Outworld Ranger: Building the Benevolency Universe

A no-spoilers glimpse at my process as I go about working on the next book in the Outworld Ranger series

Hiya, readers!

I thought y’all might enjoy a no-spoilers glimpse at my process as I go about working on the next Outworld Ranger book. (If you aren’t familiar with the series, you can grab a collection of the first three novels on sale at Amazon for $0.99.)

In this post I’m going to talk about how I developed the setting and background for the series, and how that process continues.

A lot goes into planning a new series, but at five books in, I don’t have to worry about that as much since I already have a cast of characters and a lot of setting information locked in. That said, my knowledge of the Benevolency Universe is always growing. I’m always learning new bits of history and new aspects to characters as they grow in response to all the dangers they face.

When I started writing Rogue Starship, I realized I didn’t know enough about Gav, Silky, and the Fall of the Benevolence, so I began writing Forbidden System so I could figure that out. These two books and the world grew up together. In fact, I’m no longer sure which book I finished writing first.

I published Rogue Starship first, because I had it in mind to make an entire prequel series called Fall of the Benevolence. After a while, though, I realized that series would give away a ton of spoilers for anyone reading the Outworld Ranger series, and that would take away much of the fun. Also, and this is maybe more important, I wasn’t at all inspired to write it. So I nipped that in the bud and immediately regretted that Forbidden System hadn’t been book one to begin with.

All that said, writing two books wasn’t enough for me to grok the Benevolency Universe, so I stopped part of the way through and wrote the first version of Stardrive Engineer so that I could better understand the Tekk Plague and how stardrives work. Yes, that means Stardrive Engineer was the first complete Benevolency Universe story. The version you can read now on Rogues & Starships is quite different from that original. I later went back through and made a lot of updates to reflect changes I had made to the setting in the first two novels.

So how much did I know when I started the series?

I knew I wanted to write a fast-paced space opera series in the vein of Star Wars but with more modern technology concepts. Hence chippies and c|slates and neural interfaces. I am often surprised when I read contemporary space opera novels and the characters barely have access to technology equivalent to smart phones. Of course, I’m sure the technology of the far future will outstrip my meager imagination, but I want my books to show something more advanced than what we have today. In fact, I frequently look at my books and regret that I didn’t make things even more advanced. There comes a point, though, where the tech takes over the story, and that’s not where I wanted to go.

I knew I wanted to break the laws of physics and have faster-than-light travel and communication. Cause space opera. And I wanted consistent way to explain it. Hence the pseudo-scientific (metaphysical?) hyperphasic technology. I liked the idea of having different layers of reality, different hyperspaces with slightly divergent laws of physics. This would allow me to build out the world in unique ways and give me more story options.

I knew I wanted to focus on a character named Siv Gendin, who is very loosely based on a character my old friend Josh created for a Star Wars roleplaying game I ran during college. That character was a procurement specialist, too, as I recall. My old friend Will created a Mandalorian-armored bounty hunter named Vega. Another friend created a character named Smokwana, and we’ve yet to see that one materialize. Time will tell, though I may save that name for a different sci-fi series. Mostly, I liked the names and wanted to make a tribute to a fun time in life.

I knew what I wanted to name the primary ship. Many years ago I wrote a comic book script about a series of characters called the Outworld Rangers, which was inspired by a video game from my youth, Sentinel Worlds: Future Magic.

I knew I wanted a setting in technological decline.

I knew I wanted to present artificial intelligence with all the complexity of biological intelligence. So AIs that were good, AIs that were evil, and AIs in between.

And that’s all I knew when I started writing. I developed everything else as I went, and I barely remember how or why the ideas came. Which is normal for me.

Why is Silky called Silky? No idea. Maybe I thought it was funny? I do remember thinking that it was less than ideal to have two primary characters with names that began with an “s” who interact often. But by that time, he was Silky in my mind and there was no going back. As far as Silky’s personality? That would best be explained by spending time with me and seeing it firsthand. (I’m not that competent, though. And I haven’t read all the books and watched all the movies.)

I developed the storyline and did the world building as I wrote the series. It all flowed out of me as I went. Tekk Reapers, hyperphasic messiahs, the hypermind, and so many other things sprouted from my imagination like Athena from the head of Zeus.

Discovery writing (also called pantsing, but I hate that term with a passion) has traditionally been my writing method, though that has changed and morphed into something else. The next post will cover that. But here’s the thing: When I finish writing a chapter, the story doesn’t vanish from my head. As I’m falling asleep, I’m world building. As I lay in bed trying to wake up, I’m planning the next chapter. While I’m showering or driving or taking a walk, I’m working on all of those concepts and storylines. The work goes on in the background, like a computer left to crunch some numbers.

Emergent world building. That’s what I would call my method for creating story universes.

Some authors like to build elaborate worlds, then write stories that take place there. Tolkien, for instance. Or my friend Lou Anders. For me, that is tedious and consumes way too much time. I will end up spending time developing things that I won’t ever use. And I will likely change setting details as I tell the stories anyway, because for me the story is more important.

For me, the story informs the world building, not the other way around. Until it has been written into the story. At that point, the world has to take precedent to maintain continuity. But don’t think I won’t look for a workaround to that. In fact, that’s where some of my best ideas come from, I think.

I learned this world building lesson with the first novel I wrote. I ended up ditching most of the 50,000 words of world building I did because it didn’t serve to tell a gripping story. And the few times I tried extensive world build after that, it also went poorly.

Both methods are entirely valid, of course. Both methods can lead to some amazing stories. It just depends on how an author is wired.

Am I finished world building for this series? Unlikely, but I think I’ve mapped out most of it by now, in my head at least. As for what lies beyond the fringes of the Benevolency… I have no idea what’s out there. Maybe in time we’ll find out. Whatever else is out there, the only way to find out will be for me to write stories that take place there. It's possible that events in the series may take the characters to unexpected places I know noting about.

Next week: How I Plan the Novels.

Autographed Pages

You can get a signed, typewritten page from one of my novels, including all of the Outworld Ranger books published so far and Stardrive Engineer.

How it works is I will type the first page of a story on one of my vintage typewriters and sign it. This a great way to show your support while getting a unique piece of memorabilia. Click here if interested.