primary aim, fearful enough that control is essential to him, idealistic enough that any means are justified in achieving his purpose? He could even turn out to sincerely believe that his intervention is essential to saving the remaining biodiversity on the damaged planet, and consider an excess of humanity the main obstacle to this; in his own head, the superhero.
I suspect that, once he is solid and believable the opposing character/team will become much more obvious.

 

[Nik]

Just a couple of thoughts: If you think of what's done in the high latitudes now, there's a short Summer when a lot gets done, but you're knee-deep in mud.

Move the climatic zones polewards, and you'll have widened Equatorial jungle that is too steamy for most and foully infested with a myriad disease-carrying bugs, then a wider desert zone encompassing a lot of our current temperate zone, plus the inhabited high latitudes.

You will have aisles of habitation along surviving rivers, dependent on seasonal rains-- Think Nile. There'll be oases clinging to artesian strata. You may find camels are back in fashion. Remember they were introduced to Australian outback-- And loved it...

One quibble: The infrastructure may not support modern 10 nm processes, but something like a Unix distro would run well on open-source RISC chips with much, much larger dimensions, well within the reach of a good Uni lab. They'd get their speed by parallel processing and seriously tight coding...

 

[meursault]

@chrispenycate,

Well, there's your first character right there. What are his aims, his motives, ambitions, his limitations?

This I have specified down to the tiniest details. It's motives and very nature are the heart of the planned novel, and as such, very much RAFO.

It's the heroes, not the villains, I have problems with.

@Nik,

Some very interesting points here. About the climate - yes, pretty much nails the world. Much of the world south of the Arctic is devoid of people, for the simple reason that its too hot to survive during the summer. (Search "zones of uninhabitability" on Google).

One quibble: The infrastructure may not support modern 10 nm processes, but something like a Unix distro would run well on open-source RISC chips with much, much larger dimensions, well within the reach of a good Uni lab. They'd get their speed by parallel processing and seriously tight coding...

Yes, it makes sense that computer technologies from twenty or thirty years ago should survive. No reason they shouldn't. Unfortunately, computing is an area I'm weak on, and is really something I should study in-depth before I add the finishing touches to the world and embark on the actual writing.