Rookie world builder- questions and thoughts

Hi! I'm a quirky worldbuilder too, and so far no one has minded my tangents.

I think you should worldbuild as much as you want, but when it comes to the actual writing, try to be spare and drop the majority of your info through dialogue and narration, not straight exposition. It's all in the little details, I think. Building your world through small, detailed revelations makes it more layered and nuanced, IMO.

That being said, I often find myself pausing and wondering something like, "Is it really necessary to differentiate analog-Celtic torq necklaces between the analog-British Isles style and analog-mainland style?" If you find yourself in a situation like that, just take a deep breath and tell yourself it doesn't matter all that much. Or if it does, you can always find a way to slip it in more unobtrusively.

I prefer to reference worldbuilding in dialogue, then include an example of it in the narrative further along so I have a chance to make it more solid. Say that in dialogue, a character mentions a superstition surrounding the statues on such-and-such a god's temple. Later, if they visit that temple, I can add some more worldbuilding to flesh it out and give it some history.

I've found that this method keeps people--at least, my very tolerant betas--interested because now they want to know about it, too. If you just dump straight exposition on them they won't have that experience--getting a little taste, and wanting more.

 

I am a very lazy worldbuilder, so take this advice with that in mind.

First of all, I never give away more information than I need to. If my story takes place in a town, then all I really need to give the reader is a sense of what that town is like. They don't need to know about surrounding towns, the country, the continent, or any thing else that is not pertinent to the story. I may know what the world is like outside of that town, but if it is not important to the story, I don't include that information. And generally, I don't construct new countries and cultures unless I need it for the story I am telling.

Second, I am very aware of continuity. The reader may not need to know a lot about the world, but what they do know should be consistent. I use something called tiddlywiki to keep all my information straight. Everytime I introduce a new element, whether it be a person, place, or thing, I make a wiki entry for it so that I have something to go back to If I need a refresher.

I would'nt worry about drawing from historical examples in your fiction. Most fantasy out there is lifted right out of Nordic culture and mythology. Some of it is really blatant too. I guess if you are going to use a real world culture as a template, you're at least in good company. A lot of my worldbuilding is inspired by real cultures, and I have never had anyone call me on it. By the way, I dont even know who the Suomi are.

Names are tough, and I suppose a lot of it depends on what your worlds culture is like. All I can say, is come up with a naming convention that works for you, and then stick with it. A few naming conventions I use are as follows:

1. Mispelling. Giry, instead of Gary. Ana instead of Anna. Rajur instead of Roger. These show up mostly in my Steampunk fiction, and help give a sense of another world without going overboard.

2. Native Descriptive Names. Go look at some Native American names, and try to ape them. Some of them are really good, and gives you a way to name characters without making up new words. We are all familiar with names like Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, and Crazy Horse. There are a few famous examples of this out there already.

Also, there is a great site I use sometimes, The Rinkworks Fantasy Name Generator, which allows you to make your own templates.

As far as how to relay the information about the world to your readers, you really just have to practice. Sometimes you can get away with describing a place in detail (especially at the beginning of a book, or chapter), especially if you describe it the way the character is experiencing it. Sometimes dialogue is sufficient to help give the reader a sense of the setting too. Really it just comes down to having the skill and experience to know when to use what.

Hope I helped a bit.

 

To a certain extent you can give lessons on your world in story. I have notes on how the days of the week were named, and the stories behind the months, calculated how far from the sun my world is, size of it's moon etc.... Most of this will never be in a story, but it helps me add weight to the world in my head.

An easier method would be using some things in description or character thoughts, and only fleshing out what needs more explanation. People will fill in gaps or extrapolate from small informational clues. For example:

Vellanus walked through the Brickhaven district like any normal man that crisp Talidaeg morning. He had no set destination as he followed the bustle of the markets feeling the press of men women and other around him. The thump of his staff against the worn cobblestone of Goblintown, as those across the river called it, lost amid the din of a hundred hawkers, buyers and braying beasts as the city prepared for the coming of spring. Libitine had buried them in snow and ice for weeks, but finally Sehryl had come up on the calendar bringing warmth, and new growth, and most importantly new love.

Just off the top of my head, but there's a lot of info in there.

 

Don't hold back, some of the really great successful fantasy stories have relied on relaying backstory information to draw in readers. A lot of fantasy readers do enjoy reading history, and architecture, and dress, and language, and geography. That's why LoTR has seen the publishing of unfinished Tolkien works that were originally just lore bits. You really can't overemphasize your world, I mean you can, but you know to stay on with your story and whatever bits come up as filler conversation that might inspire a particular train of thought in your character, or which might be the highlight of their ambitions and character, use it.

In Wheel of Time I've loved the little snippets in the chapters from the Dragon Prophecies, and the little dead sayings that the heroes of old have said as they came back into the present.

As fantasy, you aren't necessarily going to rely on rich historical lore to build your story, but an explanation of from whence things came keeps readers intrigued.

Language building is a great idea, I think it's better to build your own culture that might have some traits of real world culture than it is to take directly from history. Taking from history to me is another genre of historical fiction and in some fantasy genre circle, readers don't like too much of the mystifying east orient flavor being melded into the story where other readers live for that. So long as your story has a clean perspective, I would say it's hard to overdue your world unless it's just a jumble of mixed up tidbits that don't have a sense of consequence and roots, but then in alternate dimensions that might be exactly what you need.

Defy time and rewrite history.

 

First of all, let me say that there can no shortage of detail in a fantasy setting. There are so many things to think of. And, in my opinion its important to work much of that out. But only go into as much detail during this "research".

Tom Nimenai says: "...hen it comes to the actual writing, try to be spare and drop the majority of your info through dialogue and narration, not straight exposition." And he's right. All that hard work is going to come out in the dialogue. The things people say, how they say it, popular catch phrases, cultural references and so on.

Place names are also very important (and there's a thread already discussing that). Short of pointing you over there, I use a number of ways to name cities, towns, villages. Compile a list of words common in english place names (hill, town, ville, mount, river, creek, red, green, three... etc etc) and then head over to google translate and use that to translate those words into Czech or German or French or Arabic or whatever. Place names are simply "the place where the three rivers converge" and over the fullness of time become Three Rivers or Trois-Rivières or Drei-Flüsse etc etc.

Anyways everyone seems to have some great ideas and have pointed you in right direction I think.

@B-Rann: Soumi is what the Finnish people call their country Finland. Finland is not a strictly Nordic culture. There is a strong Nordic element there, but also there is a lot of Lapp and Eurasian culture there as well. Its a very curious and interesting blend.

cheers!

 

One of the great lessons one can take from the Souls Series (Demons' Souls, Dark Souls, & Dark Souls II) is that the more substance to that your world that you imply exists without stating it outright, the better. What better way is there to do this than to create said substance?

Tom Nimenai gave a perfect example; by having the characters discuss some little bit of lore, the reader is intrigued and led to assume that there is a depth of additional info surrounding said little bit. This naturally inspires curiosity in the reader. Then, when the lore is manifested in the narrative (in this case with the statues in the temple) they are rewarded for their curiosity. This is far preferable to just revealing this lore in a narrative dump. Worst case scenario you can just release an Atlas of your world once the series is a bestseller!

Also, as a history buff, I wouldn't necessarily say having historical influence is a bad thing. My only advice is that it either needs to be overwhelming or integrated so well as to be almost unnoticeable; it also should be both necessary and consistent.

Take Dragon Age; Ferelden resembles Saxon England so it uses English. Orlais is powerful, haughty, and fashion-obsessed so the Orlesians speak French. Tevinter is a crumbling & militarist ancient empire with a penchant for slavery so they have Latin names and Roman Influences. The Qunari are supposed to feel alien, so they speak a constructed language. Orlais, Tevinter, and Ferelden manage to nevertheless feel distinct from the French, Romans, and English despite sharing their language. With good enough immersion, one will see a character in Dragon Age named something like 'Gaston LaRoche' and think "Oh, he must be Orlesian!" not "Oh, he has a French name!" Martin does a similarly good job with A Song of Ice and Fire, where one can start to guess not only at which country a character hails from but in some cases which region or family within a country they're from thanks to his use of language.

This is where consistency is key. If Orlais was still sort-of-French, but had a ton of names drawn arbitrarily from different countries, this effect is lost. Dark Souls tends to fail hard here; so long as a word is appropriately western (and presumably exotic enough for the Japanese audience) it's in as long as it's cool.

Hope this was helpful!

 

You should probably figure out how to make these things work for you, because everyone writes differently. That being said, I try to avoid real world history as it is often a "charged" topic and can anger people (unless I am trying to be controversial). I usually use the names of people who I used to know, but that I am no longer acquainted with. I write as much detail as possible, but only put a small amount into each story. Put all that extra detail into a book for yourself, as it can help you to create plots better (you could also publish it later.)

 

History - I try to shy away from using real world history in my writing, but it tends to creep into places, except when I talked about the origins of the fantasy word I built. The begining hints heavily toward Biblical creation, but there's a twist to it because it deals with a world separate from Earth. I tend to incorporate a few odd tidbits of different real world cultures into the ones that I'm writing about, but try to keep it discreet.

Names - I made all of my names up with the exception of two: the word shalom from the Hebrew roughy meaning "peace" and the name Yosef which is the Hebrew of Joseph (maybe not the right spelling? I don't know). The reason I chose those two names is because when I first conceptualized this world, I was living with a Jewish family in France, and I simply like the way the words sounded. The made-up names of my characters of one culture almost all have meaning that have roots in my conlang. Oftentimes, the names a reflective of the character's personality traits or identity.

Detail - I like to use a lot of detail. However, just because I'm fascinated with every aspect of my world, doesn't mean my reader is. I found that out quickly when my first chapter was critiqued. So, I'd recommend using as much detail is needed to get the meaning across. That's pretty much what everyone so far on this thread has suggested.

 

I hear a lot of people saying they're tired of the parent/mentor thing and I get it. I am, however, interested in showing my protagonist's childhood, so parents are pretty much a necessity to my story. My protagonist's father does actually die by the time my protagonist is a teenager, mostly because I don't want to follow too many main characters. Would this piss you off or is has mother son duo not been used too much?

There may be a friend from the protagonist's childhood joining the party.

 

I think the most effective world-building stories never actually tell us all the details in the story. Rather, there is a story to tell, and you tell it... then, maybe you list out the histories/descriptions/maps/etc. in appendices or other History Books. That way, people have the option to delve into it as much or as little as you want.

It's like "show, not tell" but on a HUGE scale.