%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 A message forum for general discussion. Please come and chat with others! |
| Hello all! I am working on a book that involves world-building and I have heard a lot about this but I would like to know all of your thoughts on how to do it and other stuff. thanks, |
| Hi, Tinman. First off, you can take a look at this article (by me) on world-building. You'll probably find lots of similar articles all over the place.
If you're writing fantasy, there are other articles more pertinent to that realm than mine, but it should still give you plenty of food for thought. In the end, world-building isn't about a method, it's about not missing the things your should consider. | ||||
| Thanks Zen, Thanks for the article, my story is sci-fi but my biggest problem with world-building is being able to fit information into the plot and, more specifically, coming up with various "environments" the character goes through later in the story, my story also has a lot of strange technology so the article helped there too. |
| Tinman, I think you are making a distinction here, that you are referring to the act of building the world in the reader's mind, rather than the act of creation during the development process that precedes writing. Think of the world (or environment) as a character. It must function reasonably well, it almost certainly has flaws. You must also bring it to life by exploiting it in your tale, because if you don't it is merely backdrop. You can't immerse in backdrops. Exploiting the environment as part of the story creates immersion and brings that world to life. A living, breathing world has character and personality. If you write by pantsing - effectively making it up as you go along, then as you reach each of your environments you'll have a problem: you'll only have a vague idea of what that environment is. That makes it very difficult to explore and exploit. If you have a vague idea of all the environments before you begin writing, do some world-building for each of them. Trust me, it will pay dividends, telling you much more about those environments than you thought you knew, and providing you with ideas and opportunities for how you can exploit them. Like most crafts, writing benefits from preparation. Even Stephen King, probably the most well-known pantser, does prep work - environments, character creation, outlining (remember that outlines are fluid and can be changed as the story gets written). Finally, like any character, your writing must portray that world in a sympathetic way, showing it has depth (often by inference rather than explicitely) in order to breathe life into it. Good luck! |
| Hey Tinman. The important thing to me as a reader is that an author tells a complete and compelling story. World building is pretty secondary tbh. You as the author should have a good idea of the history, geography etc of the world of your story, but ultimately the only exposition that shows up on the page should support the main thrust of your narrative. Too many fantasy and sci fi stories get lost in world building and neglect the simple stuff. Good luck and have fun writing! |
| Leif, I agree entirely. Understanding the world and the way it works is crucial to being able to use it well in your stories, so do the pre work. As you say though, you should always focus on the story in your tale and not get distracted by unneccesary detail. |
| Here is something I wrote on the subject. "Creating the Supernatural World"  Tina |
| That's an excellent article that makes a point people often forget: Everything in your world (be it an item, technology, ideology or a capability) must have its place within that world, and it must make sense within it. This is actually the single most important thing in world-building. Get this right and you have set the parameters for everything else. Get it wrong and nothing else matters. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
