Yesterday, I left off encouraging you to improve your world-building by seeing my listicle on the subject. Today, however, I want to continue to drive home a few points.

Individualism in Short Form

Something that I have done, and I have read other authors successfully doing as well, is taking a moment to realize your world on a deeper level in between story beats. What do I mean by this? Well, look at Brandon Sanderson’s “Skyward” series. I will admit I have only read the first book so far, but there in the first book he does what I want to suggest you do. In between the acts, in his three act book, he breaks POV and moves the story to someone else, someone we later find is still connected to the main character, but still a different POV. In this POV we learn several things about the world implicitly and it gives us very real, very human characters outside the head of the main character. It reminds us, “Hey look over here at this other thing that is still happening in this very real world!” Try that!

As I mention in my listicle on world building writing short stories is huge for any world and it is a wonderful way to ensure that this creation of yours feels alive. Why not take a moment and write what it’s like for a planetary senate to convene? Do they all connect to a holo-server and beam themselves to a forum from the sectors over which they preside? Are they all contacted and asked to beam themselves half-way across the planet for a special session?

Caste Struggles

Look at any Sci-Fi setting you adore, Star Wars, Warhammer 40k, Skyward, or insert your Sci-Fi of choice. In all of these you will find a deeper issue behind the epic space battles and existential threats. In Star Wars you have a very traditional economic caste struggle between the rich and powerful elites and the regular everyday citizens. I have not seen it, but I am told that the show “Andor” on Disney+, is a great example of everything I have been talking about. They dive deep into personal motivations while still giving us the epic landscapes and space battles that Star Wars is known for. In Warhammer 40k (limiting the scope for this discussion to just the humans) there is a struggle between the Imperium and Chaos. Humans split into two factions which only serves to highten the tension between Humanity and its impending doom. In Skyward there are the citizens of the undercity, the place where humanity is forced to hide to avoid being bombed into oblivion by an ominous alien threat, and the pilots of the Defiant Defense Force or DDF.

Closing thoughts…

Did I stress you out? Did I give you delusions of grandeur? Or did I inspire you to something you feel is too daunting to tackle? Well, good! Writing a world of Fantastic Speculation is not going to be an easy task and you need to realize that we in order to succeed in this space you have to shoot for the moon and hit the stars.

Go now and realize your grand designs! Write that epic story, pain that epic landscape, or whatever it is you do, but go now and do it! Per Audacia ad astra.