World-Building

After much thought, my next move will be to edit Assignment Day.

It’s been almost four months since I touched the book, and as I was thinking about it this past week I realized I need to spend some time in world-building. I have a good framework and did a little bit of world-building early on, but I need to make it more well-defined.

Assignment Day is set in 2080. It’s a world similar to ours in many ways, but in the world of the novel everyone is addicted to virtual reality. What I need to do is make it believable and yet different from other books set in a similar future. I don’t want someone to read it and think it’s the same world as Ready Player One, for example. I need to play up the setting and environment better than what is in the draft.

What does that mean? It means if I take the time to really line out how the world in 2080 works in my book, then when I work on editing it I can add in bits and pieces as I go along. Not everything will make it from my world-building notes into the book, but the background is useful, regardless. There’s a difference between intentional ambiguity so people can interpret something how they want versus ambiguity because I was lazy and left the reader unclear on the characters and the world of the story.

That’s my plan starting Monday. I estimate most, if not all, of next week will be spent in this exercise. I will also go back to my character sketches and revise them based on what I come up with during the world-building. And then once all that is complete, I can edit my draft with confidence and clear direction.