53: Nature’s Realm – Set the Stage (2)

This is the second of a six part series on

world building. Last week, we talked about building better

worlds and why it matters. So I hope you can go back and find

that episode. It will also be in the show notes. Today we'll be

talking about nature's realm, set the stage and make sure that

you tune in for next week for society's rules, bend them,

break them, because I know you're going to enjoy that. This

is kind of a side note to that, setting us both time and place.

Today we'll talk about place for next time, it's more about when

a story is said, and what that means for your story. So if

you're an audio listener, I'll do my very best if you're more

of a visual learner, I hope you'll tune into the YouTube

channel to watch because I have some visual cues for you, I will

do my best to be descriptive and clear a writing precedes

authors. Welcome back to the podcast. To those of you who are

new, I want to extend a special welcome. My name is Kathrese.

McKee. And I'm glad you're here. If you are a writer seeking

encouragement, information and inspiration, this podcast is for

you. Let's get to it. world building Series Part two natures

realm where we're setting the stage. And basically we're

talking about environment and its impact on your story.

Because there is a wealth of plot ideas, conflict, and all

kinds of ideas that you can glean from the environment that

you choose for your story. And I know that this is all about

Earth. I'm talking mostly about Earth examples. But most of

these things can be applied to fictional worlds as well. So

environment includes landforms water features like oceans,

lakes, and rivers, ponds, streams, and so forth. Eddie's

grottoes atmosphere, whether it's a breathable atmosphere or

not, or clean or polluted, and space, and I included that

because we're not limited anymore to just the atmosphere

of Earth. So we have to think about what it might be like in

outer space, our landforms on Earth span the gamut. We have

deserts, which are just very difficult survival situations,

lack of water possible, intense heat and cold and just a nice,

easy way to get lost as well. Not very many features to keep

your eyes on and not very many resources to use for survival.

So you just have to be really good and well prepared. And then

we have forests, we have swamps, which are full of creatures and

hidden peril. We have, like I said, forests like in the

Northwest, and jungles like at the equator, open fields and

plains rocky outcroppings like the Rocky Mountains, and the

Grand Canyon, we have the Arctic with the Northern Lights, and

more more nighttime than daytime at points in the year. And then

we have under underwater, perhaps your story is set in the

ocean depths. One of my favorite stories growing up was Jules

Verne, and 20,000 leagues under the sea. I love that book.

Because it was even though we already had some rains, by the

time I read it, I just felt like he did such a great job of

imagining it, or the Alps. And then finally there's outerspace,

which is the final frontier, right? So you have to think

about what all these environments have to do with

your story and the great amount of natural plot points you can

draw from your environment, both conflict related hardship

related, just things that spring naturally, from the natural

realm. several aspects come directly from the environment,

and one of the first ones is climate. So if you are in a

forest in the northwest, you're going to be subject to lots of

rain, there's going to be a lot of cloud cover green as you can

get, but maybe not a lot of sun may be kind of cool, always

needing a sweater, needing shelter the West Plains of

Texas, you're going to have lots of wind, sometimes it's going to

be very cold. Sometimes it's going to be very hot, but

there's incessant wind, and I have a tumbling Tumbleweed here.

People ask if that's real it It certainly is. You might be in

the Arctic Circle and have a lot of darkness. And that would be

part of the climate. You're always having to have light and

maybe protection from the cold. You might be in a rainy

environment or be subject to flooding or it could be the you

know everybody's ideal is a tropical island with the clear

water and the swaying palm trees and the wonderful sand and then

finally again, you might have the perils of space because

space is full of radiation. It's cold. Of course it is void For

breathable air, so you always have to think about that that is

part of its climate it let's keep thinking about what that

means because then that immediately dictates habitat. So

in space, you're going to have to have a habitat to stay alive

or you could be like the Anasazi who had their cliffs dwellings

which are very fascinating in the the creativity they use to

build these very fantastic dwellings up in the cliffs of

New Mexico. We have stories that are set in vast caverns, I

remember in particular, Eragon had a vast cavern, city

stronghold sort of thing. I'm talking about humans generally.

But remember that this could apply to non human characters as

well. And humans dwell anywhere from little, quaint little

villages, and in Britain, and small towns and Texas to castles

and temples in Asia, and giant cities that are vast and spread

out and light, the night sky, all of those things have

something to do about your story, they will influence your

story. If you set your story in LA, that is way spread out. Or

in New York, which is crammed together in a very, very tight

space, it will change the story, depending on how you have set

your story. It's freeing directly from your environment,

your natural environment, climate, and so forth are

potential natural disasters, it might appear in your stories in

particular, like if you're in an earthquake zone, you're going to

have volcanic eruptions, you're going to have tsunamis, you're

going to have of course, earthquakes, there may be

avalanches, if you're in a mountainous zone. And if you're

on a coastal plain, you may be subject to frequent flooding.

And then we're all subject to something we don't talk about

much an electromagnetic pulse or a solar flare, that could

definitely rock our world. So all of these things are

potential natural disasters. And another one that is very current

right now is tornadoes and spring storms hurricanes in the

middle of the summer. And so just mind those potential

disasters as a great way to build plot for your story

directly related also to environment is natural resources

and natural resources have driven conflict throughout human

history, something we should be very aware of. So even if you're

in outer space, many of the stories in science fiction are

set around trying to mine natural resources from like

asteroids, and other planets, trying to bring that build

wealth in that way, or bring rare elements to earth, then we

also have to think about other resources, like what we're going

to eat grain and leaves and so forth, how we're going to feed

ourselves and raise animals. And then we might be also logging,

as in creating, you know, lumber for homes, a building, or fires,

and so forth. And then also mining for minerals, and

crystals and rare earth materials and pumping oil or

deep sea fishing, we might also have the natural resource that

we don't even think about running water for hydroelectric

power. So all of these things are are things to consider is

especially if you're building a world that you need to think

about what are the natural resources? And why do people

strive for them? How are they important? What can they do to

lend conflict your story because I guarantee you most of the wars

in history have been over the natural resources, who's going

to get rich, and how they're going to be distributed? So

think about that. Writing pursuits is run by Kathrese.

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The link is in the show notes. And now, back to the podcast.

coming right out there with your natural environment is the life

forms on your planet. The first one of course is your humans. We

come with so many varieties don't we endless, endless

possibilities just with humans. But there's many other life

forms that can add color and richness to your story. Among

them are plants and animals of course and don't forget the

bacteria. We have Andromeda Strain. We have the virus it

just ravaged our planet and it continues to do so and many

others that are also of concern. We have plants that are both

beneficial and poisonous. We have medicinal plants and those

that are poisonous. We need to think about where our food comes

from the grains, the berries, the seeds leaves, and so forth

that we eat the roots. And you have to think about these things

for your planet, also, your world, what is common in your

culture, what is common in the place that you set your stories

in. And then don't forget other kinds of life forms that are a

little less common and may not actually exists anymore, such as

dinosaurs, or orcs, or fairies, or, you know, let's see vampires

and werewolves, all the horror story characters. And then we

have dragons which we wished existed, but um, we're glad they

don't. And so that's kind of what I wanted to talk about

today is just a quick overview of the natural environment you

might set your story in and some of the things to think about. So

today we talked about environment landforms, water

resources, space, we talked about atmosphere, habitats,

climate, potential natural disasters, we also talked about

life forms, including humans, but also to include plants and

animals, bacteria, and other natural life forms like that.

And then maybe supernatural creatures as well. Things that

don't exist anymore that are imaginary and wondrous and

great, great ideas for your stories. Anyway, those are all

sprang from the natural world, natures realm. So that's all I

have for today. Until next time, keep writing. Thank you for

joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a

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pursuits. Tips for authors that link and all the links mentioned

in today's episode are in the show notes at writing

pursuits.com. Please join us on Wednesdays for new episodes and

keep writing my friends. Keep writing