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[OT] What About Worldbuilding? #3 - Absence of Ambition
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ScarecrowSid is in OT
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Hello Writing Prompts Subscribers.

In the course of storytelling, a myriad of components must be able to function harmoniously with one another to drive forward a narrative. Pacing, character, plot structure… you see where I’m going with this. The number of plates an author needs to keep spinning at any given moment is enough to drive them mad or, worse, to take shortcuts. Does a plot without structure even matter? What purpose can a character claim to have had if they never developed? Pacing, should I care? Questions like these help a story grow, and give it form. I have one more for you, dear reader:


What about Worldbuilding?


This discussion will serve as my meager contribution to the subject, and I hope some of you find it helpful. Yes, this post will frequently have a strong lean toward Fantasy, with occasional forays into Science-Fiction, but I hope that those of you with no interest in those realms can find it informative in some way or, at the very least, entertaining.


The Absence of Ambition


Well, here we are again.

Seeing as we find ourselves right at the beginning of this so-called month of love, let’s talk a little about love and how it make show in your work.

So you’ve got yourself a precious newborn setting, congratulations! What’s next?

Well, what’s next is you’ve got to raise the damned thing. Drawing a few lines on a piece of paper and calling it map is not the end of your burden, this is a long, arduous process that requires commitment. You can’t just point to a spot on it and say: ‘Okay, the folks that live there keep radioactive donkeys and there’s this religion they follow based around cannibalism.’

Okay. Hold on there, amigo. We need to talk about this.

Why do they keep radioactive donkeys? What merit do the donkeys have? Are they used in farming? Wait, does that mean they farm on irradiated soil? I know Chernobyl has plants and whatnot scattered around it, but that doesn’t mean I want to eat tomatoes grown there. Also, what’s with the cannibalism? It seems random and out there, as if you had this spot in the world where there was nothing and decided to plop down an equally random, tasteless facsimile of a culture to fill that void.

When you make something up, you should embrace the idea of having a dozen or more questions pop into your head. They’re good for you, they help you find holes in the concept or outright idiocies in your planning.

Nothing will ever be good enough, but that doesn’t mean you can ignore smaller details that you plan to draw attention to at later points in your work. It doesn’t matter why you mention something in the text, because the moment you do it becomes a part of the narrative. Something that may have seemed like an obscure personal reference to a far off derivative may very well capture the imagination of your reader. They will want to know more, and if you don’t have more to tell them… well, that’s just sad, right?

I don’t think you want that moment down the line where they ask about it and you’ve got squat. That would be really embarrassing for you and quite disappointing for them. And that’s just the obscure stuff in your work… what about the main content?

If your random concepts can suffer greatly from an absence of ambition, what happens when your main work is dealt that same absentee care?


Devil in the Details


The more work you put into fleshing out your ideas, the more they come to life. Like… airships.

If you’ve got airships, how do they affect everyday life? The economy? Warfare? Security? Hell, just having ships floating around would change so many minute details that a city wouldn’t really look anything like what we imagine a city to look like anymore. It would be something built vertically, right? So what sort materials do you need to construct a city like that? Something lightweight, but durable… You see where I’m going with this? Seemingly small decisions have massive effects on the world around you.

If we venture away from artifice and choose something… stupid… like.... Oh, people breathe fire. Cool, we have people who breathe fire. Seemingly there would be no shortage of energy supplied if there were someway to harness that fire. Something like coal-powered technology minus the coal, maybe. Trouble is, what would their houses be made of? Wood burns, and if you breathe fire while you snore...

Okay, so you get it, right?

‘How much food would one need to consume’ vs ‘How much fire they would produce’ is kind of a silly thing to consider, I admit that, but the point is this. Every choice you make when worldbuilding has a ripple effect. And if you choose to ignore those ripples, you create something lazy and poorly thought out. You leave gaps so wide they distract the reader instead of drawing them in.

So, here’s what I’m saying. If you want people to love your work, you first need to give your work that same love and attention.

Or don’t, and they will know it.

(Here’s some news about the sub)


13 Million Subscriber Contest - Round 1 Voting


The contest is ongoing, and Round 1 voting ends this SATURDAY, the 9th. Those of you who have entered and have yet to vote should probably head over and do that! Click here


FFC Winners


RESULTS:

• First goes to /u/Confusedpolymer

• Second goes to /u/jpeezey

• Third goes to /u/rudexvirus

• Fourth goes to /u/Ford9863

• Fifth goes to /u/I_write_u_story

Honorable Mentions:

• u/naiveclone - our bonnie lad!

• u/scottbeckman - it's not poetry!

• u/talesofallure: proving pretty prose isn't purple.

• u/Gezzek for the Mummy reference.

• u/Gloryndria, to secure the safety of our eyeballs.

 

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5 years ago