I’ve always enjoyed books that transport me to a different time and place.  It’s no surprise that speculative fiction and historical fiction are my favorite genres to read.  I love Ursula K. Le Guin, Anne Rice, Mary Renault, and Robert Graves to name a few.  As a child, I devoured books about Arthurian legends and the Tudor court.  Horror and science fiction also appealed to me.  Recently, I’ve discovered historical fantasy and have been enjoying books in that genre.

So how does an author go about building a world?  In urban fantasy, we usually deal with a physical world very much like our own, although some authors like Kim Harrison have created an alternate spin on the “real world”.   I like the grittiness of New York City, a place where I spent many years of my life, but the “urban” landscape isn’t always the setting in urban fantasy.  There are urban fantasy stories that take place in rural towns.  Heck, I even set one in the middle of a jungle in India.  The contemporary setting seems to be more of a constant in urban fantasy, but it’s important to make sure you’ve thought out and researched the place you choose to set your story.  Be as specific as possible with your physical world.

I find a lot of my inspiration doing my research, and then I let imagination take over.  Every writer should be a reader and not just in the genre in which one writes.  For the third novel in the series, My Fearful Symmetry, I’ve done research on everything from British street slang to Sanskrit mantras.  There are so many resources available to the writer on the web and in the library.  Any subject is of value to the writer.  I studied costume history and design in college as a theater major, and I can’t tell you how valuable that knowledge has been.  An understanding of geography, politics, religion, art, and music can enrich a story and set it apart.  The important thing about creating a world in speculative fiction is sticking to the rules you create for your corner of the universe.

Know your paranormal creatures and make some new rules.  Don’t be afraid to break some, just be consistent.  I write about vampires.  Yes, I know, they are a bit over exposed at present, but I’m ( if you’ll pardon the pun) am a sucker for vampire stories.  I grew up on Dark Shadows.  Everyone knows about old vampire legends, movie and pop culture clichés.  Some authors choose stick with them, while others decide to depart from them.  Urban fantasy is a realm of make-believe, and there is much room for interpretation.  I think it’s fun to play around with the old myths and come up with reasons behind them or find alternatives to them.

Let your imagination run wild!  You get to play God.  Ah, the power it confers.  I find it a challenge to take all kinds of information found in research and throw it into the pot to concoct a completely new culture.  In any world, there are various cultures and subcultures with distinct rituals, rules, and beliefs.  Opportunities for conflict arise when these factions clash.  The trick is to give layers of detail without overwhelming the narrative with descriptive passages.  I try to use action as much as possible to reveal custom.  The way a character wears his clothes, washes his hands, or prays can reveal a lot about that person’s cultural background and character.

Use your passions and interests to form your world.  My Immortyl Revolution series brings together many elements of research and reading that I’ve done over the years.  I’m a bit of a history buff, and writing about vampires gives me an opportunity to throw people from different time periods together in a contemporary urban setting.  My first novel, Cara Mia, deals a lot with Mia, the heroine, becoming a vampire and her struggle to survive as a modern woman in an ancient culture.  I used this as a springboard to create a unique mythology and culture for my vamps.

Women and children in the ancient world faced challenges that today most of us would find appalling.  Adult males who were poor or enslaved were in a similar boat.  Ancient societies were largely patriarchal, and my Immortyl culture is built on this premise.  These bad old vampire boys aren’t about to change their ways in the modern world, and this is a golden opportunity to create conflict.  The oppressive ways of the Immortyl ruling class give my heroine and hero a lot to fight against.

I came up with a vampire society that falls into three main classes.  The first group is the ruling class, elders and alphas, exclusively male.  Then there is a soldier class, referred to as dogs, that is also male.  The third class is made up of male and female slaves who provide companionship and sex to those above them.  Among these are the adepts of the ancient arts, temple dancers and courtesans, who are in a sense Immortyl celebrities, famed for their beauty and talent.  Yes, my vampires even have their own religion.  These devotees of the Immortyl cult of Kali come into the series in book three, My Fearful Symmetry.  The adepts are often pawns of intrigue within the chief elder’s court.  At the bottom rung of Immortyl society are the sewer rats, bands of runaway and cast-off slaves.  These are mostly kids and teenagers in form who were cruelly trafficked by their masters and live like feral animals in very poor conditions.  They become the backbone of the revolution.

You never know what might inspire your world.  I love to read about biological science and genetics.  My series plot, the race to capture the secrets of immortality, was inspired by articles I’ve read on biotechnology.  Lots of vampire stories are based on magic, but I opted for no magical powers in my world, except for the magic worked by a DNA molecule.  I decided to make my vampires biologically altered human beings, not the undead variety, so they behave a lot like mortals in many respects.  Still, my Immortyls have enhanced physical abilities, can’t go out in the sun, and can drink only human blood.  I like some kind of “kryptonite” to limit my vamps. The fun was in coming up with the reasons for these limitations.

Another important element for a lot of urban fantasy is a magic system.  I’ll admit, I’m a neophyte here.  I’m currently writing another urban fantasy book that is magic based, and I’m researching all kinds of stuff on witchcraft, mythology and magic. I think it’s tougher than writing a science-based world, because the writer has to take all these elements of magic and boil them down to something that is his or her own.  It has to make sense and have rules. It can be very simple or complex, but it has to be consistent.

In urban fantasy, one also has to decide whether it will be an “open” or “closed” world.  Are your paranormal creatures out of the supernatural closet?  Or do they hide in the shadows or live off the grid?  This is an important decision for a writer to make, because it provides different levels of conflict.  I opted to go for a closed world in my books.  Up until this point, the Immortyls have kept their condition secret and only a handful of mortals know about them.  In subsequent books, that world will begin to open and create all kinds of juicy conflict for the characters.

So, go to it!  Build that unique world for the reader to discover.  The spectrum of speculative fiction offers so many opportunities for an author to stretch the imagination, and every writer has unique experience and knowledge to share.  There are so many worlds out there yet to discover and mythologies yet to create.  I look forward to both reading and writing about them.

Here is an excellent resource on world-building for the writer by Patricia C. Wrede at the SFWA site that I’ve found helpful:

http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/.

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BIO: Denise Verrico is a New Jersey native who grew up in Pennsylvania. She attended Point Park College in Pittsburgh, where she majored in theatre arts. For seven seasons she was a member of The Oberon Theatre Ensemble in NYC with whom she acted, directed and wrote plays. Denise has enjoyed vampire stories from the time she was a little girl and a fan of the Dark Shadows television series and Chiller Theater. She enjoys reading non-fiction and fiction of all kinds, particularly historical fiction, thrillers, sci-fi, fantasy, manga and graphic novels.