So, world building, what is it? Sometimes it can mean crafting a completely fantastical environment, playing with elements and locations that simply do not exist at all in our mundane reality. There again, building a world which exists in our mundane life can be equally dramatic if the reader feels the events could actually happen to them. Either way, the world created should always have something that’s recognizable to the reader so they can immerse themselves into the narrative.
Your story’s world should be a place where secrets exist, where rules are broken, and where lives can be turned upside down figuratively or literally at a moment’s notice. Proper world building is only achieved by spending a lot of time manufacturing a setting and a history full of rich details. In my current day job within themed entertainment, we spend a great deal of time working out the details of the details of a story. This can only be achieved by taking the necessary time to do really good and thoughtful research.
For me, writing is like an hourglass. A great deal of my time is spent discovering and outlining. After that, I quickly spit out a first draft. Then, over several months, I do many rewrites and edits of the manuscript until it’s polished to a high sheen. When I say I spend a lot of time discovering and outlining, I mean months for a historical piece. In the case of the Beckett Coven series, it has been years.
This one took such a long time in part because of the historical and religious research I had to perform. I also felt I needed to do even more work because I was writing my first novel. In script writing, very little descriptive detail is required in the stage directions or screen notes. That’s for the director and other creatives to build out. You give them just enough to set a scene or create a moment then allow them to decide all the nitty gritty details. In novels, however, the writer must build that world for the reader entirely and paint a comprehensive picture for them. That work scared the heck out of me. Even though I am a very visual person, I worried. Could I effectively and creatively describe what I was seeing in my head?
Salem, Massachusetts wasn’t just going to be a location for the books. I felt it needed to be a silent, ever-present character. Current day Salemites are very attached to their town and are also very opinionated about it. I couldn’t just half-ass it. Visiting Salem in person before I started writing was immensely helpful. I found that much of my teenage memories of the place were skewed, not to mention things had changed quite a bit in three decades. I came home with books, photos, notes, items from occult shops, and a clear understanding of the textures of the town but also views of the colorful folks who currently live there.
I also needed to do a crash course in Salem history, current events, and most especially the Witch Trials themselves. I knew there were more stories about the Trials beyond the ones told in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, and I wanted to be as accurate as possible while balancing a creative narrative. The backstory I was trying to tell needed to be rooted in two historical individuals on both sides of the tragedy, and my main character, Kylie Beckett, had to be descended from both. Nathaniel Ingersoll (my ancestor – see my first blog entry about this) would represent the side of the accusers, and Bridget Bishop would represent the side of the accused.
The other thing to keep in mind, I was not writing a historical documentary. I was taking a few things that were true and bending them into a fictional story, but I had to be careful. Since I knew my novel was going to involve modern witches doing actual witchcraft practices, I didn’t want to make it sound like Bridget Bishop in any way, shape, or form practiced witchcraft. She was not a witch. It would be incredibly disrespectful and awful for that label to be placed upon her again considering she was wrongfully executed for it during the Witch Trials.
Now, it is possible Bridget may have had some folk knowledge or used some superstitious protection practices, such as protection jars and herbal remedies. Although frowned upon by the Puritan Church, these were completely common practices at the time and not grounds for imprisonment under normal circumstances. During the Trials, however, it didn’t take much to twist folk practices into something dark and sinister with tragic consequences.
And, of course, like many things based in reality, it’s complicated. Although Bridget was not a witch, she, and many of the other victims, are highly respected by the current witch community. They were wrongfully victimized, jailed, and executed for something Wiccans and witchcraft practitioners now get to openly celebrate in Salem.
This is where history and fiction potentially mix in harmful ways during world building. In my story I have manufactured a fictional object that I say Bridget used to own. That is where things get sticky and literary license collides with historical sensitivities. As a writer, one must proceed cautiously. Furthermore, I created a fictional coven in present day Salem who treats this object as a relic. Without spoiling the plot for you, this relic isn’t something that should naturally exist in Massachusetts. Through my research I discovered it is possible it could have been brought to Salem through ancient Native American trading routes. Of course, this is all made up, but I set up the object and the coven as if they could easily be real, heightening the drama. I hope, once you read the novel, you can appreciate the tightrope journey I carefully traversed.
The largest amount of research I had to do involved a hot potato topic: witchcraft. The word “witch” conjures up an ocean of images, myths, stereotypes, prejudices, fears, and mysteries. In many places in the world, people are still imprisoned and killed for practicing witchcraft. What I found in my research was a world and a community that is highly misunderstood and maligned for its pagan, nature-based, and dark feminine mystical practices. Those who practice modern witchcraft are predominantly women and gay men. Historically those who were accused and executed of being witches were overwhelmingly women who were outspoken and didn’t conform to societal expectations. They made their accusers uncomfortable.
Before starting my research, I knew a little bit about Wicca and some witchcraft practices. I’ve had friends over the years who practiced and understood the nature-based aspect of the Wiccan religion, but I knew nothing about the history of Wicca, witchcraft, and folk knowledge practices. To immerse myself and make sure I was being respectful in how I approached these topics, I bought all the recommended witchcraft books (both histories and practicals), listened to podcasts by actual Wiccans, and watched documentaries. It gave me a rich understanding and appreciation of the Craft, which was invaluable for creating the world of the Beckett Coven.
I believe hands-on learning is vitally important for proper world building, so I respectfully took the time to learn how to create sigils, dress a spell candle, and tie a witch’s ladder. I even bought a railroad spike from one of the Salem occult shops and set it at my front door for protection purposes. And no, nothing weird or evil happened to me or anyone else. It was all very pleasant and mindful. I’ll share more on that in a future blog post about witchcraft and historical misconceptions.
Again, just like adding historical individuals, deciding to add actual witchcraft practices to the book was also a bit of a minefield. It was incredibly important for me to be mindful in how I approached the witchcraft rituals in the novel and how I described and touched on the Wiccan practices of my characters. I didn’t want to mangle or misrepresent those who practice Wicca as a religion. I sincerely hope the witchcraft world I’ve built in the novels is both respectful and recognizable to those who use witchcraft in their faith practices.
I chose to base my world firmly in reality with a heavy sprinkling of actual historical and religious facts that I could bend into a literary construct. When you read the Beckett Coven books and see something you haven’t heard of before, like an athame or a French safe, please by all means stop and take a moment to search it online. If I’ve done my job correctly, you should discover kernels of truth throughout the story. I hope that adds an additional layer of enjoyment to your reading. Basically, I want this series to be the Dan Brown version of witch fiction.
And there was something else I wanted to toy with. I wanted to play with the veil between reality, belief, and madness. This would be a story about generational trauma with a main character who chooses to overcome it and eventually end it. To up the stakes I needed to give my main character a super challenging antagonist. Someone she had a familiarity with but really didn’t know at all. In my next blog post, I will talk about character building. Stay tuned.
Check back each month, from now until Whispers of the Pale Witch hits bookshelves, to learn more about myself, my writing process, and how the Beckett Coven series was born. Thank you for joining me on this journey. Shall we begin?
Comments