Category: writing

Economics is not about money; it is about resources. Everyone should study at least the basics, even though many would find it boring. However, if you are a writer and building a world, it is even more important that you know something about this subject. Here’s why:

As noted, economics is about resources, and their efficient use. Your fictional world has resources, so you should probably know what they are and who has them. There are natural resources, labor resources, and even intellectual resources (knowledge, skills, beliefs). Many historical conflicts are based on imbalances of resources and how people react to those imbalances.

Resources are also tied to political power. Those who control resources tend to control everything else. Just look at the power that large advertisers have in our real world. In your fictional world, this is likely to be true as well. Think about the good guys in your world and what they have. How does that compare to what the bad guys have? Is that a motivating factor for one side or the other?

Example: My World

I’ve been writing short stories and snippets of history for a fictional world for many years now. It is a well developed history for a fantasy world that has been used more for my mental exercise than anything else. I really should get around to publishing some of it some day. For now, though, it makes a good example of the effect of economics in a fictional world.

In my world, which has a dark-ages level of technology, there are tall mountains in the west that act as a natural barrier for most people. There are people who live there and produce metal from mines. They sell this metal to the farmers who live in the plains just to the east of them.

The farmers only have grain and some livestock to trade for the metal, but only a small amount because they are not very productive. To make matters worse, the Bad Guys live just to the south of them and often raid the farms for food and whatever else they can find. Note that the Bad Guys consider the farmers to be among the food items.

To the southwest, there is a forested area populated by a people called Lovelos. These people produce fruit and nuts for food and try to trade for other things. They are cut off from the grain farmers by the mountains and the Bad Guys. However, they do trade food to the mountain people for metals.

The Lovelos also have a sea coast that lets them circumvent the Bad Guys’ territory to the south and reach the fisher folk who live in the south east and south central shores of the continent. Because the fisher folk only fish, they have a Comparative Advantage (economics term) that means the Lovelos do not have to develop their fishing skill so much and can focus on their forests and fighting the Bad Guys. This gives the fisher folk access to fruits, nuts, and lumber.

All of this trade affects who can interact with whom, so it affects the spread of news, cooperation in the war, and who eats what. As an example, if a person from the fisher folk encounters a Lovelo, there would be an inclination to trust. However, a farmer from the plains would have little interaction with Lovelos and be less inclined to trust them. The fisher folk would know of the mountain people, but only get second-hand metal through trade with Lovelos or farmers.

Should the Bad Guys ever be defeated (no spoilers), there would be many story opportunities related to the establishment of trade routes and the effects of social interaction. Who would control those lands? Who would manage the natural resources there? These are sources for conflict and conflicts are sources for stories.

In my study of economics, I found that most people think the topic is boring. I get that; it’s not everybody’s cup of tea. Even so, if you are building worlds of your own, you should consider doing a least a little reading. The specific sub-topic is Macroeconomics, which focuses on large systems, such as nations and states.

Note: My undergraduate degree was in computer science, but I loved my economics classes, so I started grad school in an economics program. The math was really intense and, though I loved every headachy minute of it, I decided that I was lazy. I decided to make use of my Absolute Advantage in computing (which is easy for me) and switched back to computer science.

My novel was, I thought, ready for submission. Then I found out that the agent that gave such good feedback had switched gears and started working in indie publishing. I’m probably too lazy for indie publishing at this time and would prefer to go the more traditional route. So now I must go back to preparing for that.

The main difference is that I need to rewrite my letter and synopsis. I should make more progress on these things, but avoidance and work have taken precedence. The only one to blame is me, and I’m also the only one to fix this.

I already had a letter and synopsis ready. However, I did get some critiques of those and it seems that they need to be modernized. All of the material I read about how to do them is, apparently, out of date. The modern form for both requires much more detail about the story and must be written almost as short stories themselves. It seems that the letter and the synopsis are there to convey not only information about your story, but to prove that you are a storyteller.

Given the competitive nature of the business, all of this makes sense. These first contacts are a chance to separate potentially good writers from the mediocre. It’s the same way I look at the format and writing of a resume when I have to make hiring recommendations; if it’s bad, it doesn’t make it.

Now I’m worrying myself over the content of the letter and synopsis. Obviously I can write an entire novel’s worth of material about my novel (quite a bit more, actually, based on my notes). How much is too much? When is it exciting enough? What will be intriguing enough to hook an agent without overburdening them text?

My normal cure when faced with writing difficulty is to meditate. This is another case where that will have to happen. I’m just going to have to do it and stop thinking about doing it. That’s how I got the novel written in the first place. That’s how I will have to get it published.

Presented here, the hairy vetch
A lowly, crawling, little wretch
Over nothing this thing towers
With its white and violet flowers

But, oh, together with its friends
Protects the soil from the winds
An army built of hairy stems
Weathering all the winter’s whims

Then when vetch has done its job
With hairy tendrils and seed pods
The glory does not end with winter
The vetch for livestock is provender

Despite the full and irregular schedule of my day job, I’ve completed the recommended changes to my novel. That should be a cause for happiness. For some reason, though, I’ve been avoiding the actual submission process. That is obviously an issue.

Even sending it to the same agent who made the recommendations (the current plan) seems worrisome. There seems to be an actual fear of the submission. Sure, the worst she can say is no, but I think that particular no can hit with more weight than I want to feel.

It’s as though there is a dark blotch of despair lurking in the farthest borders of my mind. It circles the hope I’ve attached to the novel. It senses the possibility of death for that hope. If I get another rejection, I fear the despair will dive fast and rip the hope to shreds.

Of course, I’m not actually that susceptible to any long-term anguish. A rejection would bring disappointment, but I’m a big boy and can handle it. MY old writer’s group used to joke that you couldn’t really understand being a writer until you could wallpaper your office with rejection letters. It just comes with the territory.

For now, I’m going to chalk it up to the extra stress and exhaustion of the day job. I’ll put the submission process on an actual to-do list; I tend to actually accomplish those tasks. Before too long, the manuscript will be on its way. If it doesn’t sell, I’ll make changes and try again. At some point, one of my other writings will be ready for the same process and I’ll start that one out as well. As long as I enjoy the writing process itself, I’m good.

It would be nice to sell something, though.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I received some very encouraging feedback from an agent. The feedback did have suggestions for changes. Overall, the changes were a good idea but not very complex or difficult. That only leaves the question, why did I have such a hard time doing them.

My trouble with making the changes didn’t have anything to do with the changes themselves. Instead, the difficulty was with making myself actually do them. I’ve had a week off from my day job and yet it is only on the second to last night that I’ve made myself sit to make the changes.

They are done now. I will let them sit for a day or two and then review them to make sure I didn’t do anything blatantly stupid. That’s my normal process for fixing things; fix it and then double check after a short break. There shouldn’t be any major problems.

None of that addresses the fact that this should have been done nearly a week ago. Procrastination is a problem. From what I hear from writing friends, it’s not a rare problem. Still, with all the excitement that the feedback provided, I should have been more aggressive about scheduling time for the rewrite.

As I review things, at least as well as I can, I think I have an idea of the issue. This novel is very important to me. I have put in a lot of work and emotional energy. I really want it just right, and this feedback helps me do that. As a slight perfectionist, especially with a bit of an ego, I think I’m afraid I won’t get it right. I believe there is a fear that I won’t be able to get the novel perfect.

There’s probable a host of psychological theories on why someone would avoid working on something out of fear that they won’t get it right. I’m not a psychologist and don’t want to pay the session fees to discuss this matter, so I’ll just make note of the issue and try to adjust my to-do lists to accommodate the possibility of future occurrences. Maybe that will help.

Either way, the rewrites are already done. I’ll double check them in a couple of days. If all works well, I’ll see about submitting to agents again before the end of the week. Then I can start procrastinating on my next work.