Modern world-building doesn’t get much better thanN.K.
“There’s an assumption out there that ideas are the hard part.
They are not,” Jemisin tells EW.
Credit: Master Class
That’s really what I was intending."
Jemisin’s course, available now via MasterClass, goes through many central concepts of sci-fi worldbuilding.
“This is the first time that I’ve ever written a book set in the first world.
It’s actually harder.
I was not expecting it to be harder,” Jemisin says.
So I had to go to Inwood Hill Park, which is like an hour-long ride on the subway.
I had to go and map things out, take photos.
“I needed to get into Gracie Mansion, but Gracie Mansion is shut down right now.
So, that’s a huge problem.
It’s also because this is set in the modern-day, so do I acknowledge the pandemic?
Plus, worlds can change as you write them and build them out.
The Williamsburg Bridge no longer exists in that story.
This is already not the New York that we know, so I can play with it.”
Jemisin’s course on fantasy and sci-fi writing is available now from MasterClass.
