by Jason P. Burnham. Worldbuilding insights for crafting life after antibiotics. Learn about surgical fixes, ancient remedies, and unusual cures that can shape compelling characters and gripping plots in speculative fiction settings.
by Martin Jenkins
One of the pleasures of genre is that it lets us identify a type of writing that we know we like. We’d feel short-changed if a crime novel didn’t feature a crime, after all, or if a romance didn’t put the travails of a relationship front and center. What we don’t want to see, however, is a mere repetition of genre tropes and clichés – it’s what is fresh and different in a work of fiction that keeps us turning the page while still being identifiably a genre work.
When a character swims across the Arctic Ocean, in a story set a thousand years in the future, what stars might she use to guide her passage westward?
“Tools for the Toolbox” is a series of posts that describe disease types and organ systems. Eventually I hope to include enough information that a writer might be able to do some creative mixing and matching to produce the symptoms they want to give a character. Because it’s really frustrating to throw darts in the dark and hope something lands near the bull’s-eye. Hope it helps!
Dr. Grasshopper explains how to construct believable doctor language for your invented diseases.
Dr. Grasshopper answers mail about toxins which can rob the blood’s ability to transport oxygen. Learn about how the blood carry’s oxygen and the things that can go wrong.
Using real-world diseases in a work of fiction has a large number of potential pitfalls. Here are a few tips about how to make your pestilential plot point a little more plausible.
Around the world people are celebrating February 14, 2010 as a special day. What, exactly, that special day is depends on who you are and what tradition you grew up in. It provides an excellent example of ways to use different calendars in world building.
I’m happy to announce a new feature on the SFWA blog, “How to Kill Your Imaginary Friends: A writer’s guide to diseases and injuries, and how to use them effectively in fiction” written by Dr. Grasshopper.
Literature is all about metaphors–analogies. One thing is like another. Much of literature works by saying, “This thing is like this other thing.” In secondary world stories, how do you handle metaphors?
When working on the world-building for your secondary fantasy world, here’s an interesting thought to chew on. Did you know that Northern Europeans are uniquely depigmented?
When writing there will come a moment when you have to deal with furniture. If it’s historical fantasy, steampunk or timetravel you’ll face the question of finding something that is period correct. What did people sit on in 1650? How long have drop-leaf tables been around? What was the most expensive wood?
