Worldbuilding: Technology

The original Star Trek series featured many of today's products from doors that slid open as you approached, cell phones, body scanners, and we are working on warp drive. In magical worlds like Harry Potter, there are cool gadgets and gizmos like the Pensieve and Hermione's time turner.

When traveling through the past, it helps to know who had what and when. Nitpickers will catch your errors.

What advances did the time frame, future world, or fantasy world have access to?

Did they utilize fire? How did they obtain it or keep it burning? What were the fuel sources and ignition sources? Did they worship or fear it?

What did they use for lighting: sun, moon, and starlight, firelight, candles, lanterns, gas, electric light, magic lanterns?

Early man rolled heavy objects over tree trunks. Then someone used a round stone, then carved the first stone wheel or the first wooden wheel. Did they have wheels: stone, wood, rubber, metal, other materials? Did things move by magic or new scientific methods?

How did they move things: pulleys, cranes, lifts, elevators, escalators, conveyor belts?

Did they have metal ore, blacksmiths, metalsmiths, coopers, mining, steel mills, smelting, or manufacturing methods?

Did they utilize windmills or wind turbines to generate power or power mechanical objects?

Did they have waterwheels or hydraulics to generate power or power mechanical objects?

Did they have plumbing: what type (copper, lead, stone, plastic)? Used for water and/or waste disposal? Did they use aqueducts or sluices to carry water?

Did they have individual or public water wells? Did they have divining rods or water witches?

Did they have stoves or ovens for cooking and/or heat? What type? Where were they located in the home? 

Did they have electricity powered by coal, hydropower, windpower, or nuclear reactors? How large was the grid and how vulnerable to attack? In Science Fiction and Fantasy, you can develop unique sources of energy.

Did they have engines: gas, diesel, ethanol, battery, electric, man powered, animal powered, solar, wind, water, or steam? Steampunk worlds utilize the steam engine in unique ways to power everything from carts to airships.

How did they calculate numbers: tick marks, rocks, sticks, or shells, abacus, adding machines, calculators, cash registers, computers?

What type of detection methods did they have: echolocation, radar, sonar, satellite, metal detectors, telescopes, compasses, cameras?

Did they have watch towers, viewing platforms, battlements, turrets, peep holes, spy holes, night vision goggles, periscopes, binoculars, observatories, satellites? Magical viewing?

Did they have photography or film technology? Did they have microscopes?

Did they have sound recording devices from Nickelodeans, to vinyl, to MP3 players? Did they have radio stations?

Whether you are researching the past or creating the future, all of these technologies played a part in day to day life, options for activities and movement, and the outcome of wars.

Suggested Resources:
1. Lengthening the Day: A History of Lighting Technology by Brian Bowers
2. Age of Reform and Industrialization 1896-1920 by Roman Espejo
3. About Time: A First Look at Time and Clocks by Bruce Koscielniak
4. The Telescope: Its History, Technology, and Future by Geoff Andersen
5. The Wheel: Inventions and Reinventions by Richard W. Bulliet
6. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by David W. Anthony
7. Going up: An informal history of the elevator from the pyramids to the present by Jean Gavois
8. Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 by Michio Kaku

Next week, we consider dates and measurements.

For advanced world-building, the SBB Build A World Workbook is available in print and e-book.

Other titles in the series:

Story Building Blocks: The Four Layers of Conflict available in print and e-book takes you from story seed to conflict outline. The fourteen companion Build A Plot Workbooks, in print and e-book, offer step by step development prompts: Comedy, Con, Heist & Prison Break, Fantasy, Gothic, Historical, Horror, Literary
(Drama),  Mystery, Road Trip, Romance, Science Fiction, Team Victory, Thriller & Suspense, Western.

SBB II Crafting Believable Conflict in print and e-book and the Build A Cast Workbook in print and e-book help you build a believable cast and add conflict based on the sixteen personality types.

SBB III The Revision Layers in print and e-book helps you self-edit your manuscript.

Free story building tools are available at www.dianahurwitz.com.  

Worldbuilding: Employment

In your story world, what are the employment options? 

There are too many possibilities to list here. Get as detailed as you need for the story.

If writing a Historical tale, research which jobs existed in the time and place.

Did workers receive some form of payment?

Did they have badges, uniforms, hats, or other indicators of position?

Were they unionized or controlled by a governing body?

Was there a hierarchy of power?

Did they receive awards or honors? 


How did your society feel about different workers? Did it give them advantages or disadvantages?

In your historical era, people had limitations and unique opportunities. Exploring the differences supports theme and allows you to illustrate the strata of society.

One of my pet peeves is the idea that there was a time when women didn't work. Women have always "worked." There may have been a time in history when a specific set of rich entitled women didn't do manual labor, but I am certain most of them had "chores." I imagine, just staying well coiffed, organizing one's social calendar, and keeping one's mouth shut when one wanted to rant or scream was a full time effort.

In the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, people were sorted by districts and each district had a specialty like farming or mining. In Divergent by Veronica Roth, people were segregated based on personality type and had specific roles based on those traits.

With Science Fiction and Fantasy, you can have fun creating jobs for your characters. What jobs were exclusive to your fictional planet or outpost? In Star Trek, in addition to the ship's captain, there were doctors, engineers, and communication specialists. With space exploration, creating environment specific jobs performed by humans, robots, and artificial intelligence adds spice to your story world, creates unique conflicts, and helps support theme.

Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling had a Ministry of Magic. Adding magic to a world creates unique job opportunities, such as management of magical creatures, dragon trainers, or a board for magical compliance. What jobs did supernatural worlds require?

Whatever the genre, your characters have obligations, challenges, perhaps extreme motivations related to work.

Suggested references:

1. The History of Work by R. Donkin
2. The Works: Anatomy of a City by Kate Ascher
3. Work Motivation: History, Theory, Research, and Practice by Gary P. Latham
4. The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains by Thomas W. Laqueur
5. Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times by Elizabeth Wayland Barber
6. Organizational Behavior 1: Essential Theories of Motivation and Leadership by John B. Miner
7. The Concept of Work: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern by Herbert Applebaum
8. The Oxford Book of Work by Keith Thomas
9. Work: A Critique by Steven Vallas

10. Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Rise of Polarized and Precarious Employment Systems in the United States 1970s to 2000s by Arne L. Kalleberg

Next week, we examine Technology.

For advanced world-building, the SBB Build A World Workbook is available in print and e-book.

Other titles in the series:

Story Building Blocks: The Four Layers of Conflict available in print and e-book takes you from story seed to conflict outline. The fourteen companion Build A Plot Workbooks, in print and e-book, offer step by step development prompts: Comedy, Con, Heist & Prison Break, Fantasy, Gothic, Historical, Horror, Literary
(Drama),  Mystery, Road Trip, Romance, Science Fiction, Team Victory, Thriller & Suspense, Western.

SBB II Crafting Believable Conflict in print and e-book and the Build A Cast Workbook in print and e-book help you build a believable cast and add conflict based on the sixteen personality types.

SBB III The Revision Layers in print and e-book helps you self-edit your manuscript.

Free story building tools are available at www.dianahurwitz.com.  

Worldbuilding: Education

In your story world, how were people educated?

What age do they begin instruction? What age do they finish?

Who received an education?

Who decided the type and level of education: parents, elders, social status, ability, wealth?

Where did students receive an education and who taught them?

 Did they have Socratic lectures, one-room schoolhouses, boarding schools, colleges, or universities? 

Were they taught by family members, elders, tutors, governesses, teachers, professors, or religious leaders?

Did their schools have levels? Did they have uniforms?

Were there apprenticeships, military boot camps, or artisan schools?

What areas of study were available?

Did the places of education have governing bodies?

What determined their career path?

Was higher education valued?

Did education level indicate status, position, wealth, race, caste?

Did they have to travel or relocate to obtain an education?

Were people content or discontent with the options available and access?

In your Fantasy or Science Fiction world, you can craft unique options such as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series, the school for vampires in the House of Night series, or Camp Half Blood in the Percy Jackson series. You can base it on a real system such as the English boarding school or come up with something entirely new. Readers love discovering new twists.

In Historical novels, you can take us back to the one-room school house. 

Secrets lurking at a university or boarding school are perfect settings for suspense or murder mysteries.

Suggested references:

1. School: The Story of American Public Education by Sarah Mondale
2. Advanced Educational Foundations for Teachers: The History, Philosophy, and Culture of Schooling by Donald K. Sharpes
3. Sixties Legacy: A History of the Public Alternative Schools Movement, 1967-2001 by Richard Neumann
4. Teach Like Socrates: Guiding Socratic Dialogues and Discussions in the Classroom by Erick Wilberding
5. Socratic Logic: A Logic Text using Socratic Method, Platonic Questions, and Aristotelian Principles by Peter Kreeft & Trent Dougherty
6. The One-Room Schoolhouse: A Tribute to a Beloved National Icon by Paul Rocheleau
7. The American One-Room Schoolhouse by Henry R. Kaufmann
8. On the Methods of Famous Teachers Lao Tzu Gautama Zeno Socrates Jesus, Hypatia, Muhammad, Hildegard, Clare, Nightingale, Galileo and Gandhi by Anthony Barton
9. A History Of Education In Antiquity by H.I. Marrou & George Lamb
10. Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature by L. D. Reynolds & N. G. Wilson

Next week, we consider Employment options.

For advanced world-building, the SBB Build A World Workbook is available in print and e-book.

Other titles in the series:

Story Building Blocks: The Four Layers of Conflict available in print and e-book takes you from story seed to conflict outline. The fourteen companion Build A Plot Workbooks, in print and e-book, offer step by step development prompts: Comedy, Con, Heist & Prison Break, Fantasy, Gothic, Historical, Horror, Literary
(Drama),  Mystery, Road Trip, Romance, Science Fiction, Team Victory, Thriller & Suspense, Western.

SBB II Crafting Believable Conflict in print and e-book and the Build A Cast Workbook in print and e-book help you build a believable cast and add conflict based on the sixteen personality types.

SBB III The Revision Layers in print and e-book helps you self-edit your manuscript.

Free story building tools are available at www.dianahurwitz.com.