Building Worlds

This is a brief look at what steps we take to crafting world when we're storytelling.

I am on the backswing of some large projects. While I am always looking for the next gig, I have a handful of my own projects I need, and want, to work on. Among fantasy beer labels, I am plotting a course for some nouveau-style coffee pinups and I’m building two worlds. No rest for the creatively flustered, after all. 

I’m the kind of creator who likes to work in prolonged bursts. Give me ten straight hours on a project with only little breaks in the middle. Adding tasks like writing newsletters, managing correspondence, and working out my next art show, or comic con, often creates detours that derail me. It’s something I am learning to overcome, day by day. One of the projects I like to marathon is world building. If you’ve ever spent an inordinate amount of time working on Dungeons & Dragons lore, you might be familiar with the rituals that go into crafting lore and settings.  

Right now, I am laying the groundwork for a new graphic novel codenamed Fregoli. (Okay, it might keep that name.) My goal for Fregoli is to have the script done, or at least the first draft, by the end of the year. Another project rolling out is Violet 9. Violet 9 has been a backburner project for a few years now. Originally, I intended to focus the content on a card game, but now I am working on creating written and illustrated vignettes to start crafting a world and stories in it. Fregoli and Violet 9 are very different concepts, and I am taking different approaches to working on them. Hopefully this entry will be a great way to learn a bit about how I approach storytelling. Maybe I’ll learn something about my own storytelling by the end of this entry, too?

Let’s start with the graphic novel. Fregoli is fantastical, historical fiction, taking place in the mid 1940’s. If you’re a paid subscriber, you might remember it popping up a time or two in the past. The story follows two brothers and their involvement in organized crime during the height of World War II. I rarely start a new story with an exact premise like that. So where exactly do I start?

I am a fan of Brian McDonald’s storytelling guides, Invisible Ink, and, The Golden Theme. If you’ve been in the Brimstone community long enough, I’ve likely shared those books with you. McDonald’s work masterfully simplifies and makes the parts of storytelling accessible. After using his work in classrooms for the last eight years, I’ve become well-versed in the structure. Across the books, Brian creates a metaphor in which he considers crafting a story like creating a human from whole cloth. The structure of a story builds the bones, muscles, and sinews of the person. The theme, or what the story is about, is what defines this metaphorical person. It makes up who they are. Finally, the genre is merely dressing. Are we dressing up our person as a cowboy? A Detective? Or, perhaps, a superhero?

I love this methodology because it implies that once you get good at setting up the structure, understanding a theme, and have the will to play with genre, you can write anything. Of course, there’s more to McDonald’s books, but that’s the groundwork. I feel I understand the structure well enough that the true first part, for me, is theme. What the heck is this story going to be about? In the case of Fregoli, after years of enjoying gangster and crime stories, and years working on the violence of Champions, I wanted to tell a story about death, and whether or not anyone should be able to choose who lives and dies. I was inspired by the Streetlight Manifesto song, The Big Sleep, when Tomas sang the lyrics, “If only we were brave enough to live the lives we stole.” That’s what I intend Fregoli to be about. Sometimes stories change, and themes change, but that’s my goal.

What about Violet 9? That’s trickier. Card games aren’t about much other than strategy. Most games have genre, or worlds, but not everything has an actual theme. Now that I am taking Violet 9 toward storytelling, I need to figure that out. While both of these stories are more for adults, Violet 9, leans towards adults much more. The intention in the card game premise was to make a game that balanced sexiness, humor, and horror. It’s a magical world where, much like Warhammer 40,000, darker impulses and classical sins define the world. 

When I shifted toward adult-oriented content as Brimstone Studios, I found a theme, or slogan, in the words of Michael Stipe, “Instead of pleasing others, please yourself.” This slogan came out of spending countless hours of my life concerned about what others want, what others need, and what makes others happy. While it’s great to do things for others, I don’t let myself focus on what I want, and I felt Stipe’s words were something to strive for. When I think about a world fueled by concepts like lust, envy, wrath, or vanity, I think Violet 9’s theme might be that slogan. Perhaps that world is Brimstone’s theme to the extreme?

A vignette from Violet 9

It might sound strange, but I think I understand the world of gangsters better than I do the world of extreme desire. As I try to break that down, I think it’s because, until now, Violet 9 has been more of a nebulous concept. Not something as rooted as Fregoli. Maybe those roots are spreading.

Now that I know my themes, it’s time to start putting my energy toward the structure. With Fregoli, I am in the research phase so far. I am crafting concepts for characters, reading accounts about the 1940’s, and even checking weather reports. Although there will be something supernatural going on in Fregoli, I want the world to be believable. If I list a date, and say it rained that day, I want you to be able to Google the time and place and see that it did, indeed, rain that day. Currently, I am stringing all these bits and pieces together in a big workspace using the app, Obsidian. Like OneDrive, it works as a wiki to help me organize my thoughts.

Research can be a tricky task. I could be down a rabbit hole forever if I’m not careful. The tactic I am deploying to avoid staying in research mode forever is crafting plot beats. If my story is about death and who becomes its arbiter, I should be able to plot out events I want to see. As those beats become chunks of my structure, I can start to understand to what extent I need to research. Soon, I’ll be doing just the written carving as the script takes form.

As for Violet 9, I am taking a new, and unusual approach. I am focusing more on the supernatural and magical rules for the world. I know I want it to also take place on a version of Earth, but I’m doing much less research. It’s all about what does and doesn’t work, and how the demons, monsters, and magic all work. Instead of considering any plot points, or even fussing with structure, I’m throwing that to my community. To keep the spirit of a game in the concept, I am inviting members of the Brimstone Order to help develop the stories and characters that exist. I think this will let me create a few illustrations now, while letting your input drive what comes next. My goal is that it will strengthen the community and help develop something we all have investment in.

These two approaches are extremely different from one another. Though that can seem daunting, at times, I actually think it’s going to help enrich both concepts as they move from development towards final products. Working rigidly on Fregoli has the chance to help develop better rules and boundaries for Violet 9. On the other hand, working loosely on Violet 9, may help me think more outside the box with Fregoli. That doesn’t mean I don’t have a challenge on my hands, because this is a huge challenge! 

I still need more paid work. I need to stay on top of everything, of course. But world building is exciting. Once you’ve defined your rules, and determined your tools, I think that world building can be tackled with almost any approach. You just need to know when to stop fiddling and start making content. If you want to keep up with the content of either the dark and grim, Fregoli, or the dangerous and sexy, Violet 9, become a paid subscriber, or join the Brimstone Order for these and many other perks. We’ll see if my estimates come true, and just how my rule systems get us toward the results I’m looking for.

How do you take on world building?

---

Get your exclusive Brimstone Studios merchandise!