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Story from Worldbuilding
- Thread starter hellofish
- Start date
pmmg
Myth Weaver
Well...you need a conflict. Without it, there is not much direction to go.
Then I would look at the characters, who are they, what motivates them, and what do they want? And what is stopping them. I would do that with many characters. Some will grate, some will compliment. From that, I get a lot of the story tension, and some ideas for the interactions they might have.
Last is just placing them in a world. If I know what the conflict is, who the characters are, and whats stopping them, the place might even shape itself.
Plot is just the characters against the conflict, and all the obstacles in the way.
Then I would look at the characters, who are they, what motivates them, and what do they want? And what is stopping them. I would do that with many characters. Some will grate, some will compliment. From that, I get a lot of the story tension, and some ideas for the interactions they might have.
Last is just placing them in a world. If I know what the conflict is, who the characters are, and whats stopping them, the place might even shape itself.
Plot is just the characters against the conflict, and all the obstacles in the way.
Finchbearer
Istar
Well it’s the chicken and egg conundrum. I personally start with a story, then I worldbuild. You’ve done it the other way around by the sounds of it, so now you need a story that fits your world. What story do you want to tell?
Pick a known historical event in your world - the day or month or place where things changed. Then pick a character directly involved in that change. Then write a story from that characters POV as to what happened.
I did this several times during my own world building.
Prince of Spires
Auror
For me stories always start with a simple story seed. This can be anything. A character, or a situation, or an interesting place, or a global idea for a type of story. These tend to be simple, small things.
For instance, the story I'm writing now started with the sentence "A knight on heroin" (I misread "a knight or heroine"...). This gave me a fairly random character. A knight, down on his luck, possibly with substance abuse. He'd have some kind of redemption story.
That is all I started with, that was the story seed. I didn't know conflict, or world, or even his name. Just that he would be an interesting character with some kind of redemption arc. When it was time to write the story, I started playing around with the idea. What kind of redemption were we talking about? He would need to travel somewhere to make amends. Why would he travel? He feels responsible for the death of a loved one, and wants revenge for her death. What actually happened? Someone from his past wanted to get revenge.
And so on. I start feeding the story seed, by figuring out what is actually going on. What story do I want to tell, and why is the story seed the way it is. I slowly expand it outward. This gave me my current story, where the knight has to travel across the empire to rescue his daughter who was kidnaped from their home while he was passed out drunk. Along the way it turns out that the kidnapper got help from an ancient order who wants to free some kind of dread god. Though the knight doesn't care about that one bit, so that's just something happening in the background setting things up for book 2 and later.
Now, a very, very important part of this process is to actually write things down. Things always seem logical and fluid when you have them in your head. However, when you write them down, they become more permanent and you start seeing gaps in your logic. One thing I struggled with for instance was why they would travel halfway across an empire. Why would you do that with someone you kidnapped? I leave the solution to that up to you to figure out (or just buy the book when it comes out...
).
The important part is, find a story seed. You must have some idea of something happening in your world. It could be a person living there, or two nations almost at war, or a secret society wanting something, or a dragon about to invade or whatever. Pick that seed and expand on it.
For instance, the story I'm writing now started with the sentence "A knight on heroin" (I misread "a knight or heroine"...). This gave me a fairly random character. A knight, down on his luck, possibly with substance abuse. He'd have some kind of redemption story.
That is all I started with, that was the story seed. I didn't know conflict, or world, or even his name. Just that he would be an interesting character with some kind of redemption arc. When it was time to write the story, I started playing around with the idea. What kind of redemption were we talking about? He would need to travel somewhere to make amends. Why would he travel? He feels responsible for the death of a loved one, and wants revenge for her death. What actually happened? Someone from his past wanted to get revenge.
And so on. I start feeding the story seed, by figuring out what is actually going on. What story do I want to tell, and why is the story seed the way it is. I slowly expand it outward. This gave me my current story, where the knight has to travel across the empire to rescue his daughter who was kidnaped from their home while he was passed out drunk. Along the way it turns out that the kidnapper got help from an ancient order who wants to free some kind of dread god. Though the knight doesn't care about that one bit, so that's just something happening in the background setting things up for book 2 and later.
Now, a very, very important part of this process is to actually write things down. Things always seem logical and fluid when you have them in your head. However, when you write them down, they become more permanent and you start seeing gaps in your logic. One thing I struggled with for instance was why they would travel halfway across an empire. Why would you do that with someone you kidnapped? I leave the solution to that up to you to figure out (or just buy the book when it comes out...
). The important part is, find a story seed. You must have some idea of something happening in your world. It could be a person living there, or two nations almost at war, or a secret society wanting something, or a dragon about to invade or whatever. Pick that seed and expand on it.
Arachne
Dreamer
I agree with pmmg. I always start with a conflict.
It can be either about two characters wanting the same thing and then fight over it or about them wanting the opposite outcome of something.
Then I create more conflicts which shape the world and are a fertile soil for developing characters.
It can be either about two characters wanting the same thing and then fight over it or about them wanting the opposite outcome of something.
Then I create more conflicts which shape the world and are a fertile soil for developing characters.
Queshire
Istar
Time travel. If someone from 10... 15... 100 years in the future was sent to the present of your setting then what would they be the most concerned about?
Joe McM
Minstrel
I started with the main character, and his developmental journey. Then I decided what kind of world I wanted i wanted his journey to occur in. It was quite fun to create the world. That lent itself to dangers, conflicts, successes, and other characters of course.
Mad Swede
Auror
I always start with the story, and fill in the world as I go. It's the little details that make the world and support the story, but they mean nothing without the story. As for the story itself, it starts with something happening, something which draws the reader in. This needn't be a call to action or a conflict, although it may lead to one of these things a little later. Then it's simply (?) a matter of the characters solving whatever was going on in some way, developing and learning as they go.
Even when working with an existing world (e.g., later volumes in a series, or working an alternate Earth), you wind up inventing quite a bit--interiors, a new valley, and so on. At that more micro level, starting with the story is the way to go.
We enter a room. Who is here? Is there another doorway? Well, is there a need to have another exit? Does it have to be a doorway? If it's secret panel, where is it, how is it disguised, and how do our heroes find it and operate it? At that point, is it necessary to say what the rug looks like? Is it necessary to know how to cast the spell of Secret Panel Reveal? Does one of our characters know such a spell? If so, let there be a panel and have fun with it. If not, then I guess we're crawling out that window onto the roof.
Oh wait, there's a roof?
What's not needed is to architect the whole neighborhood and fill it with places no one visits.
We enter a room. Who is here? Is there another doorway? Well, is there a need to have another exit? Does it have to be a doorway? If it's secret panel, where is it, how is it disguised, and how do our heroes find it and operate it? At that point, is it necessary to say what the rug looks like? Is it necessary to know how to cast the spell of Secret Panel Reveal? Does one of our characters know such a spell? If so, let there be a panel and have fun with it. If not, then I guess we're crawling out that window onto the roof.
Oh wait, there's a roof?
What's not needed is to architect the whole neighborhood and fill it with places no one visits.
FifthView
Vala
I would echo Finchbearer: What story do you want to tell?
I would add a twist. You've spent some time building that world. What about that world particularly excites you?
Then I'd borrow from pmmg and suggest you find some sort of conflict. But, sticking to considerations about your world, decide how your favorite elements of the world create conflict for some characters.
I think it's a true statement that every consequential element of a world will create some sort of conflict surrounding it—or even, many conflicts. These need not be conflicts sweeping up the whole populace (although they can be), but they may be conflicts only individual characters experience. If whippertails are a beloved animal in a society, treasured above all other pets, there are going to be people who can't afford a whippertail, people who are allergic to whippertails, people who have had their whippertails stolen or killed, people who only like snoosrats for pets even though snoosrats are hated by almost everyone else because they are believed to be evil in nature—due to their tendency to eat whippertails, among other reasons. You get the idea.
You can utilize conflicts created by the world building elements as inspiration for story, plot and characters.
What would cause such a person with such a conflict (whatever it might be) to move, to plan, to strive, to fight? This will be your inciting incident. It's not enough that Jorg loves snoosrats. He could live in isolation, or hide his pet snoosrats from all prying eyes, for a lifetime, and there might be no story.
Once your character begins to move, plan, strive and fight, all the details of this, the highs and lows, the successes and failures, maybe even a sea of shifting goals, will form the plot.
Things grow in complication the more main characters you add, but the above still holds true as a general guide, I think.
I would add a twist. You've spent some time building that world. What about that world particularly excites you?
Then I'd borrow from pmmg and suggest you find some sort of conflict. But, sticking to considerations about your world, decide how your favorite elements of the world create conflict for some characters.
I think it's a true statement that every consequential element of a world will create some sort of conflict surrounding it—or even, many conflicts. These need not be conflicts sweeping up the whole populace (although they can be), but they may be conflicts only individual characters experience. If whippertails are a beloved animal in a society, treasured above all other pets, there are going to be people who can't afford a whippertail, people who are allergic to whippertails, people who have had their whippertails stolen or killed, people who only like snoosrats for pets even though snoosrats are hated by almost everyone else because they are believed to be evil in nature—due to their tendency to eat whippertails, among other reasons. You get the idea.
You can utilize conflicts created by the world building elements as inspiration for story, plot and characters.
What would cause such a person with such a conflict (whatever it might be) to move, to plan, to strive, to fight? This will be your inciting incident. It's not enough that Jorg loves snoosrats. He could live in isolation, or hide his pet snoosrats from all prying eyes, for a lifetime, and there might be no story.
Once your character begins to move, plan, strive and fight, all the details of this, the highs and lows, the successes and failures, maybe even a sea of shifting goals, will form the plot.
Things grow in complication the more main characters you add, but the above still holds true as a general guide, I think.
Last edited:
pmmg
Myth Weaver
I dont even understand whippertail people. Snoosrats all the way.
Joe McM
Minstrel
Good points. When I write, I visualize the scene fully, even to the level of character a was standing to the right of character b and so on. After I finished my first draft of my first novel, I learned from various places that if the detail doesn’t contribute to the story or assist with the plot, don’t include it.
