ESTABLISHING THE HISTORY OF YOUR WORLD
You're writing a fantasy novel, and you've established a little bit of your world building so far...but you've run into a problem. You don't know why your world is the way it is! This is when you start thinking about the history of your world.
Some great ways to establish history is to start asking yourself certain questions. Some that helped me begin to establish the history of my world:
Why is the current government in power? How did they come to be in power?
What is the social structure? Is there discrimination or certain people who are marginalized? What happened to make this the case?
What kind of stories would parents tell their children? What historical fact or event is that based upon? What lesson does it teach that the people of your world find valuable?
I've found creating children's stories or folktales is the easiest place to start when trying to establish historical events for your world. They're simplified, and often boiled down or twisted versions of the truth. Start with trying to establish one or two common folktales and expand from there. Where did this story originate? What details have been left out or glossed over? What lesson is it trying to teach kids, and why pull it from that particular event? Has the story been pushed by your world's government? Do different countries tell the same story differently? All these are questions to ask yourself in order to get a grasp on why stories for children may have developed the way they did.
Propaganda is another great way to establish depth in the history of your world, too. History that is taught in schools isn't always correct - it will probably be the same in your world, too, especially depending on the government and how they choose to rule their people. Propaganda-ed history may have some similar traits to the folklore or children's stories you've established. What details were purposefully left out? What has simply been lost to time? Why did they twist the truth to fit a certain narrative? What is that narrative?
Of course, you won't necessary divulge all these details while writing your story. Sometimes, the history you create won't ever make its way into the pages of your book. But it's still a good exercise in making your world richer, and can even help you build more believable and unique characters. After all, we are all influenced by our world whether we want to be or not. The history you create can help shape your characters motivations, desires, and flaws.
With that being said, next time we'll talk about how world building can affect your characters and how to incorporate all that hard work into building unique and interesting characters people will love.
I hope you have a wonderful new year!
-Tia