World Building
Part of what took four years to write the book was world building. To create a brand new world requires free-flowing, unencumbered thoughts. This means I can't force it. It has to come to me in waves. Throughout the writing process, I would randomly receive a steady stream of ideas to continue piecing the world together. I didn't want to release this book until the world was fully built in my mind.
Even though I'll still add to the details, the framework is complete, to the point that I currently live in the world I built in my head. I escape to Nemal every chance I get. Raising two young kids often makes it difficult to break the chains and drift into the recesses of my imagination, but I find my moments and I wouldn't have it any other way. After all, my kids and my family still take priority.
Brandon Sanderson's courses on YouTube helped considerably in my journey to develop these new worlds. Studying his methods and reading many of his books helped me figure out a solid approach to creating something of substance. I wanted to make sure this future world I built was a viable possibility, and I also didn't want to venture too far into the extremes to make a statement like so many dystopian novels do. I simply wanted to create a setting for my story and keep the focus on my characters and their arcs.
The first book focuses primarily on Kassi's character arc. We will see more character development of our side characters in the coming stories. These characters are all real people in my head, as is the setting. We live on a flooded, dilapidated planet with an overreaching one-world government that monitors our every spoken and written word.
I read a lot of predictions from futurists, and I've always had a fascination for history. PS, I highly recommend Hardcore History by Dan Carlin. With this in mind, I crafted a possible future our descendants may one day have to endure.
In Book Two, you'll see more details carved out. I tried to keep Book One concise while still giving you enough details of these worlds, but there are still many more pages required to fully depict what I envision in my mind. I hope you've enjoyed my world-building as much as some of my readers. I'm just getting started!
By Shaun Barrowes
