Townbuilding

Everyone goes on about worldbuilding, but what if all you need is a town? Say a small town, population about 2,200, with an immigrant problem and burgeoning industry set at the very edge of the disappearing prairie, circa 1876. Or any town.

Design the Town You Need

It helps, of course, to have a plot line to build your town around, one that maintains historical context and is informed by the design of other small prairie towns. If this town is to be durable, say the focus of a series, you need to design it so that it can grow or shrink. Did the town spring up from a hell town (built during the laying of the railroads) or did it grow out of the land as people migrated west?

Define Its History

For instance, did it exist during the Black Hawk War? What happened when men, left wandering by the Civil War, who needed work, any work, were lured by the stockyards, coal vein, and wagonmakers to your town? Where do these men lodge? Does the town accept them, or must they camp or build somewhere else? Where? What other camp followers arrive?

Check out a Similar Small Town

Research a similar small town. If you’re lucky, you’ll discover an active historical society website. One with archival pictures and a town directory with business listings, goods and services available, and local surnames. Then picture your city center. What do the stores look like? Is there a boardwalk, or are the stores at street level? Are the streets paved? Is there a distinct residential area? A park? Schools? Do you see your town when you close your eyes?

Draw a Map

If so, sit down and draw a map. You’ll need it, whether for a series or a standalone, to maintain consistency across books and chapters as your characters interact in and with its spaces. Maybe the first map is a sketch, with subsequent maps providing more detail as the town grows or shrinks. The butcher shop needs to be in the same place each mention, until it burns to the ground.

Add Flora and Fauna

Now that you have your town, what trees grow there? Shagbark hickory, willow, chestnut, walnut? Check with the state agricultural organization to learn the native trees. Flowers? Bugs? Smells? Then study them until you can describe each accurately. Check the weather, too. Seasonal temperatures. Cycles of rain and drought.

“In a normal year, the creek would be ten feet wide and several feet deep, with water lapping the banks. But this was no normal year. It hadn’t rained in Wanee since early June, leaving the creek narrowed with eddies of blue-green growth where fresh water had once flowed.” From “A Confluence of Enemies”.

Or blanketed in snow.

“The porch of the Presbyterian manse threw light across the glimmering lawn to the walkway, where it bounced off the dancing snowflakes accruing at their feet, enough that they left tracks etched in the thin layer of white as they strolled.” From “One Horse Too Many.”

Define the Town Folk’s Perspective

Finally, how forward-thinking are the citizens? The 1870s were a time of heavy migration and industrial change. As a rule, small rural towns didn’t have city water, central heating, or telephones. But if Lyon and Clinton, Iowa, had a telephone exchange in 1877, why can’t your little town? With the new boiler plant, wouldn’t central heating be available to those willing to pay? And if an artesian water source produced sufficient flow to fill a raised tank, why couldn’t your town have city water despite small-town water systems being rare until the1890s? After all, Chicago had city water in 1842.

Bring It to Life

It’s your town; now do with it as you please. Add characters, the good and the evil and let them roam its streets, finding bodies in trenches for the new water system, floating in the town pond or dead in a dry riverbed. But mostly have fun discovering the mysteries lurking within your town limits.

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