World Building?

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chase251
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Hey everyone. Started working on a new original Heroine in Peril story. I'm setting in a more fantasy world like Game of Thrones, Witcher series, Lord of the Rings (ya'll get the idea) I'm wondering does anyone have any pointers on world building or anywhere I can look up to get some ideas? It's something I'd like to work on in my writing. Thanks
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tallyho
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I wrote a tongue in cheek Supergirl piece based on a Judge Dredd classic chapter in the Judge Child Saga

Link to my effort is hopefully here
https://www.superheroineforum.com/forum ... =9&t=23369

My pointers would be that you don't have to spell out every aspect of the world or society you are creating. You can let the user fill in the blanks based on the characters interactions and emotions.
Say for example you have a monster. Doesn't matter what you call it, say its Dave or maybe Evad just to make it more sinister. :giggle:
You can write " The monster Evad was huge and its footsteps filled the people's hearts with terror as it approached the unsuspecting village"
All that is fine and literally spelling out what is happening.
Or you could say the same thing obliquely
The old man was running faster than he had for years but he knew it would not be quick enough to avoid the dreadful creature that pursued him. The village was just in sight when he heard the crash of a tree uprooted mere feet away behind him - he darent look round but tried to warn the people with his last breath.
" It's EVAD!!!" he screamed "SAVE YOURSELVES! Run! It's EVA-"


That tells you exactly the same information - it's a non human creature, big enough to uproot trees, that kills humans and is about to attack a village, ie a huge monster.

The same is true for roles or titles as I have with the shaman in my story. People's reaction to him tells you his position in the society. And I think that's key if you are building a world or society from scratch. You need familiar points of reference for the reader - so reactions and emotions will be the same - a 4 eyed creature will still stare wide-eyed or have one of its two mouths go dry with fear etc but you can build elements of the structure of the society with their interactions.

"The scomer saluted his Tendial with a dip of his head, offered the message and stood back, awaiting a reply"
again that tells you that a messenger is known as a scomer and that a Tendial outranks a scomer - so surreptitiously you are referencing a social hierarchy without being explicit.
I would let the reader do the work of filling in their own take on the world you create rather than being overly descriptive.

Good luck with it anyway.
How strange are the ways of the gods ...........and how cruel.

I am here to help one and all enjoy this site, so if you have any questions or feel you are being trolled please contact me (Hit the 'CONTACT' little speech bubble below my Avatar).
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chase251
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Thanks Tally Ho
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I would wholeheartedly endorse the advice that Tally has given. I would also say that when it comes to constructing a fictional world, you have to be clear about what it is you want to do with your fictional project. When Tolkein created the world of Middle-Earth, it was firstly (as far as I understand) because he wanted a world in which to put his constructed languages, and because he wanted to create a distinctly English mythological world. For him, worldbuilding was the POINT, and the particular stories and characters were (at least at first) secondary.

Now it may be that you want to do that. But I'd say most writers DON'T want to do that. For most writers the plot and characters come first, and the construction of the world is secondary to those things. Indeed, the construction of the world SERVES the plot and characters by giving them a backdrop in which to be put and context for their interactions and so on. Maybe you want to tell a very political story, like Game of Thrones, in which case you'll need a very detailed history of all the polities involved, their systems of government, their grievances, maybe different fantasy races which have different attitudes etc. to each other. But you may not need that. My point is that probably, you want to work out the plot, and your core characters BEFORE you start thinking of a big interesting world to construct. You need to know "okay what kind of stuff do I want to happen" before you can say "alright, how can I build a world in which what I want to happen is possible?"

I would also say don't rush to explain your world to people. Tally is right that mostly you can let people figure stuff out for themselves. Don't leave them completely adrift, but I'd say start small and expand gradually. Maybe you'll need a bit of opening exposition to set the scene, but I'd keep that to a minimum.
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tallyho
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One thing I should have mentioned is that you need to be descriptive when it comes to geography that has a baring on the plot. Like The Wall in GOT or the one entrance to Mordor.
Tolkien's book is essentially a geographical travelogue with fantasy creatures thrown in. You need to decide how important the physical landscape of your world is for your story. That will determine how much you need to describe the geo- politics. If you have warring kingdoms you need to explain why they are at war. If they are allies there's no need to go into much detail.
In the little SG short above, describing the planet was not big on my agenda. I simply needed to convey they were a primitive society.
You will need to decide how important it is to your story and that will determine how you have to describe it.
How strange are the ways of the gods ...........and how cruel.

I am here to help one and all enjoy this site, so if you have any questions or feel you are being trolled please contact me (Hit the 'CONTACT' little speech bubble below my Avatar).
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