RT Convention Interview: Jaye Wells on worldbuilding in Urban Fantasy

RT Booklovers Convention starts on April 6th and if you’re going to be in Los Angeles, you won’t want to miss it.  We paranormal fans are getting some series RT love with several dedicated panels including URBAN FANTASY: Worldbuilding in Urban Fantasy which features Jaye Wells, author of the Sabina Kane series from Orbit which that revolves around a fantastic twist on vampire mythology. 

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ATUF: How did you approach worldbuilding in your Sabina Kane series? What initially sparked the main idea for your world?

JW: World building is a complex process that's hard to distill into a formula, but I'll try to explain how I do it. First, I started with the idea that before I could write about a new world I needed to know why this alternate version of our reality existed. That meant, going back to the beginning and figuring out where these other cultures came from.

 

You asked what sparked the main idea for the world, and that would have to be Lilith. I already had a flash fiction piece where Sabina fist appeared but it gave me very little info for the world. I knew she was a vampire and an assassin, but not much else. But I'd always been fascinated with the stories about Lilith, so I decided she would be the lynchpin for my world building.

 

I began by reading everything I could find on vampire folklore, Lilith, Cain, etc. As I read, I took notes as new spins on these old stories occurred to me. The final document was something like 12 pages long and had tons of snippets from web sites and books as well as my brainstorming notes. From this master document, I started piecing together the big picture of the world: What races I'd include, how their cultures worked, the physical characteristics, etc.

 

Once I had a handle of the broad strokes, I began writing. Many of the finer points of each culture were fleshed out through various drafts, but I always tried to stay true to the existing structure and rules I set forth from the beginning.

 

ATUF: What comes first in your writing?  The world, the characters or the plot?

JW: In the case of the Sabina Kane series, I had a character but didn't know much about her, as I stated above. I had to do the world building first to understand her and the world she lived in. When it comes to urban fantasy, I am firm believer that world building has to be in place before you write the book because the plot and the world should be so intertwined as to be inseparable. I have friends who have tried to back load a world into an existing story with dire consequences. Of course, there are writers out there who will argue it worked for them, so your mileage may vary. It's just what works for me.

 

ATUF: One of the topics being discussed at this panel is new directions in UF.  Where do you see the genre a year from now? Ten years from now?

JW: Wow, that's a tough one to answer. I do see the genre moving away from vampire-centric stories. We're seeing lots of other mythological creatures taking center stage and I assume this will continue. That's not to say vampires will go away, just that we'll see more variety.

 

In a decade? Who knows? I think the success of urban fantasy signals a change in fiction in general, in that the meshing of genres will be more common as we move forward. We're seeing it already that the strictly defines "rules" of genre are becoming more malleable. Here too, I should say that the term "Urban Fantasy" is mainly a function of marketing rather than a set of guidelines for authors to follow. Will what we write today still be called UF in the future? Who knows? We've certainly seen other hot genre monikers fade away. Chick Lit is a perfect example. It was a very hot genre for a while but these days most of those types of books are simply called "Women's Fiction."

 

ATUF: What urban fantasy series world do you most wish was yours?

JW: Mine. Honestly. I wrote the series I wanted to write. I admire many of my colleagues' stories, as well as their successes, but if I wanted to write something else I would have.

 

ATUF: How do you go about researching a world that isn't real?

JW: I covered a lot of this in the first question, but I'd add that Urban Fantasy exists in a world very much like our own-only different. It's a meshing of the real world with elements of the fantastical in a way that makes the fantastical seem possible in our real lives. The way I approach it is to take mythology we're all familiar with and tweaking it just enough so it doesn't seem like myth anymore.

 

ATUF: What are the differences between creating human and non human characters? 

JW: Well, the important thing to remember is that whether you're writing about a vampire, an alien or a alcoholic detective, all good fiction is really about being human. Therefore, any non-human characters you create have to have just enough recognizable characteristics of being human that the reader can relate to them in some way. This could either be their personality flaws or the conflicts they face.

 

Obviously since my series has very few human characters, I prefer to write non-humans for the time-being. That doesn't mean I don't still write about humans, though. It's just that writing about mages or vampires allows me to explore human conflicts and issues in a way that relies more on metaphor and theme than straightforwardly addressing those very human issues. But writing non-humans also gives me more flexibility and imagination than writing about a plumber or a teacher or a housewife.

 

ATUF: What are the top three elements that are vital to establishing a vivid and detailed world?

JW: You must be innovative, your choices must be deliberate and you must know more about the world than you can fit in your story.

 

ATUF: How do you keep all the details of your world organized?

JW: I keep a notebook. Each race has its own section with rules, notes, cultural overviews, etc. Of course the world has expanded and deepened since I'm now four books into the series, but I try to keep track of all my new elements in the book, so I don't forget them and have to waste hours flipping back through books to remember them.

 

ATUF: What is the best way to establish worldbuilding in urban fantasy without subjecting readers to info dumps?

JW: If you’ve done your job correctly, you shouldn't need many info dumps. Sure some finer points might need a paragraph or so to explain, but any more than that and you're not letting your characters and plot do the heavy lifting. Another possibility is that your world is unnecessarily complex or doesn't have its own internal logic. Some of learning how to avoid them also takes practice and the heavy hand of a good critique partner.

 

ATUF: What are you most looking forward to at the RT Conference this year?

JW: Seeing old friends and making new ones. It's so great to catch up with everyone after spending so much time communicating virtually.

 

ATUF: Which panel other than your own are you most excited about?

JW: Seeing old friends and making new ones. It's so great to catch up with everyone after spending so much time communicating virtually.

 

ATUF: Thanks so much for stopping by Jaye. Come back anytime!

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Jaye Wells began her writing career as a magazine editor and freelance writer. Eventually she realized she found facts boring, so she left them behind to tell lies for a living. Her lifelong fascination with the arcane and freakish blended well with her choice to write urban fantasy. Her hobbies include eavesdropping, collecting pet peeves, and sarcasm. She lives in Texas, where she does not have big hair but does occasionally say "y'all."

Visit Jaye online: Website|Blog|Facebook|Twitter

 

 

 

 

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