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What styles of writing do you think best fit your world-building (and why you're good at it)?

GM4LSWC94

Scribe
It sounds interesting, dialogue is an integral part of my story though. I like writing a lot about my world in heavy detail and then kind of use it as a reference when the information becomes relevant in the plot. Like right now there is a lot of information I have written about a couple particular monsters that may only be in part of the first book and more heavily involved in later installments.
 
I think what works with the book I mentioned before is the near scientific descriptions of the faeries - the MC does lots of fieldwork and records various sightings and notes the specific attributes of each species of Faerie - perhaps this is similar to how you’ve approached it, but I think it must be fun to write in this way.
 

GM4LSWC94

Scribe
I think what works with the book I mentioned before is the near scientific descriptions of the faeries - the MC does lots of fieldwork and records various sightings and notes the specific attributes of each species of Faerie - perhaps this is similar to how you’ve approached it, but I think it must be fun to write in this way.
My approach differs some, while is not the MC doing the note taking and making the records, someone else already has. I suppose my approach is the material is already available in my world, rather than it being one of the characters doing the research. I think it would be really interesting to write a short story in this way though. I think I could have fun with it.
 

GM4LSWC94

Scribe
I think what works with the book I mentioned before is the near scientific descriptions of the faeries - the MC does lots of fieldwork and records various sightings and notes the specific attributes of each species of Faerie - perhaps this is similar to how you’ve approached it, but I think it must be fun to write in this way.
Also, the Dracopedia Field Guide by William O'Connor is another one that is written with that kind of style. I knew I had read something similar a long time ago and couldn't remember what it was. I remember this book from when I was a kid, very enthralling it had pictures, samples, letters and a bunch of other really cool stuff. If I remember the narrative was told in the letters between colleagues.
 
Also, the Dracopedia Field Guide by William O'Connor is another one that is written with that kind of style. I knew I had read something similar a long time ago and couldn't remember what it was. I remember this book from when I was a kid, very enthralling it had pictures, samples, letters and a bunch of other really cool stuff. If I remember the narrative was told in the letters between colleagues.
Aw I wish I had came across this book as a child! Thanks for the recommendation. I think the letters are a good twist - kinda like primary historical sources. I really shouldn't be writing a dry history/anthropology textbook.
 

Insolent Lad

Maester
I did my share of 'academic' writing and it did help set me up for a career of writing magazine articles before ever I turned (at least seriously) to fiction. I am sure the nonfic articles I turned out helped me develop a fiction style. After all, it worked for Kipling and Hemingway. But (always a but, you know) I suspect I owe more to poetry and song writing, where imagery is the number one concern. One strong image is worth paragraphs of description.
 
I've found that a style I really enjoy using for narrative worldbuilding is a sort of old-fashioned 19th century style. I position it like this: I am a traveller from a particular place in my world arriving at a new place. I then go into everything that person observes and interacts with, in a manner similar to the works of such real people as Isabella L. Bird, extreme detail.

That may sound overwhelming, but I've posted such a passage about one city in my world (you can see it in Story Showcase, called 'A Vignette of Lluddow, the Black-Green City') and that got a pretty good reception.

This is outside of the character and plot-based fiction I tend to write, but it's a compelling side project.
 
I've found that a style I really enjoy using for narrative worldbuilding is a sort of old-fashioned 19th century style. I position it like this: I am a traveller from a particular place in my world arriving at a new place. I then go into everything that person observes and interacts with, in a manner similar to the works of such real people as Isabella L. Bird, extreme detail.

That may sound overwhelming, but I've posted such a passage about one city in my world (you can see it in Story Showcase, called 'A Vignette of Lluddow, the Black-Green City') and that got a pretty good reception.

This is outside of the character and plot-based fiction I tend to write, but it's a compelling side project.
Thanks for the recommendation, will go have a read when I have the time cheers.
 

CrystalD

Scribe
I started out by writing fanfiction, and that’s totally character based stuff with enough description to know what’s going on, and then bam right into the dialogue for me lol. I’m 100% a dialogue writer, that’s what I think brings the characters alive for me and what I enjoy writing the most. Because of that, my style outside of that I’ve found is 3rd person but in each characters head, so when they aren’t talking, you’re in the current POV characters head while things are going on. I have 2 POVs in the novel I’m working on at the moment though, and I’m enjoying the flow of it going from how they’re thinking and feeling to then dialogue. But it may be super cheesy and I just don’t realize it right now, who knows :D


I’m purely a narrative writer, very artistic with using metaphors in my work. I’ve been that way in both original and fanfiction, and don’t see it changing now that I’ve started writing again haha.
 

Stepgingerly

Dreamer
I don’t think I've ever had any compare me to another writer—least not in a good way.
I'm sure she was being kind, and it was a good lesson for me because two of the other critique group folks had been shredding the piece I shared. There is such a thing as taste, and what one group adores, another despises. The hardest part of this process seems to be finding one's audience.
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
I get comparisons all the time, but I suspect it's all about what the reader is focusing on. People like to compare my work to Game of Thrones—there are some obvious trope similarities that I swear some people think GRRM invented—Abercrombie, I think, mostly for the tone of the writing, and one person on these boards would swear up and down that I write like Frank Herbert. The latter I kind of see, but again, only if focusing on a certain aspect.

I've also been compared to Shit, but I've yet to find any of their work on Amazon. Maybe if I knew their first name, heh heh.

Oh, and I agree, Rothfuss for me isn't even just a nap waiting to happen, I find him frustrating as hell. I wanted to like Name of the Wind, but simply couldn't.

I'm sure she was being kind, and it was a good lesson for me because two of the other critique group folks had been shredding the piece I shared. There is such a thing as taste, and what one group adores, another despises. The hardest part of this process seems to be finding one's audience.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
So far, I have found two readers who like my work, more than a few who are thinking they are doing me a favor but its not really their thing, and another more than a few who make me wonder how we could be so far apart.

But the world is a big place. I dont need all of them to like it, just need to reach the people who will. I dont know the magic bullet for that--yet.

I was once compared to Robert Jordan, which at the time I was like....and what does that mean? I came to think it meant I was wordy and too much effort to get through. I think that is funny, cause the sample I wrote was more because a commenter made me believe I needed to spell things out more. Today, I would not listen to such advice. Of the writers I am aware of, I think I most like Howard. But...I think Howard was also more detailed than me, and sometimes on the brink of purple prose. So, I am not really like him. I dont care really. I am okay with just being whatever style it is.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Incidentally, I am seeing that friend who wanted me to spell things out this weekend. He is looking at my current one, and I am getting the same comments. I think he just wants all writing to be like Tolkien, but I am way not like him. It may be that the ruined tower has a history, but no one in the story is going to explain it to the reader. Sometimes a ruined tower is just a ruined tower. They dont get a paragraph of history and explanation.
 

Stepgingerly

Dreamer
It may be that the ruined tower has a history, but no one in the story is going to explain it to the reader. Sometimes a ruined tower is just a ruined tower. They dont get a paragraph of history and explanation.
No Amon Sul from you!
I, on the other hand, need to go back through my first book scattering little bits of ruined stuff all over my world after deciding that, to fix a plot hole, I needed a war to have happened about 75 years previously.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
The nerve, putting off a war for 75 years.

Yep...no weathertops.

That's one thing that vexes me. I am writing book three, and something comes up that makes me go...Oh, I need to add that in book one. How can I publish book one, when stuff may pop up that makes me want to add more detail? I dont know.
 
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