Build a Story World

Heresy With Impact

“Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma.” Wikipedia

 

For world building I think this definition can be extended to include any aspect of your world that is its backbone. What is being challenged? What will be the end result—for either victor? Where is the threat coming from?

The dogma includes science, history, customs, morals, politics, economics, geography and finances. It extends from micro changes, as in a character’s perspective, to macro changes, as in the destruction of a civilization. No wonder our worlds can be both exciting and intimidating to build.

And I’m using the term world here as our story world. The movie Phantom of the Opera is told almost completely within the opera house. We have only a few glimpses to the outside ‘real time’ and only where/how it impacts the internal story within the opera house.

Heresy is deeper than the conflict of values within the same beliefs. Almost every major early scientific discovery our world has known came at great cost. The sun is the center of the universe—not the earth. The world is round—not flat, both considered heretical claims of their time with serious consequences.  

Exercise:

           Choose a category that you have been curious about either vocationally or personally. Pick a decade or century and make a list of the issues that became a changing marker in the field.

Share: Which one is the most interesting to you?