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Does anyone else mostly lose interest after building a world?

Barstar

Acolyte
When I make a world I get really into it, I'll sit quietly in a garden and think about that world. When I plan out world I go right to the beginning and set up the entire history of the galaxy, not just the world. Heroes and races and gods and monsters are all accounted for, every single thing the by-product of a previous event. From the conception of the universe to the humdrum daily lives of the peoples that live in it, I plan out my "worlds". The detail i get into frustrates the people I talk to, when I "want to tell them about an idea" they settle in for hours of genesis like storytelling and more details than some history books.

But then I try to write the story and I just can't be bothered. The history and the world is what interests me, when it comes down to the actual current events story I just move on to something else. Does this happen to anyone else? Am I just too interested in world building? Perhaps I am good at world building and don't want to put effort into things, so I stick to what comes easily? What do you do to motivate your own writing? When I am forced to write something or writing non-fiction about something I believe in I do some amazing things, but when it is just to write out my stories and adventures I can't seem to be bothered or motivated.
 

Addison

Auror
It happened to me. I was anchored to the world and everything about it and couldn't get a firm grip on the current story. What I did was I stepped away from the story. I didn't write, I didn't even try to write it, I just did other things in life for a while. When I sat back down to write I was mostly refreshed. Any lingering thoughts on the world and its history and all I wrote down, tucked away and only glimpsed at if they appeared relevant to the story at hand.
 

T.Allen.Smith

Staff
Moderator
My personal experiences may differ from yours but I've always felt the world-building, character sketching, plotting & planning phase of literature creation to be far easier than the actual story telling...the work of writing. Drawing out a world, its inhabitants, and events for yourself is different from trying to relay a story, to other people, in prose.

Writing an actual story is arduous. You need to be mindful of reader engagement, perceptions & understandings, not just your own. To do this effectively, you must grasp concepts of craft like clarity, beats & tags, word choices, active voice, show vs. tell, etc). Learning those concepts can be daunting. Putting them into practice and learning how to effectively tell a story by writing, writing, & writing more, is even harder. The actual writing is difficult work. However, it is work you should enjoy...not always, but overall.

Honestly,I often think this is why a lot of people get caught up in world building. It's easier to work on outlines for yourself than write for another person. I suppose you'd have to ask yourself if there's a story in there that you really want to tell? Does it gnaw on you enough to sit down and struggle with the writing every day? Do you really want to be a better writer?
 
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Saigonnus

Auror
Not lately, I used to be that bad about world-building, though I limited it to the solar system since there are other habitable bodies in the space around Aern. I don't get that deep into the world-building process anymore, contemplating and creating every blade of grass on every planet of every solar system in the galaxy (mostly because the planning is already done for my principal world). At the time of the conception of my fantasy world I was an RPGer, and even though I was extensive with my planning, I wasn't so attached to the minutia that it couldn't be changed if necessary to accommodate a storyline or plot detail. I think if you plan out every tiny aspect of the world, you make the framework to the story too rigid to work in since you tend to be attached to those details and don't want to change them. It makes the job harder from the get go.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
I was almost that bad, years ago, and the danger of a relapse is...still there.

I've gotten around it by just plain writing the story, drawing on my old massively unorganized world building stuff as needed, and twisting it to fit.

I will make the observation that even though I really thought my old world building notes were extensive, they left out piles of things useful for the stories - things like

'which food is popular in which part of the country/world' (so the characters are eating something specific, rather than a generic 'meal' - and whats their reaction to it?)

'how important is proper form of address here verses there' (so ignorant characters can make fools of themselves or offer inadvertant insult - or maybe avoid such).

and 'what activities are common at this particular festival'. (is the main attraction a play with a theme that touches on the plot? Or is it a duel or jousting? What are the vendors selling?)
 

Devora

Sage
It depends on how much you use in a story. Only build as much as you can use. Though it doesn't hurt to come up with a little more detail just in case if you happen to use it in the story.
 

Jabrosky

Banned
I find this is especially like to happen to me if I build the world before actually having a story to play out on it. I guess the more detail you put into a world before you devise your story, the more constrained your story possibilities are afterward.

The problem is that I tend to come up with settings before I do actual stories. Instead of starting with something like "I want to write a story in which this or that happens", I start with "I want to write a story set in this or that place". Sometimes I do imagine a character to act in my setting, but even then that character's design implies a certain environment. For example, if I drew a character in pseudo-Egyptian garb, that implies her story is set in the fantastical equivalent of ancient Egypt. Come to think of it, even plot ideas can invoke setting. Any story about a queen doing something, even if I don't specify her cultural inspiriation, implies a monarchic society for example.
 

OGone

Troubadour
I'm the complete opposite. Utterly bored of world building. I really cannot be bothered to go through and plot out all of my cultures, continents, etc... I've done it so many times and am never happy, I keep having to go back and change things. I just want to map out my characters fully now and begin writing but I keep being held back by having to world build :rolleyes:

The worst is map-making. It's so hard to balance geographically what makes sense and what I need for my story. I've made about twenty maps now and just scrapped my last one, it's driving me insane. I want to write the damn story, lol.
 

Alex97

Troubadour
I admit that I find the world building much easier and planning a narrative over time isn't too difficult for me. I find the writing harder, but equally enjoyable when I break past the first bit and ease into the writing. The characters, world and plot make it worth sticking it out to the end.

I'm the complete opposite. Utterly bored of world building. I really cannot be bothered to go through and plot out all of my cultures, continents, etc... I've done it so many times and am never happy, I keep having to go back and change things. I just want to map out my characters fully now and begin writing but I keep being held back by having to world build :rolleyes:

The worst is map-making. It's so hard to balance geographically what makes sense and what I need for my story. I've made about twenty maps now and just scrapped my last one, it's driving me insane. I want to write the damn story, lol.

You might want to consider collaborative work. There are plenty of people who prefer world building and would rather let someone else get down to the business of writing. Obviously your own original work is always going to be more important, but I've found collaborative work equally satisfying sometimes. At the moment I'm working with a friend who's only just got into to writing. I'm working on my own project at the same time, but he's using the world I've built and I plan on helping him with the writing as well. It's a nice way of getting short stories and back stories completed.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
To me world building is in some ways easier because it doesn't require you to reach a reader emotionally. In world building you just spit out the facts as you define them. It's a lot of hard work still, but it's easier IMHO to know when you can say to yourself "Yep, this world is done as far as I'm concerned." It's not as easy to say that with a story.

Here's the a question Barstar. Do you want to share the worlds you create with other people? If the answer is no, then don't fret over things. But if the answer is yes, then you have to find a way, and what most writers do is find a story that takes place within that world and takes the reader through that world, showing them what's so cool about it.

World building is not storytelling. They're related but quite different. World building is like constructing a roller coaster. It's cool to look at, but it's not really doing anything until you turn on the power, get people in their seats, and get the thing moving.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
But then I try to write the story and I just can't be bothered. The history and the world is what interests me, when it comes down to the actual current events story I just move on to something else.

World-Building. History. It sounds like you like planning, so try an outline. I have - really not much, and not recently, but I have - even tried outlining the chapter, then going back to turn each bullet into a paragraph or so. But do something, even it's crazy, to play to your strengths and get something completed.

Because nothing beats finishing a project as a tool for getting excited about the next one.
 
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