Building a City

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

Building a City


Some people say they just create it as they go; I am not one of those people. Yes, create as I go works to some extent but I need to know more and I need to write the specifics down because my city does figure in several books. Other people say they've been working with their city for so long already that they know it inside and out. I used to be like that but I discovered that I could forget things over time and that I was so familiar with the details that I didn't realize that I forgot to describe things to the reader who wasn't familiar with my world (a danger for the fanfic writer too I'd guess).

If you have a city that will be the setting for many scenes or that will feature in several books you need to know something about that city so the details don't morph, drift or change through the story or the series of books. So, how do you build a city? What goes in a city? Where do you start?

I thought turning this into a group brainstorming exercise might be helpful and interesting.



PART 1:
Where do you start and how much do you need to know? There are all sorts of things to consider when building your city many of which the reader may not ever know but that you, the author, may need to know to help make your city live and breathe. Things like: government officials, key characters, markets, political factions, economics, taxes, weather, rich and poor sections of the city, church, education, trade goods export and import, military, housing, public areas, transportation, sanitation, water, food…

What other broad categories can you think of?

PART 2:
Where do you start?
What do you need first?

The City as a whole:
You could start with drawing a map. Figuring out where the city is located is always helpful.
Is it a port or inland trade center? Is it located with an eye for defense or trade?
What kind of impression does the city give? Mood, looks, prosperity, size…?

Inside the City:
If you are working a scene or several scenes: What do you need to accomplish with the scene(s)?
Where in the city will the first scene(s) take place?
What is the function of the place where the scene(s) take place?
What does the immediate surrounding look like? Smells? Sounds? Feelings, tactile and emotional?
Are there other people around? What are they doing? Saying? Their general mood?
What else?


PART 3:
What comes next?

Comments

[captlychee.livejournal.com]

Just thought of something else. The Company Town. Picture somewhere set up by a large organisation (a company, trading fleet, group of pirates) that has one industry and everyone works in that. It will have that industry and the support industries around it. In this I include places like Flint, Michigan (car parts), Deerborn (Ford company), Bourneville (the first company town, set up by Cadbury Chocolate to house its workers) and Washington DC, which is a company town in every respect and even has its support industries (car mechanics, doctors, hospitals etc) outside of itself. A medieval analogue of that would be interesting.

There are no better reference work to see the economy of cities than The Economy of Cities and Cities and the Wealth of Nations, both by Jane Jacobs. Worth reading but probably more detailed than you might want for this exercise.