How do you start?

[Seira]

Since I'm new to writing I decided not to set my bat to high. I felt it was better to write a simple book and write is well than write a major epic that would be too much for me. So I created a new world like earth but untouched. Two races humans and another race come to this planet after there is destroyed by the abuse of magic.

Once they get there and begin to build, they discover the planet (or the ocean) is all ready occupied by an underwater species who are not too happy about the new intruders. So I only have three races to work with.
I have made my book take place is one city so less world building. I have spent time creating an interesting city and then filled in the other important places.

But I find Fantasy writers get so bogged down in world building that they spend months on that and forget the characters. It's much better to have a basic world but great characters than an impressive world and cliche or flat characters.

 

[deilaitha]

I have had people tell me that eight months to develop your fantasy world is a really long time. So it got me thinking about this. How did you go about your fantasy world(s)?

I think those people don't understand that the creative process is different for everybody--very different. I was recently asked how long I'd been working on my WIP, and when I answered "six years," this guy implied I have focus problems. Some people can crank out a novel in a year; for me, it wasn't so.

My creative process varies based on the project. I typically get the worldbuilding done quickly, because I have a tendency to be obsessive about things. But as a proud pantser (sometimes a semi-pantser/semi-outliner), I typically worldbuild just enough to launch into the narrative. As I write, the world transforms and changes anyway, so that's why I don't set up the rules as hard and fast in the beginning--more of a guideline. Once I've gotten my quick worldbuilding out of the way, I start writing (or loosely outlining) the story.

This is not to say that my way is the correct way. If it took you eight months to worldbuild, that's fine. That's how your process works. Think of how long it took Tolkien to build Middle-Earth! You're doing just fine--don't let anyone tell you how you should or shouldn't follow your own creative process.

Here's a great quote I came across once, attributed to Theodore Roosevelt.

Comparison is the thief of joy.

It has meant a lot to me in my continuing journey as a writer, and I hope it will help you, too.

 

[deilaitha]

But I find Fantasy writers get so bogged down in world building that they spend months on that and forget the characters. It's much better to have a basic world but great characters than an impressive world and cliche or flat characters.

I personally enjoy a rich, well developed milieu. I agree that characters are the most important--sort of how impressive acting and great story make a play great. Still, I would rather watch that same play with an amazing set than without one. It's the difference between saying, "That was a good play," and "That was an AMAZING play." I think it's okay to get bogged in worldbuilding as long as you can clamber back out in time to get seriously into the characters.

 

[JonSnow]

So it's been a really long time since I've posted in here. I saw this thread and it jumped at me, as I've been battling this very question literally for the past 19 years, writing as a hobby. I have never actually finished my first novel, though I've re-written and restarted it at least 15 times. So the 3-4 books' worth of material in my head has mostly never made it to paper. I've learned a lot about "starting" both from my own failures, as well as the advice of accomplished novelists (If you want to read a great book for beginning writers, Stephen King's On Writing is the best one I've read). And honestly, I've never been much of a fan of King's work. But his ability to relate to a new, inexperienced writer is uncanny.

I'd say that "starting" is different for everybody. Whether you are a character-first or world-first writer, it doesn't matter as long as you figure out which you are. I tried to be a world-first writer for 15 years (failing each time) by mapping out every detail of the land, the history, the family names/lineages, etc., only to discover that I am much more apt at building characters first, then build the world around them as I go. In short, my story and world is being built as the characters experience it. In many ways, the world is as much a mystery to me as I write it, as it would be for the reader to read it for the first time. And for the first time, I actually feel like I'm getting somewhere, and that I have a reasonable chance of actually finishing some day.

I've often wondered how many other beginning writers have run into the same problem. It seems like a lot, from what I've read in here.

 

[Antaus]

As strange as it may sound a lot of my ideas result from dreams. I sometimes have very vivid dreams and when I do I usually remember at least part of them the next day. That's inspired more than one story concept, plot, character, etc.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

As strange as it may sound a lot of my ideas result from dreams. I sometimes have very vivid dreams and when I do I usually remember at least part of them the next day. That's inspired more than one story concept, plot, character, etc.

Being a writer is so ingrained into my being that my dreams typically have plots, characters, and world-building. My latest story idea came from such a dream.

 

[goldhawk]

First some advice on creativity:

• Strive for excellence, not perfection.
• Strive for distinctiveness, not originality.

Both perfection and originality are far too rare to make a living on them.

Stories are not about plot. They are not about characters. They are not about a world. They are about relationships.

Stories are about relationships. How they develop; how they grow; and how they are destroyed. The place to start? What are the relationships in the story and how do they change? Once you know those, you can create the plot, the characters, and the world.

Storytelling is deciding what relationships exist; which ones form; which ones grow; and which ones fall apart. All the rest only supports the relaionships.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Dreams with plots are fine until you realize they're plotting against you.

Being a writer is so ingrained into my being that my dreams typically have plots, characters, and world-building. My latest story idea came from such a dream.

 

[Addison]

When I first sat down to write my story (As in the current version, not the terrible prime first draft ) I didn't really think about the story's world in detail. I just put black on white, strung letters into words until I wrote "The End". After that I went over everything and marked inconsistencies, noted holes or questions of how the world worked. The problem was that my world had so much going on, with each character bringing a different part to light, that it was hard for me to sort everything out.

I found that part of the problem causing me to not find the answers to questions is that they couldn't be answered by the characters as they were. Too young, they themselves were ignorant to some degree, etc. But I've found a way to find the answers, Short Stories. All the subplots which cluttered the draft were plucked, examined and will become short stories. The new characters involved in the plots helped me discover how my world works. Each little plot brings a different part of the world to light for me to see, examine and find a different way to make clear in the novel so it won't be clutter.

So if your novel's world isn't presenting itself in a clear image, try writing a short story set in that world. Heck a fan fiction of your own story works. One of my story's was a fan fiction where my characters wound up in Storybrooke. Their interactions and discussions with the Storybrooke characters divulged how their world and magic worked compared to that of Storybrooke.

 

[Lisselle]

I started when I was seventeen, back in the late 80's. I wrote a world and languages and then put it all aside to go to uni, marry, have children, and divorce. Ha.

When I found it and re-read it in 2009 the world was there, the story came alive and it all seemed to just happen. I wrote the story, created the world and it's languages and maps.

It's still evolving, and my characters grow and change.