Diversity and World(and Word)-Building

Listening to: Linkin Park – The Hunting Party

Mood: Creative

As a ScFi/Fantasy/Horror author, creating new, creepy, and interesting worlds is part of why I love the genres I write. It has never been more so than in the case of my current YA Fantasy WIP. Not only am I developing a new world, introducing characters that I hope represent the beautiful diversity of the world (which I feel is super important), but I’m also creating a new language. I’ve never done this before--create a new language, that is, because diversity is an important part of many of my novels.

The world, culture, and characters of my YA Fantasy WIP are based broadly on the Morrocan culture, so words I’ve designed have some roots in their language as well. It’s been fun, though difficult at times, to create words that represent the culture but aren’t exactly the same. I even have a running glossary to make sure I’m consistent with my language usage throughout the ms. My hope is that when it’s done, not only have I created a unique world with characters that people fall in love with and new words to add authenticity to the ms, but readers see the world’s amazing diversity of people throughout the story.

My end goal is to create a world that is more the way I view: beautifully diverse. My ms would just be a small start, but a start nonetheless. Now when I say diversity, I'm not just talking race diversity, I'm also talking about LGBTQ and disabled (mentally or physically) characters. My current WIP has all of these because I believe that there needs to be more diversity in literature the way there is in life. I know it's been talked about a lot, but I'm ready to see it (and read it) in action.