I’m between novels, in a manner of speaking. I’m world-building for my next novel, which may be a trilogy of novels. And even though it’s in the same world as the previous two, I’ve decided I don’t really have enough information on this world, and certainly not enough on the part of it where this story takes places.
I tried outlining my stories to intricate detail before and decided it was too much. But I’ve yet to really try pegging the world-building meter. I look at people like Brandon Sanderson, who has a little gauge on his website indicating his progress, and he seems to know how much world-building is enough. I can’t say I yet know, only that I think I’ve been doing too little. I think I need to at least do enough to where I find my world more tightly influencing all aspects of the story. The characters need to have risen from their environment. The plot needs to be uniquely influenced by the setting. I need to know what the rules are, the areas in which I can explore and the areas in which the “law” is firm.
I have no idea what that looks like. I know there is a very real danger of getting lost in world-building. I don’t feel a need to out-Tolkien Tolkien, but I do fear that I might go too far into it and lose interest in ever getting to writing the story. So this is a bit of an experiment for me, and it could be a little dangerous. How deeply do I need to go? I don’t know. I hope I know when I get there.
There are benefits, however. I’ve already seen some new elements come out of nowhere to add new depth and understanding to my story. And oddly enough, it’s come from greater details introducing greater ambiguity. The story has to do with finding yourself in the middle of legend/prophecy, but unlike most stories of that type (of which there are ample), there is plenty of room for doubt–if not from the protagonist, at least from many of the people around him. I’m excited for what possibilities this opens up for developing my protagonist and the other supporting characters.
That alone suggests I’m on the right track to go deeper with my preparations this time around. It’s important to me that I knock this one out of the park as, more than any of the ideas that I began working on a few years ago, this is the one closest to my heart–and the one I’ve been telling myself I’m not good enough to write yet. I’m not sure why I decided it’s time to tackle this one, but if I’m going to do it, I want to give myself every chance of succeeding.
The question, then, is whether all this added preparation comes from that or is merely a way of avoiding having to start something I’m afraid to fail at. Time will tell, I suppose.