An Ever Expanding Universe...
by CharliEmALO

So, you've got a story in mind. That's so exciting! You're all ready to write it and share your genius with the world. But...there's some detail (or many details!) that aren't covered within your fandom.

Uh oh.

I'm not talking about adding in original characters. I mean full-on universe expansion. Boldly going where no author has gone before.

Maybe you're like me, and normally you would primarily stick to canon. How do you write this story that's burning a hole in your metaphorical pocket, while still making it feel authentic and believable within your chosen universe?

The short answer is: research.

It's ok, don't freak out!

First of all, researching for a story is far more fun than researching, say, for history class.

Now, even if you liked history class (I could never keep all the dates straight in my head), you'll still be aware that "research" is a very nebulous concept. Don't worry, I'm here to break it down into more concrete steps. I hope.

I'm going to start by listing them out, then I'll go ahead and talk about my own experiences at each stage. Make sense? Great!

Basic Steps to Researching

#1: In a nutshell, what is your story about?
#2: What does your fandom already tell you (if anything)?
#3: What do you still need to figure out?
#4: Panic! (Hopefully you can skip this step)
#5: What resources are available to you? (Identify the most important ones & focus on them)
#6: What other questions do you still need to answer?
#7: Make LOTS of notes! (Obviously do this all along, not just at the end)

Here is my experience following the above steps

(Note: My story isn't done yet. Not even close. Honestly, I've not even started writing the chapters featuring any of the work I'm about to talk about. It's a problem).

#1: In a nutshell, what is your story about?

Harry Potter - Next-Generation.
The children spend a year abroad on a school exchange. They attend Uagadou School of Magic in Uganda, Africa.

#2: What does your fandom already tell you (if anything)?

Most fandoms these days have their own Wiki Page. Start there!

I looked up everything JK Rowling had ever mentioned about Africa. I found out that the school is located in the "Mountains of the Moon" in Uganda. The Ministry Of Magic is in Burkina Faso. There's an All-Africa Quidditch Cup, and the magical communities throughout the continent have their own Quidditch team.

It's not much, but at least I have some locations!

#3: What do you still need to figure out?

Location details
Climate
Mythology
Culture
Fashion
Transport
Languages
Probably a lot of other things still need finding out. That's ok, I have a place to start and I'll figure out the rest as it comes along.

#4: Panic!

Up until now, I've written about people and places I know. I pride myself on my trivia knowledge, and my ability to include tiny canon details, even as I write about non-canon ships and storylines (Dramione is my OTP). The Harry Potter books are set in the UK. That's where I live. I have written one (1) story set in the USA, but I've lived there too. I write about them as adults, and I'm creeping up on the big 3-0 myself. I don't have children of my own, but I work with kids full-time. I'm not exactly stretching myself a huge amount.

So, to write about a country I've never been to, and a school that we know almost nothing about?! Wow. Ok. I must have lost my mind.

Plus, there's the added worry of writing about this as a white, English woman. You know that line in 'Black Panther' where Shuri refers to Agent Ross as "coloniser"? Yeah. It cuts deep, and it should. My country AND my race each have a terrible, bloody history around the world. Then, you add on to that all the worries about cultural appropriation and white-washing, and, honestly... I almost threw the whole idea out of the window.

But then I think about my sister. She's internationally adopted, and she deserves to have stories that she can see herself in. The world is starting to produce those stories (we're big fans of the graphic novel 'Princeless', you should check it out), but I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't do it too.

So, I took a whole lot of deep breaths and kept going...

#5: What resources are available to you? Identify the most important ones & focus on them.

- Google

I started by Googling the Mountains of the Moon. Is it something Rowling made up, or is it a reference to a real mountain? Turns out it's a whole mountain range! Ok, so which mountain do I want? I picked a nice high mountain that had a cool name. Then, I started researching its climate, topography, weather patterns, plant-life, native animals...you get the idea.

Next, I needed to know about the local culture. I read up on Ugandan culture, tribes, and history. I looked up photographs. I read about Ugandan myths and fairy tales. My Google search history was all over the place!

- Wattpad

I visited the Wattpad forums (then known as the Clubs). There was a thread in the old "Improve Your Writing" Club called "Research Directory: Find Out Who To Ask For Help On Your Stories". Here people could ask for help on specific topics, or offer their expertise and insight into them.
I asked if anyone knew about Ugandan culture. Someone did!

I asked if they could advise me on popular music and TV shows, as well as any information they could provide on the local tribes. The TV shows were a really important detail - I wanted hear what the language sounds like, as well as check out the fashion for different ages. Google couldn't give me that. The images I was finding were more of a snippet, an interesting insight into traditional clothing that doesn't necessarily represent the country as a whole.

Sadly the thread didn't get brought over in the switch to the new forums. There is a new, similar thread in the "The Cafe" that is specifically for information on countries, here: https://www.wattpadwriters.com/t/information-on-different-countries/3021

- Blogs / Wattpad Accounts

Not only do I have to write about the country, I also have to tackle the challenge of sensitively writing people of colour. Luckily, there are so many resources out there! There's a whole blog on Tumblr - Writing With Color - which is my ultimate go-to. Even if you're not currently writing a diverse cast of characters, you should still go and read it. There's also threads on the Wattpad forums that you can read, as well as different Wattpad accounts you can follow.

Here's some of the accounts I follow:

WattMulticultural

talkthepoc

Africanliterature

Africanscommunity

- Personal Experience

I have been to The Gambia (which is in Africa). I went as a team leader with a group of teenagers from the school I was working at. We spent a week redecorating a children's hospital ward. It was a very moving experience. But...that's not the only side of Africa I want to portray. I want to show the beauty of the continent, its rich history and culture. I don't want my story to look like something off a 'Band Aid' music video. Africa is so much more than that. So, my real life travel isn't quite as relevant as it could be (besides, you can't learn a whole lot in a week).

- Books / People

Neither of these options were easily available to me. I'm currently living abroad so don't have access to the library of travel books my mum has built up. None of my "in real life" people have much experience with these topics, and I don't really talk to many of them about my writing.

- Other

Maybe this is cheating, maybe it's just using my time efficiently. I prefer the latter option!

I looked closely at the film 'Black Panther', which had a lot of research behind it. The costume and set designers spent time travelling around Africa and reading up on different countries. So..I borrowed some of the work that they'd already done. Those awesome cloaks the Border Tribe wear? They'd be perfect for evenings on a mountain! I watched behind-the-scene interviews, read articles, looked up photos...it was still a lot of work, but it gave me more of a direction.

See? Efficient!

#6: What other, smaller questions do you still need to answer? (I included this mostly just for an insight into how I approach these things!)

* How will they get to Africa? On a plane? Too muggle. On a boat? Hmm, no, I did that already in a different story. How about...on a train?! That would be a poetic mirroring of the Hogwarts students. Love it. So, will they board the train at King's Cross? Nah, too easy. Where else could it be from? How will they enter the platform?

* How will they get to Uagadou? On another train, like Hogwarts? Too similar. On a boat, like the Durmstrang students in Goblet of Fire? Boring. How about...on a bus? That could be fun! Where are they travelling from? All from the same place? Do the buses go out all over the continent? What do the buses look like?

* What should the school structure be like? I used to work in a boarding school, so I know that Hogwarts is set up as vertical boarding. How about we switch it up and make Uagadou be horizontal boarding? While we're at it, let's give them actual boarding staff too! (Hogwarts students are far too unsupervised outside of classes, the House Parent in me cringes).

#7: Make LOTS of notes!

I made notes in notebooks, on a world-building website I use, and saved important links to refer back to later. I wanted to make sure all of the details in my story were as authentic as possible, both within the fandom and in real life. No point going through all of that only to forget and miss things!

*****

I know it all sounds like a lot of work, and I'm not going to sugar-coat it...it is. But it's so incredibly worthwhile. It doesn't matter what fandom you're with, your readers deserve as much time and effort as you can give them.

It doesn't have to be quite so in-depth as I've listed above. Even the little details make all the difference. Let's say you're part of the Star Wars fandom, and you want to explore the Kaminoans. They live on a rainy planet. You need to take that into account, so maybe look up how countries with monsoon seasons cope. Or look at countries that are known for being rainy, like Ireland.

It's all about finding ways to make it feel authentic, taking what's familiar and make it your own!

Expanding a previously unknown part of your fandoms world is so much fun. It's as daunting as anything, but it can really push your creativity. You have to ask yourself all kinds of questions, and your imagination will stretch trying to find the answers.

If you're aiming to eventually move on to original fiction, then I'd recommend this even more. It's great practice, and you'll get used to providing the level of authenticity that the public will expect from you.

Finally...don't be afraid to ask for help! Wattpad is an amazing community, full of people with all kinds of backgrounds and cool areas of expertise. There's no shame in reaching out and asking for insight. It makes your work more believable, and readers love that.

What's the weirdest thing you've researched for your story?

For me, it's probably the amount of time I spent looking up the population of Africa versus the UK, and doing all kinds of crazy maths to decide how many students would attend Uagadou!

WattMulticultural
The ambassador-managed profile for works of romance, fantasy, thrills, and more within our multicultural community.