Mighty Objects

What do Tupperware, Google, and Velcro have in common? They are all brand names that fell into common use so widely that they became synonymous with the item.

This isn’t exclusive to the real world; such brand dominance is used in fiction too. When characters in your story reach for a branded product, readers pick up on what’s dominant in that world without a line of exposition.

It also keeps immersion intact. Characters in a cyberpunk setting wouldn’t “Google” anything, after all! Examples in fiction include:

• The Party’s Victory brand in Nineteen Eighty-Four covers every consumer product. There are no alternatives, demonstrating the control the Party has over even the little things.
• Slurm, the generic term used for all fizzy drinks in Futurama. In the Fallout universe, Nuka-Cola fills the same void.

When creating a fictional brand for your story, think about what it says about the world behind it.

It starts innocently. You’re brainstorming what nobles might eat, and suddenly you’ve mapped out an entire farming ecosystem that never appears in the story.

There are different schools of thought as to how much worldbuilding is needed when telling a story. The iceberg theory suggests showing only 10% of your worldbuilding in the story, and everything else stays in your head, informing choices behind-the-scenes. But when you have so much worldbuilding potential, it’s easy to spend more time researching than writing.

Here are two systems that can help you know where to limit your worldbuilding:

• With the MESH method, you only build elements that directly impact the stories’ Magic/Tech, Economy, Society, or History.
• The SPICE method focuses on Social, Political, Intellectual, Cultural, and Economic systems that your characters actively interact with.

If worldbuilding is the part of writing you enjoy the most, there’s nothing wrong with leaning into it. But if it’s slowing down your draft, ask yourself ‘does this piece of world building help the story I want to tell?’

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Spooky season is quickly coming, and with it tales around the campfire, a renewal of interest in folklore, and new twists on old favourites. This month we look at the Wendigo, a creature said to possess humans, and give them an insatiable appetite for murder and cannibalism.

Originating from Algonquian folklore, the Wendigo has shifted form over the years, taking different appearances depending on the story. Whilst originally an ash-grey humanoid with protruding bones, the Wendigo has also taken the following forms:

• A silver-haired Bigfoot-like being (Marvel)
• An all-black humanoid with antlers (Hannibal)

No two narratives portray the creature in the exact same way, and this is a lesson we can learn from. Readers want fresh twists on their nightmares, and it is our duty (and pleasure) to provide these. How might you reinterpret a mythical figure in your own story? What would change if you kept the core theme, but placed it in a different setting or genre?

Learn More About the Wendigo