Star Wars Writing Tips and Tricks.

The Planets of Star Wars.

We all know that the Star Wars galaxy is huge. From the Deep Core to the Unknown Regions, there are hundreds of thousands of planets, people's and species just waiting to be explored and detailed within your own stories.

So why do we only pick a select few planets to go from?

Tatooine, Coruscant, Kamino, Ryloth, Lothal. These are all planets that many of the Star Wars fan-base are familiar with, in at least a general sense. And it's rare to find a Star Wars story that does not feature one of these planets somewhere in it. But why only these planets?

Many times, it's because we know the specifics of the planet, the species and the culture that we set our stories upon because it has already been established by the canon authors of Star Wars. Other times it's because we liked how an author portrayed the planet in their published novel or comic.

The rarest times are when we want to create our own stories, histories and cultural practices upon the planet we've set the overarching story on. Those are very few and far between, but can be done quite well if one puts only a little bit of research and/or thought into it. Wokkieepedia is a great place to hit up for inspiration of planets and cultures.

But why those planets by canon authors?

Maybe we believe it's easier to write a story on a pre-populated world rather than having to establish and generate our own. Maybe we don't want to have to think about all the other factors and baggage that come with designing and establishing our own planet within the Star Wars universe. Maybe we want the cheat way out when it comes to inserting a character into a story.

No matter what the reason might be, these previously established worlds give beginning authors some place to start their writing.
And good on them.

It is an age old adage that you should copy the masters before you can develop your own style, like designing stories and universes. For authors like myself exploring the realms of fanfiction, this is the perfect way to begin as everything has been done for you; the world has already been set up by someone else. But there comes a point where you want to expand your horizons and try new things.

For me, this came as I began writing SWRC Book 4: Rising Resistance.

During this time I also developed plots for the later books in the series as well as the base functions of the developing Safe World on the planet of Cularin. Whilst this planet and series are still set in the Star Wars universe, the technology on Cularin is quite limited, similar to our own current technology now. This is both to hide from the Empire as well as give readers the opportunity to see what our planet would be like as is in the Star Wars universe. Sure, there's still Jedi, clone troopers, lightsabers and all things considered necessary to a Star Wars novel, but there's also an element of simplicity in our own technology placed amongst them.

Maybe not everyone will like this idea, but there are only about 10 Ghost/Phantom readers of the series post-Book 1, so it's not like I'm really going to know anyway!

So what about creating your own world within the Star Wars universe?

That's a little trickier. There's a million and one things to think of like the geography, housing, environment, politics, government structure, civilian lives, entertainment, native cultures and their practices; the list is almost endless.

Sure, if not all these things feature in your story you don't really need to define them in detail, but having a fair idea about them prevents contradictions and hazy details that may detract readers from your story.

With Cularin, as it is a newly settled planet, many of these ideas will be created/introduced as the series progresses and more refugees come to live there and thus readers will be at least vaguely familiar with the practices and procedures that run on the young planet.

Next up, we delve deeper into the specifics of the alien species that the galaxy houses!

Further suggestions welcome!