Can't picture the desired setting of my novel

[shamguy4]

So I am arguing with myself constantly about the setting of my world.

I know it has to be futuristic based on elements in the story. There has to be computers, technology and synthetic lifeforms… But there also is magic… its kind of a twist…

So in my head I automatically took the galaxy route and began to see it as a large world of planets.
I began to think of starships and traveling. Although some magical characters would prefer to teleport with magic… This of course needed to be constrained somehow.

But I wondered if it was all necessary? I would have to make different races and aliens and planets…

Unfortunately if I try to see my book as a futuristic world without a galaxy and starships, I begin to see a medieval landscape with creatures such as elves and dwarves… Especially because there is magic involved.

I cannot seem to picture a world somewhere in between.
How can I get to a place where the setting is right?!
Ive been arguing with myself and felt getting some feedback or ideas usually helps.

 

[tinkerdan]

Start figuring out your characters and write a little from each POV (just for yourself) and have them begin experiencing the world around them and how it works and how they fit into the rules of magic or technology and see where it takes you. Your characters are the best guide through your landscape.

 

[shamguy4]

interesting. I normally only write through my main character or one other character in a different location.
Till now I use the story to create the setting. Like what has to happen.

But I can't decide if the world should be bigger or smaller.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Piers Anthony has a world where both the scientific and the magical worlds inhabit the same planet but in different "frames", in the Apprentice Adept series. And the mundane people and technological creatures and the magical people and creatures do get to interact with each other, due to the plot-induced mingling of the frames -- to their mutual surprise and consternation. He also has a world where both science and magic coexist on Earth, in the Incarnations of Immortality series. Perhaps it's not so unlikely to have a world with both?

 

[shamguy4]

I shall have to read these books!

It's not just that its unlikely but more like whether I want space travel and things like that.

My character also starts out not knowing there is magic. So I can't have a very noticeable magical world.

It's more like an old religion of magic that is used by third world countries...
Everyone else has moved in to advanced science.

This means I have to show my world in a technological sort of way until my character learns about magic.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

They're two of my favorite series.

In the Apprentice Adept series, the planet (known as Proton to the space-faring world) exists in tandem with its other "frame", which is a sort of second dimension in the same space, a world full of magic known as Phase to its inhabitants. The story begins when the MC accidentally travels to Phase through a sort of portal and discovers himself in a lush, green world with different rules. Proton has been basically strip-mined for its minerals and everyone lives in domes for breathable atmosphere, so this is a shock to him even aside from the magic, which of course he doesn't even believe in.

I can see how you would have to walk a thin line with yours, needing magic to not be terribly obvious -- but it's amazing how many things people can ignore entirely just by not believing in them. You just have to come up with rules that will allow magic to exist without being in such extensive use as to be obvious to everyone. Clearly it's limited in its application and methods. But that's standard for any magic system. Figure out what you need it for, and work backward from there.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

Our own @Jo Zebedee does it in her Abendau trilogy. It's full-blown space opera but with 'magical' gifts mixed in. You should read Abendau's Heir, if only for a look at how her characters drive the story, allowing the world - building to take second place without anyone really noticing that she hardly does any description! Because you see everything through the character's eyes, feeling the heat of the desert or the pain of loss, you don't even ask yourself what everything really looks like!

 

[Locrian]

If you consider the force to be magic, then Star Wars fits your setting. Also psykers in the warhammer 40k universe and biotics from Mass Effect. It isn't so uncommon. You may want to balance things differently between science and magic or leave it explained as magic rather than biogenic manipulation of element zero to create mass effect fields.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Our own @Jo Zebedee does it in her Abendau trilogy. It's full-blown space opera but with 'magical' gifts mixed in. You should read Abendau's Heir, if only for a look at how her characters drive the story, allowing the world - building to take second place without anyone really noticing that she hardly does any description! Because you see everything through the character's eyes, feeling the heat of the desert or the pain of loss, you don't even ask yourself what everything really looks like!

Muchly thank you. I don't do much world building compared to some (although, as my editor tells me, I can do it perfectly well when needed) because it's not where I put my focus. (And because my close third style doesn't support long sections of info that my character already knows...)

But! And this is a big but - I know what world the characters are operating within. If they're on a planet I'll know where in my star systems is it, the approximate size, the political allegiance it operates within. Most of that will not be reflected in the scene, but I will know it. I know where the psi powers come from (it's to do with an enhanced processing centre of the brain) and what their rules are - whilst it's alluded to in the books at no point does anyone sit down and go, 'well, you know, Kare, your brain operates like this...'

What I'm trying to say is that I think to write it (and I agree with the others who have pointed out space fantasy regularly meshes sci fi and fantasy and those who read jt won't bat an eyelid) it is important to know it. For me, I find out about the world as I write - i find out we're going to a planet, and then I devise the planet - for others, they need to build it first. But for your characters to operate in a world you, the writer, will need to do some thinking about that world.

Oh, and also - read more in the genre you're aiming for (which does sound like space fantasy). Read Dune where sci fi and magic mix, for instance. See how others do it and that might inspire some of your own thinking to support it. And good luck with it.

 

[James118]

How about a Dyson sphere containing several planets?

As for figuring out how the world works, here's two opposite ways you could try, but the first involves keeping a very loose grip of what you have so far:

Work from the ground up. Start with the fundamentals and think where logic and limitations would take them.

Alternatively, you could reverse-engineer your world (I never got the phrase 'reverse-engineer', but I'm 99% sure it applies to this) and think of what basics would lead to the story and society you already have. Might have to get very creative and lateral with that one.

 

[James118]

It's not just that its unlikely but more like whether I want space travel and things like that.

Could always just limit the magic and have the technology far more convenient to use.

My character also starts out not knowing there is magic. So I can't have a very noticeable magical world.

It's more like an old religion of magic that is used by third world countries...
Everyone else has moved in to advanced science.

This means I have to show my world in a technological sort of way until my character learns about magic.

I'd argue that's the easiest way around to do it. The extrapolation of modern technology, plus some more contemporary phrases for the more advanced science, should easily suffice for this. And while I don't know the tone of the story, that latter suggestion would lend it more of an authentic, or at least rugged, feeling with plenty of colloquialisms. Like Firefly or Fallout.

 

[Dan Jones]

My character also starts out not knowing there is magic. So I can't have a very noticeable magical world.

It's more like an old religion of magic that is used by third world countries...
Everyone else has moved in to advanced science.

This seems like QED, as James says. It's not so difficult to compare, say, New York City, with some of the dirt slums of Moghadishu, or whatever, and start from there. Presumably, depending on your POV/characters, the reader also won't be aware of any magic in your world, other than what hearsay and rumour are thrown around in dialogue. So you don't even have to do any magical world-building as such, as Jo says. If your character discovers it organically, then so does the reader, and it should take care of itself.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

But I wondered if it was all necessary? I would have to make different races and aliens and planets…

Unfortunately if I try to see my book as a futuristic world without a galaxy and starships, I begin to see a medieval landscape with creatures such as elves and dwarves… Especially because there is magic involved.

Old stories with "other worlds" via "portals": Thomas The Rhymer, Elves, Faerie and Sidhe etc in British Isles, there is usually little or no magic here, but magic there. "They" have same level of tech as here. So contemporary "Faerie" story, or in near future, the Faerie folk would have Satellite TV, Mobile Phones, Laptops etc, but magic also.

c.f. contemporary Urban Fantasy, or indeed the Artemis Fowl series (Magic is concealed from Humans and the non-humans have Magic + more advanced tech).

Also if "magical" people are very long lived they may keep some mediaeval aspects.

Then also compare the Diamond Age, with the Neo Victorians as one of the "Tribes", also other more mediaeval tribes in that hi-tech future Earth (no actual magic in theory, but actually the nano-tech is really IMO "magic" as plot element where the author has decided it's technology. If he'd described it as magic the book would be more fun and more believable!)

 

[shamguy4]

im going to have to sit in the dark and think through each possible setting to see which one works best.

I like the galaxy feel. Like star wars, and its what I was going with. But something inside me keeps saying it should be smaller and more magical. So I tried a small galaxy. Maybe only 4 or 5 active planets. I stuck with that for a while.
My character lives on a space station.

But as I write it, something inside me says no.

Thinking about it, if there is an evil emperor trying to take over, it might not mean much to someone halfway across the galaxy. In a small world everyone would be threatened.

I also like smaller stories that take place in a smaller area. I find the people know each other and the community is close knit.
Like Hogwarts. The whole book takes place in a school which I find fascinating! It's hard because most books I have read have travel and the settings are much larger and we meet new characters more often.

When I say magic cannot be obvious in the beginning of my book, it's because pandoras box has not been opened yet… Magic is sort of coming back… After a long pause, in which technology has obviously advanced a lot.

 

[shamguy4]

Would you say it's rare to find books that are set in the future in a galaxy and the story has full blown magic?

Not light magic like the "force" but full magic spells curses and all.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I'd argue the force is full blown magic. My psi powers in Abendau are pretty magical.

But, here's the thing - it doesn't matter whether it's in other books. If that's what you want, put it in. It's your story and it doesn't need to be like anything or anyone else's.

 

[shamguy4]

Well im looking through the prose and cons of having a galactic setting vs one world or something in between like just a few planets:

Galactic setting:

Space travel will have to be implemented. This will have to differ from the way magical people get around.

I get to have scenes where a starship is exploding and my character gets out just in time! How exciting.

calendars and dates will be daunting between planets. Saying my character was born in the month of October is just easy.

My antagonists hope to control the world would need to change, as controlling a whole galaxy sounds big and will work differently.

One world:


My antagonist can do certain magic that wouldn't work in a galactic setting, like make the sun never rise. These type of spells don't work in a galactic setting.
Because these things are mysterious and being able to fly your ship into outer space to see just where the hell the sun has gone ruins it!

Does that make sense? Yes I think about these things... I'm very thorough!

 

[Juliana]

Just as another suggestion of books with a nice blend of magic and technology, have you read any of Charles Stross' Laundry Files novels?

 

[shamguy4]

No I haven't. There apparently a lot of books I haven't read or I should say haven't finished...

Off topic:
I have a rule that if a book is boring by page 65 I stop reading. Is there a site that reviews books? Like rottentomatoes reviews movies?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

No I haven't. There apparently a lot of books I haven't read or I should say haven't finished...

Off topic:
I have a rule that if a book is boring by page 65 I stop reading. Is there a site that reviews books? Like rottentomatoes reviews movies?

Goodreads? Otherwise there are loads of sff book review sites and blogs.