Flora et Fauna: Research everything for world building.

Dear Reader,

In some ways, I have a mild advantage over a few others when it comes to world building. I grew up on a farm and I learned a lot about how plants grow and some about animal husbandry. (The primary crop on the farm was corn, soybeans, and peas. We had a few chickens for a while as I was a young kid. The neighbor across the way had cattle.) In the process of learning through immersion, I got a reasonable layman's education about how to keep a garden and the basics of modern food preservation.

When I started thinking about world building for the Umbrel Chronicles, I started asking myself questions about what kind of tools they used and what level of technology they had. I started asking myself what kind of food they ate and what kind of food they didn't eat because of cultural reasons. I asked how they grew and acquired their food. The reason why deer figure so heavily is because I have vivid memories as a child of my father and uncle hunting deer to supplement our winter pantry. one good sized deer provided enough meat to keep the whole farm (four households that made a total of 13 people) relatively well supplied for a few weeks.

I researched the butchering process and thought about including it in some of the books but then changed my mind when I realized I was going a little too deep into the world at that point in time. Still, I have the notes for if I need them earlier. Because the process of butchering a large animal in the fields are generally pretty similar for different large animals. And I know that the research process can have ideas churning away in the background for a while until I'm at a point where it would make sense for them to be inserted.

I have a stack of notebooks seven notebooks deep of research notes, plot drafts, and scenes. I draw a lot of material out of them, often using it in ways that I hadn't planned on in the beginning. It is a process that keeps me out of trouble because I'm always busy, but it is also a process that keeps feeding me new ideas and material to work with. This is why I think that world building, even on a limited scale, should be a part of writing fantasy fiction. It is an endless source of inspiration.

Sure, no one is going to be interested in the root system of a random plant. But when that root system becomes a plot device, you are going to want to have something about it worked out. Even if it is just a rough sketch on the back of a napkin that you've tucked into your notebook.