Writer's Notes: Kate Messner

In thinking about my novel project, I've had to consider a lot about "world-building."  This process of inventing a world from scratch using defined principles and rules is a daunting one, and it is a large part of why it is taking me so long to formulate the rough draft.  I've sketched in some scenes and some characters, but I can't put the larger clockwork of the novel together until I have the exact nature of my world figured out.  In order to facilitate this work, I've been using tools in book form and web form.  One of my favorite resources on the web has been Kate Messner.

Kate Messner is the author of "Sugar and Ice", "The Brilliant Fall of Brianna Z.", and the Silver Jaguar Societies series.  She is a successful and award winning children's author who was also a presenter at TED2012.  Her presentation was about world building and can be found here.

Now some may ask why I am using a children's author to support the process for writing a book for adults or older youth.  My answer is simple: children's authors are just as rigorous as "adult" authors in terms of their process.  Writers write for their intended audience, but it is my firmly held belief that good children's authors have fictional tapestries that rival their more "grown up" counterparts.  Plus, Kate Messner helped me by giving me a simple questionnaire to answer in terms of framing my fictional world.  It is a baby step, but an initial step in moving forward on my creative project.

Kate's blog posts break up a worksheet for capturing your fictional world on paper.  It is the "scaffolding" that holds the world up and asks the basic questions that need to be answered before beginning to articulate a plot.  It is the pre-writing necessary to building an authentic world, and I appreciate her willingness to share her work so publicly.  You can find her blog posts here.

I filled out the worksheet the other day, skipping some of the questions because I needed to ruminate more about their answers, but I am beginning to formulate the physical, historical, and social context that will inform my work.  You might not see the worksheet's answers in the final text of the book, but it should be felt in the authenticity of the "uninterrupted dream" John Gardner said was the mark of good fiction.

It felt good to work on the larger project and to put some of my ruminations down on paper.  It felt like a unburdening of sorts.  I don't have to "remember" my ruminations because I can turn to Kate Messner's helpful worksheet and find the answers there.  You are a generous soul, Kate.