A few weeks ago I was watching the Harry Potter movies with my spouse and I wondered “how on earth does someone come up with an entire world like this?” I thought of other worlds I love, and for a moment, I felt like a pretty inept writer. I told myself that perhaps I needed to accept that I might not be the kind of writer that could create an awesome world like that.
Let’s be honest: it wasn’t very badass of me. Realistically, however, we all have moments of doubt.
I ended up answering my own question just a few days ago while watching a show on Netflix. I was updating one of my Scrivener files when I got an idea, and it really blew me away. I had several story ideas that very easily could be placed in their own world, making them all the richer for a unique setting as well as a unique infrastructure. Not only that, most of the stories could connect to each other; not necessarily as sequels, but the stories happening in the same world could easily mean that a character in story A knew a character in story B, and wouldn’t it be great if down the line in story D or E, they had to work together and butted heads?
I was so excited about this that I actually paused Netflix to tell my spouse.
A short aside about spouses: the really good ones will do their best to be just as excited as you are. I have a really good one.
It was right after this realization that I also realized something that had been in front of me for my entire life:
How do writers come up with the amazing worlds in their stories?
One idea at a time.
That’s it. That’s how J.K. Rowling did it, that’s how C.S. Lewis did it, and that’s how Tolkien did it. That’s the secret. Worlds are elephants, and our ideas are our bites out of it. One. At. A. Time.
Keep thinking, my friends.
This is water. Make Good Art.
-Dearwood Ellis
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