With the economics not necessarily being in my favor, why do I write stories? Why do I write novels? ...

When we build our worlds, we may know some fine details. We may know whys and hows and ifs and whens. We may know a thousand years into the past to explain the finest details. Even if our readers may not see some of the subtleties, its a lot of fun to know these things.

Then, when we write, we have a huge amount of data to call on - as I've noted before, you may even know enough that your stories almost write themselves. Knowing your world, ...

INTRODUCTION:
This is going to be a bit different from my usual columns - instead of me talking to the audience, I'm interviewing an author who has built a strong continuity-driven fiction series. This will be an irregular feature, exploring the ideas and concepts of unique individuals and how they created their worlds.

OUR WORLD:
Imagine a world of living biotechnology, a secret criminal conspiracy, and two enemies-turned-friends who discover the world and each other are not what they thought. The powers of nature, the balance of man and his environment, all spiral towards a terrifying conclusion as ignorance, greed, love, and heroism combine . . .

In Pokemon: Evolution.

Yes, Pokemon - Pokemon turned into Hong Kong Film Noir twelve years down the road. This isn't a standard fanfiction: it's an extrapolated look at a world while trying to keep true to the themes of the original tales and game. Its a developed possible-future story with culture, characters, and causality. With such a tight continuity, I figured an interview with its main creator and writer, Alicia Ashby, would be invaluable.

If you want to find the stories, you can find them here at fanfiction.net by searching for the title "Pokemon: Evolution", its author (under her nom de plume of "Lynxara") or following these links (if fanfiction.net hasn't rearranged its database)

Evolution #1
Evolution #2
Evolution #3
Evolution #4
Evolution #5
Evolution #6

Or visit Evolution's home site:

http://students.roanoke.edu/a/aashby/EvoWebpage/evopage.html< /a>



And now, on to the the interview.

INTERVIEW:
Well, let's start from the top. Pokemon: Evolution is a complete world, a look at Pokemon twelve years into the future in a very detailed setting. How did this idea start?

Well, the idea had profoundly humble beginnings. It started when my co-writer, DamienK, wanted to run a metaconcept of a canon character in an IRC roleplay channel I frequented. ...

Well, we're back on the creativity track after a few diversions, and back on the subject of religion in your continuity.

Eventually, you're going to have to design a religion if you're making a really original world. You aren't going to be able to avoid it for one reason:



DESIGNING A RELIGION 1: Religion is inevitable.
In the broadest sense, religion is how people define and relate to the universe, and how they order their lives around how they feel the universe works. Yes, this is my definition, but it's my column and it’s the approach I'll be taking.

So, in short, you WILL deal with religion in your world - because your residents will have ways of perceiving the universe ...

Recently I had a few experiences with culture and media that made me thoughtful:

Seeing a Hong Kong action film wherein I was about the only person in the theater to get a reference to classic Chinese Taoist tales and jokes.
When writing a story using two gay characters, a joke between them was taken wrong by an editor due to cultural differences.
What does this have to do with writing and worldbuilding? A great deal.

You can build a world as detailed as you want, or use a historical period. You can know the finest details ...