celynbrum:

terminallyuninspired:

mercurialmalcontent:

mazarinedrake:

the-real-seebs:

jumpingjacktrash:

palindromedary-blog:

I do not consider any fantasy worldbuilding complete before you cannot tell me something about

• the culture’s sense of humour, with examples of popular jokes,
• popular literature VS classic literature,
• what children learn in school (especially history, maths, biology),
• the common grammar mistakes your conlang’s native speakers make,
• the culture’s cuisine, with recipes,
• toy production,
• the embarassing old songs people sing when they are really drunk, but would not admit knowing while sober.

i couldn’t tell you all that about the countries next door, yet i feel i could probably write a story set in canada without embarrassing myself

excessive worldbuilding is procrastination, imo

just write the dang story, you can add details in revision, quit stalling

Well, to be fair. You can just look it up for real countries. I found an article about daily life in Canada, and also one about life in the UK, so I’m pretty sure I’d be able to write about those. If I were doing a fantasy world, I might have more problems if I didn’t ever think about stuff like that, but…

So, on the one hand, OP is right: Worldbuilding is not complete.

Worldbuilding is never complete.

Yeah, you can always add that stuff in later if it’s relevant to the plot or would add to the background (you know that thing in Miyazaki moves where the plot goes on hold for a couple minutes so we can watch raindrops trickle down grass stems or whatever? Yeah, it’s pretty cool when novelists do that too) but just making up a bunch facts about the setting isn’t telling a story. TELL THE STORY FIRST. 

I’m reminded of M. John Harrison’s blog post about how worldbuilding in SFF is the great clomping foot of nerdism. I don’t entirely agree with it, but his core point is what Drake said – don’t let worldbuilding get in the way of telling the story. Readers aren’t going to give a shit how detailed your worldbuilding skeleton is if you can’t put flesh on it and make it dance.

There’s definitely something to be said for “consider various cultural elements in your fictional setting, and the ways in which the nature of the setting influences them.” (Dragon Age, in which gender roles and theological attitudes are roughly analogous to standard medieval fantasy ones, despite the setting’s history appearing to run counter to such, could be seen as an example of insufficient consideration of this sort.) Small details like the above list can add depth and generally be a lot of fun.

At the same time,“come up with a list of all of these details of the setting” can be less productive, especially if it’s keeping you from writing the story. Personally, I favor focusing on this type of detail mostly when it becomes relevant to characterization or plot, and leaving details open in case one particular interpretation becomes useful later in the writing process.

My view on it is that sometimes you do need to know the details- but the details you need to know follow on from the BIG things you need to know.

To use the Dragon Age example: if you make a setting where you have decided your history puts women in leadership positions more often than not, then it’s worth taking a little time to think that through and work out how that changes gender roles and theological attitudes. Once you have worked that out, you can make up appropriate drinking songs on the spot, should you need them.

Another example: I was recently making up an alien race for a character in a game my GM is still planning. I wrote down a big ol’ file on them and sent it to him. Did that file contain any of the information in OPs post? No! But it did contain enough about their attitudes, culture and society that if someone asked me “what do children learn in school” or “what grammar mistakes do they make” or, as we actually discussed “who handles trade and production”, I (and hopefully my GM) could come up with an answer on the spot.

I’d say you don’t need to know your whole world, and that trying will definitely get in the way of telling a story. Just figure out enough to extrapolate the rest accurately and wing it from there.