Before summer holidays i decided to try to start writing a book, or at least, a long and engaging story. I wrote some months ago a short fanfic and the few people that read it like it very much.
However, writing something original sure is much harder. I was about to start writing before noticing i would need some world building beforehand. I started brainstorming what fantasy races, cultures, etc… i want. I took some notes in Obsidian of how i want the world & characters to be: Their flaws, their strengths… Writing fanfic is much easier in my opinion, you have already all the fleshed out characters and detailed world.
Anyway, i didn’t write a single line of the actual story and feel like i am wasting time planning everything about the world. It can be frustrating.
Did you guys get stuck world building too? What approach do you have with it?
World building I can do. Stringing all of that into a cohesive set of paragraphs? No way.
World-building on the go works pretty well. Start with a story but don’t go into too much detail of the world. And slowly come up with more and don’t be afraid ret-conning some parts.
Recently I have thrown together some titbits aimed a world building and while I don’t think they actually BUILD a world they are solid cornerstone and it was a lot of fun:
https://lemmy.world/post/2497426 https://lemmy.world/post/2362133
If you love doing shenanigans like these your world builds itself just on the go.
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I’ve never done “complete” worldbuilding (cause it’s never been that interesting to me) so maybe I’m out of my depth here. I do enjoy worldbuilding when I tweak something about “our” world: adding soulmarks, magic systems, etc. It gives me a base to start with, and then I can extrapolate things from there. What would change? What would stay the same? Human greed and fallibility always shape the world, even if you have supernatural elements or beings in your story.
But my worldbuilding is usually “start writing and figure things out as I go along”. Sometimes you only realize what your story/world needs when you’re writing and run into a roadblock.
I start something short. Just like a writing short fanfiction, get some core scene in my mind. Then I backtrack what needs to be there for character’s background and motives. If I’m writing forest scene I don’t plan worldbuilding for city or empire unless the forest is part of common land.
Also, there’s nothing wrong with using established trope in your fantasy writing and worldbuilding. Most readers have basic idea of what elf is, and elf is not trademarked. You can borrow them and add your own twist (and if you feel your version of elf distinguishable enough, you can always replace them later).
As others have said, I tend to write the world as I go. Maybe, I’ll have one defining characteristic in mind when I start but usually nothing more than that.
The story and characters are the way in to the world for the readers and they have to be interesting and developed for anyone to care about the world.
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