MAKING A MESS

by Beth Bernobich
(c) April 2000

An editor once advised me to add more "mess" to my novel's world. It was my first attempt at writing a novel, and my mistake was very typical for a beginner. (Since then, I've worked hard at making bigger and better messes.) But when I quoted that early comment to a fellow writer, she was puzzled. "Did that mean the plot should creak? Or did the world needed more texture?" With some additional comments, here's my reply:

No, and no. Plots should not creak, obviously. They should spin and glide and soar with grace; at times they should slam you in the chest. And while texture is always good, the word doesn't quite cover what "mess" implies. To me, it's defining the world's rules, then taking it beyond those rules.

Mainstream writers might believe this issue only affects the SF-writer. Not true. All fiction requires its own world, whether you're talking about mainstream, mysteries, or speculative fiction. With SF, the world-building is simply more obvious, since the writer starts with a blank universe, whereas the mainstream writer might start with the University of Iowa. The SF writer frequently draws from elements of the known world, but she must still choose the details for everything from religion to skin color to sexual customs.

Sketching in the World.

A hundred books or more can give you directions for building your world. Just to tickle your imagination, here are some categories to keep in mind:

Geography: How many continents and mountain ranges and oceans? What are their names, and what kind of weather do they have?

Peoples and Nations: What ethnic groups live in your world? And do cultures embrace the many ethnic groups or divide them?

Government: What kind of political systems are in place? Do you write about kingdoms or city-states or a loose confederacy of provinces? And if you have formal governments, how do they interact? Are they hostile or cynically cooperative?

Economics: On the simplest level, how do people feed themselves? What gets produced where and sold to whom? What role does the government play in economics and what kind of trade takes place between regions?

History: From large to small-scale history — how has the world (or village) changed and how do previous events affect the present day? History doesn't always mean the lives of sultans or popes. It can also refer to the geological history.

Culture: Literature, arts, music, handcrafts, fables, and religion. Taboos, expectations, and superstitions.

Language: You don't have to invent new languages, but you should at least be aware if different countries speak different tongues.

Sex. Its mores, its practices, its customs. How do people pair off? Or do they gather in numbers greater than two? What if the sexes changes according to cycles, as in The Left Hand of Darkness?

By defining these categories, you define the world's skeleton. Even if you're writing an intimate story about two lovers in a small village, the outer world will color their speech and their assumptions, and in many cases, it will provide the catalyst for their actions.

Filling in the Local Details.

Sometimes the setting inspires the characters; sometimes the reverse takes place. However it happens, you end up with a set of characters in a particular location in your world. Even if you discover the characters first, the immediate setting will suggest more of their traits and conflicts, and it will increase the chances for adding more "mess."

Local details encompass the spirit and character of the story's immediate surroundings. They need to mesh with the world's overall characteristics (even if you invented the local setting first and the world later). And they probably won't include every element you chose in designing your world. An intimate story about one family in a small village will concentrate more on the village and less on the global politics. A story about vast changes on the international stage will need more details on the governments. Choose the focus, and that will guide your choice of details. The rest, like the skeleton of a body, must exist even if it's not be visible.

Crossover influences exist, however. The family's conflict might spring from a continental-wide war. The national politics might be wrenched into turmoil by the king's personal tragedy.

So Where's the Mess?

By now you have a slew of details about all levels of your world. You might be the organized type, with maps and lists and a cross-index. Or you might depend on a vivid picture of that world and nothing more. However you document it, your world at this stage might appear very neat and orderly, with clear divisions between peoples and religious groups and political entities. Tidy but unrealistic.

Now it's time to make a mess.

Map-makers adore borders, but in many parts of the real world, those lines are as fluid as shadows. While you can't duplicate reality (nor should you try), you can give your world verisimilitude by smudging the neat lines, tangling a few details, and adding a few contradictions.

So, let's say you have three kingdoms, each with a different language, ethnic group, and religion.

Languages change, merge, and borrow over time. Indo-European split into Romance and Germanic and Slavic groups, among others. Words have traveled from French to English and back again. Harmless words have become deadly insults. Or think of Chinese, where the written words remain constant but the wildly different pronunciations create separate spoken languages. In your world, the three languages might evolve into a dozen dialects, with those along the border speaking a smattering of every one.

Ethnic groups divide most obviously by physical appearance, but when people intermarry, the lines between groups fade, even if they don't completely disappear. In some cultures, those of blended heritage might consitute yet another ethnic group, adding a new element to the population, its languages, and its customs.

Religions splinter even more easily than languages. Create a few off-shoots for your main religions, with their own unique traditions, holidays, and observances. Add a leavening of doubt among the true believers. One religion in your world might hold fast to the old beliefs because of external pressures, while another might grow lax because of the same influences. Or, one religion might spread across the borders, blurring the political boundaries as well.

Agents of mess: lawbreakers, black markets, natural disasters (like drought), assassination, advances in technology, disease, isolation, pressure against any element in your world, and change. Agents of mess throw shadows against the uniform face of your world.

In a way, worlds are like characters. You might create a character sheet for the protagonist, but once she starts talking and walking and arguing, the protagonist develops shades and textures and "mess" that you never foresaw.

So does your world.

How much of a Mess?

Making a mess does not release you from all restraints. A world of random characteristics that change with every page goes beyond "mess" into chaos, aand it will only irritate the reader. The world — just like the plot and the characters — needs an inner consistency. And like plot twists and character growth, the changes must grow naturally from the world you've presented since the first chapter. The mess, as I see it, is like the back side of a quilt — only when you turn it over can you see the true patterns. §