On Worldviews or World-Building #amwriting

Hi, my name is Betsy, and I suck at world building. I can no more create a mysterious land, populate it with rare and wondrous beings, draw on human mythology, than I can fly. I enjoy reading fantasy. I really do, but to try and write it. Save your keystrokes, Ashton. You cannot do it. I admit defeat.

But, creating a character's worldview? That's a whole different situation. When I get out of my characters' ways, I can see their worldview. I might not like it, but I can see it. Take, for example, my Mad Max character. She's worldly, rich, and sexy. She enjoys a life of service on various cultural boards. She runs her deceased husband's engineering firm. She has a life.

After Max's daughter is seriously injured in an auto accident, she is forced to make a decision. Traumatic brain injury changes her daughter's behavior from being a wonderful soccer mom to not giving a damn about her kids. Max has to decide how much of a day-to-day role she'll play as they grow up.

Along the way, she runs into racism in the second book. It's more the "us versus them" racism, where locals dislike Hispanics who they think are stealing their jobs. Max must learn how to survive in the alien landscape of post-Katrina Mississippi. True, it's rather like a strange land, except it's populated with human beings with normal names. Every time she runs into something she's never experienced before, it's a challenge to her worldview. Over the course of three books, she grows and comes to appreciate what is truly important.

And then there is that pesky serial killer. I let her live in my creative brain for nearly two years while she took shape and emerged with her own moral code. It is NOT my moral code. I don't look at people and see someone who should be killed. True, she preys on people who victimize the weak--battered women, children, etc. Her worldview makes many readers uncomfortable, but in the end they are even more uncomfortable when they realize they've been rooting for her all along. I'm not sure what the killer says about me. Little, I hope, but she sure says a lot about herself.

I'm working on a series of stories that are a complete departure from what I've been writing. Not a single serial killer. No massive crime sprees. Mostly, ordinary moments in life that thrill or change us. Sometimes the change is for the better; other times, it's merely change. We as readers are left to work the change into our own worldview.

I think I'll stick to the internal worldview exploration. I don't need any fanciful names, even though occasionally I need to understand mental illness. When a character takes me down that path, I relish in researching new topics to write about.

Join me in the Mad Max series. I double dog dare you to read Eyes Without A Face. You might end up rooting for the killer, too.