I Will Be Honest. I’m Here Because Of The World Of Honor Fanfic. But It’s The Best One. My Fave.

I will be honest. I’m here because of the world of honor fanfic. But It’s the best one. My fave. That I recommend to everyone. So pls read this. It’s super interesting and clever. Pls. Thanks.

Now, I think it's time to move onto the very purpose of me starting this.

So, point number one: the basics of fictional politics.

You think that most stories don't have politics?

Most stories just aren't focused on it. Unless your character is the last surviving human in a post apocalyptic world, a secluded monk or some kind of Robinson Crusoe, they will live in society. And where society appears politics follows.

You want to ensure that your readers (at least that part of them that understands politics a little bit) won't cry bloody tears reading your latest creation? Then put some thought into world building.

Now, there are two options when it comes to writing the political (or, think in broader terms - social) part of your story.

First is obviously a sociopolitical system that really exists (or existed at some point in the past).

It's the easier option as you don't have to come up with all the peculiar things like social hierarchy, power legitimacy sources or societal norms of behaviour. It's all already here, you only need to weave it into the tapestry of your story, making it interesting for other people to read.

My advice will be simple: research, research and more research. Make it detailed and make it systematic, and most certainly don't use things like Wikipedia without cross-checking the facts. Some people change the articles there for fun. I did it myself before tests when I worked in university in order to catch those geniuses who tried to cheat. You might think it’s mental, but I’ll let you know it worked.

So, check the facts and use at least two or three sources of information. That will save you from mistakes, personal opinions and propaganda. Because, and I hate to disappoint you here if you haven't got it yet, most sources on society are somewhat unreliable and full of ideological bullshit. Some are just more obviously biased than others.

Depending on how deep you want to delve into the political side of your story, you might need to simply gather facts or gain a deeper understanding of people's behaviour and beliefs that formed and defined it.

Let's say: your story takes place in the USA and one of your characters is mildly interested in the ongoing presidential race. You’d need a couple of facts, maybe some ties between your character's social status and their opinions of the candidates, and that's it.

It would be completely different if one of your characters is a part of the team of a candidate. Then a lot of their life revolves around politics in general and the particular process, so you’d need to know some intricacies of elections, especially what the whole process looks like on the inside.

That being said, the purpose and the plot of your story will define how deep your research should be. Still, quality is what matters.

Second option is more complicated (and more exciting): creating an original political system.

That would require your imagination, yes, but you’ll also need to actually understand the ‘how’s and ‘why’s. Because, surprise surprise, there are reasons our society is like it is. The same would naturally be true about any kind of it, from epic fantasy to post-apocalyptic dystopia.

There are two ways to go about the creation of society in your own world: building from scratch and basing it on some real-life examples. More often than not people choose the second one because not only is it easier to develop into something complete, but familiar shapes help readers to relate with the characters they read about. Ironically, that doesn't save many authors from making the most glaring mistakes.

Either way, when creating your own society and political system the first thing you need to determine is the starting point. ‘Well, that much is obvious,’ you could say. The trick here is to know exactly what your foundation is, so you can confidently build the whole structure upon it.

For example, you are writing fantasy in a medieval setting. You choose Western Europe of the mid-fourteenth century as a foundation for your story. That means that you have some basic things like who has power, how the state is organised, what are relationships between social classes. But you also need to think of things that make your world different from Western Europe of the said period.

Or you want to write sci-fi and decide to build other planets’ societies yourself. That's the most rational decision if what you envision differs too much from what you know about the real-world examples. But that means that you have to create the whole basis from the simplest norms of behaviour before moving to something as complex as politics. Basically, you’ll have to make at least sketches of the whole history and social development to the point where your story starts.

In the end, just like any other part of your story, the social and political side demands a lot of attention and detailed planning. That is, if you want it to look believable. You're in for hours upon hours of research or world building. And some results of it might only get one or two mentions in the final draft of your story. But that's what makes it complete, what gives the world details necessary for the readers to fully immerse themselves. If anything, I’d want my story to be life-like and my characters easy to imagine. What about you?