Every author who has ever written a fictional novel has faced the trial and daunting task of creating a world wherein to place his characters. More often than not this trial begins with the creation of a single place, a single event, sometimes even a single character or detail of surroundings. That's the easy part. Where the trial really begins is expanding that world outward, to create a unique and never-before-seen world that will draw the reader in and paint a picture so clear that the reader can see, through the author's writing, the world in their mind.
One of the biggest hurdles I had to overcome while expanding my world in Twin Legends was to create places and cities and panoramas that were truly unique and unlike those of my favorite books that had dragged me into the realm of fantasy and adventure.
So, how do you do it? My experience has been that, with time and much thought, your world will naturally expand on its own. It will seem as if the world, in your imagination, is creating itself. In my mind its as if my unconscious worked on my world while I was doing other things and those times where I thought about my book and consciously tried to expand it, those ideas gave my unconscious parameters and guidelines to follow. I remember one day I woke up and had these new, exciting ideas for my story that I had never thought of, neither were they similar to anything I had read before. Many great authors have said that as their stories progressed, it seemed to them more that they were following the story than creating it, that it played out in their minds and they simply wrote down what they saw. However great or mediocre my story may be, I can say that I have experienced that thrilling experience of simply following my story rather than feeling like I was creating it.
So, as you think of your story and as your unconscious works on it, WRITE DOWN the ideas that come to your mind. After days, weeks, and more likely months, you will be able to look over all of your notes and see a graveyard of ideas. Some will fit and some won't...and that is where the author truly shines, resurrecting those ideas that bring the story together, leaving other ideas alone, and changing others that didn't fit at the moment but can be altered to fit in the future.
Creation is a process and patience can never be overstated. No story has come together in its entirety overnight; neither has any great novel been sent to the printing press in its first draft. Ideas and storyline evolve and that is to embraced, not criticized. During my revision after I finished my first book, I deleted entire chapters. The storyline was still what I wanted it to be, but the way it was worded and some small details just no longer fit.
My last piece of advice is more of a continuation of a previous thought. The best time for you story to expand and evolve is while you write. Follow your characters, whether they be actual living characters or an alliteration of anything else, and follow where they go. And they will go, whether you want them to or not. I have had many ideas that I thought were good but alas, they never made it into the story because as I wrote my characters did something else. And it always turned out better.
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