Thinking of genre...my story is based in a future where some (yet undecided) catastrophe occurred years ago and civilisation has been partially rebuilt, slavery is rife, nothing particularly nice is happening, you get the picture. Rather than technology there is some kind of magic, I really haven't decided yet. I haven't had any ideas on this to be honest! I don't know which category my story would come under. It is likely to be for children - I normally write for the 9-12 age group, I can't seem to manage to write for anyone older as I am a big kid! The story would be about a child, male or female (not created characters yet) who is to be sold as a slave.
It seems that making a world from scratch (as I would usually do) is easy compared to making our own world a different place. I have lots of ideas but I don't know how far ahead in the future to set the story, don't yet have a realistic disaster scenario, don't know where in the world to set the story, etc. I can't find any resources on this too, although I find a lot of articles on fantasy world building.
Anyone have any ideas? Or should I be asking another forum?
Thanks in advance
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http://www.tangentialthinking.com/caroline/
10,091 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2007 - 06 49
Okay, so the kinds of disasters you could use:
1. Comet impact
2. Yellowstone Supervolcano
3. Global impact of global warming (shut-off the Atlantic current thingy — someone help me here, what's that called??)
4. Rise of a new plague (or an old one — just think of the bubonic plague spreading now! It'd be global before we knew what was happening)
Pick your catastrophe first and then speculate where civilization would be most likely to emerge or survive after the disaster and that would give you "where in the world."
If civilization is being rebuilt you could always fudge on our "exact date" (which you wouldn't need to give anyway) and instead set up a kind of time that they are now keeping — 100 A.C., as a real basic example: one hundred years after catastrophe, although remember if you don't have technology or a way of keeping track of years, days, etc. It would be easy enough for the people to no longer be exactly sure how long ago the catastrophe took place. So, for instance, they could think it was about a hundred years, but the truth would be it's really more like 102 or 103. That becomes more possible the longer it's been since the event.
----------2007: Ozymandias
Genre: Steampunk
50,500 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2007 - 08 06
I'm using the same idea- post apocalyptic fantasy.
A heavily urbanized & militarized world not unlike our own perhaps a couple hundred years into the future undergoes a cataclysm. The exact details probably won't come up too much as my story is set hundreds of years later, as a roughly medieval society has raised its self from the ruins. But for the sake of continuity I've been detailing the fall. Metaphysically speaking, I'd say that the death of 15 billion people at once would be enough to change the psychic reality of the world and allow magic to creep in through the cracks. And having seen technology run mad and almost destroy humanity, people will be deeply biased against it to the point of superstitious fear, creating a new dark age. All set in a landscape where little kingdoms fill the areas that nature has reclaimed in between the vast endless miles of ruined skyscrapers and concrete.
If it's far enough in the future, remember that the landscape may not be recognizable due to changes in ocean level, and that the current trend toward globalization and intermixing of cultures may make it irrelevant where your characters are located.
Good luck with your story!
----------...sleep in a pool of vigilance so bright...
37,121 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2007 - 01 04
Fantastic replies guys, you've given me a lot to think about, thank you very much!
----------My Blog
http://www.tangentialthinking.com/caroline/