New Worlds, Year One: A Writer's Guide to the Art of Worldbuilding

Marie Brennan

Apr 2018 · New Worlds Book 1 · Swan Tower

About this ebook

Step into a world of your own making . . .

Worldbuilding is one of the great pleasures of writing science fiction and fantasy -- and also one of its greatest challenges. Award-winning fantasy author Marie Brennan draws on her academic training in anthropology to peel back the layers of a setting, going past the surface details to explore questions many authors never think to answer. She invites you to consider the endless variety of real-world cultures -- from climate to counterfeiting, from sumptuary laws to slang --and the equally endless possibilities speculative fiction has to offer.

This volume collects essays from the first year of the New Worlds Patreon. 

Ratings and reviews

Terrific book! She does a great job helping with world building, cool subjects. I look forward to the rest of the books.

About the author

Marie Brennan is a former anthropologist and folklorist who shamelessly pillages her academic fields for inspiration. She has recently misapplied her professors' hard work to the short novel DRIFTWOOD and TURNING DARKNESS INTO LIGHT, a sequel to the Hugo Award-nominated Victorian adventure series The Memoirs of Lady Trent. The first book of that series, A NATURAL HISTORY OF DRAGONS, was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Her other works include the Doppelganger duology, the urban fantasy Wilders series, the Onyx Court historical fantasies, the Varekai novellas, and nearly sixty short stories, as well as the New Worlds series of worldbuilding guides. Together with Alyc Helms as M.A. Carrick, she is the author of the upcoming Rook and Rose epic fantasy trilogy, beginning with THE MASK OF MIRRORS in January 2021. For more information, visit swantower.com, Twitter @swan_tower, or her Patreon at www.patreon.com/swan_tower.