Cities Cont’d
Another way to
build history into your world, and to find great ideas, is to track a city over
a long time period alongside its changes. For example, study a city that made a
major transition from rugged camp conditions into a cosmopolitan world center. Or
you can go into the opposite direction: a once major city is now a shadow of
its former appeal. What caused the downfall—corruption or public indifference
or a little of both?
If an entire
city seems overwhelming, choose one neighborhood.
The fame need
not be in location only, but perhaps as a center for the arts, or sports or
medicine or industry. What brought it to fame and why did it lose its
‘authority’?
Give your cities
a connection historically too either through education, or commerce or
religion. Jerusalem is a holy city for Christians, Jews, and Muslims, but not
all their holy sites are in the same location. However some are. Has the city
been ‘owned’ by so many different cultures that each can claim a heritage to
it. What kind of conflict can become attached to your protagonist?
Copy one facet
of a famous world city across our own timeline and use it to tie your own city
together. For example, Alexandria Egypt and its famous library, the
architecture in Prague Czechoslovakia, or Paris France for art.
Share: Which city did you choose to study?
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