World Building > Writing Skill?

[A. E. Lowan]

Yes and no.

I believe there is such a thing as talent. However, just talent won't get you that far. You need to have a passion for and enjoyment of what you're doing. If you hadn't been interested in coding or computers you probably wouldn't have gone for those extra textbooks and you wouldn't have scored as well as you did.

I guess in that sense maybe talent isn't the best word? Talent probably isn't the near magical ability to perfectly perform whatever specialty your talent falls within, but I do believe that some things come easier to some people than to others. Just like people have different personalities we have different way of relating to things and to me it seems reasonable that different people can be better than others at different things.

That doesn't mean that hard work isn't important, or even most important.

When observing the world (as I see it) I get a feeling that the "work" and "effort" parts are being hidden away and forgotten. What's celebrated is being smart, talented and beautiful - Americans seem to love to compliment others by how intelligent they are. Sure, being smart and intelligent and beautiful can get you far, especially when it comes to pop culture, but is it enough to make you stay at the top once you get there. I don't think so.

Oh, Svrt, you're so cute! I'm not sure how we Americans are perceived across the Atlantic, but I guarantee you that we don't compliment each other's intelligence. Oh, sure, "talent" and "beauty" are the Golden Tickets here, but the third Great American Virtue is "athletic." We view intellect with suspicion, because those elitist, over-educated types are just too smart for anyone else's good.

But, I digress on a float of sarcastic obnoxiousness.

I agree with Scribble. Talent is largely a myth, and Svrt, you actually danced around the real quality. It's passion that cannot be taught, and is absolutely required to excel. Passion is the fire that sends us to our worlds again and again, that sent Scribble to read more than that one textbook, that had Tolkien spend 40 years creating a language no one was guaranteed to ever see. And, no, world building will never be more important than writing, but passion will always rule us all.

 

[Scribble]

It's passion that cannot be taught, and is absolutely required to excel. Passion is the fire that sends us to our worlds again and again, that sent Scribble to read more than that one textbook, that had Tolkien spend 40 years creating a language no one was guaranteed to ever see. And, no, world building will never be more important than writing, but passion will always rule us all.

Wonderfully said! You must be a writer or something!

You inspired me to try to create a quotable quote...

Passion cannot be taught, it can only be found.

It seems to me that there is an intrinsic relationship between passion and wisdom. If passion is the raging fire, then wisdom the ember in the cool ashes. And neither can be taught, but only found. I think it is because both passion and wisdom require a particular kind of love in order to exist, one that you can't fabricate.

 

[Ankari]

I'm surprised to see this thread resurrected. But we are fantasy writers, and we do tend to keep the good ones alive.

A.E Lowan, passion is indeed something that cannot be taught, but it has no influence on the topic of World Building Vs. Writing Skills. A passionate person isn't passionate about everything. An author may be passionate about world building, but not about writing technique. An author may stare at a computer screen for an hour trying to find that one word that sends lightning from the pages to the reader's mind.

The point I'm trying to make, passion can be applied to both aspects of the argument. What it boils down to is what will resonate through the consumer more?

A piece of evidence for World Building that I forget to mention when I first introduced this debate is the hugely popular Comic Cons sprouting throughout America (and the world). Comic Cons are a testament to the power of World Building. People flock to these things dressed in their favorite characters costume. They paint their faces to match the pattern of the cat-folk from (insert whatever these cat-people belong to).

Also, and I hope this is not a stretch, take into account SCAs (Society for Creative Anachronism). These people are trying to recreate an entire time period, a different world.

Another point. Take into account the fantasy genre. Why pick the fantasy genre to write in if world building isn't important? Even if the author doesn't focus on World Building, but borrows it from, say, JRR Tolkien, isn't that a testament to how alluring Tolkien's world is?

 

[Jabrosky]

I would argue that world-building and writing skills have equal importance in the speculative fiction genre. Of course good world-building by itself won't suffice to save a poorly written work, but on the other hand I find it hard to maintain interest in a book if its setting doesn't appeal to me. That's probably why I don't really care all that much about, say, Game of Thrones. Its writing quality may be all right, but I find the generic pseudo-medieval setting boring.

 

[Steerpike]

I think there are certainly people all over the spectrum, some who find world-building to be the most important, some who find them of equal importance, and so on.

When you look at the genre as a whole, however, I think world-building is lower on the scale for most readers. The reason we can say a pseudo-medieval European setting seems 'generic' is because it has been done hundreds of times. And yet readers continue to buy them in great numbers. These are the best-selling epic fantasies. If having a completely originally world was most important to the majority of readers, that wouldn't be the case. And beyond that, look at all the speculative fiction that takes place in the real world, but with some minor twist like vampires are real.

If you come up with some magnificent, breakthrough idea for world-building or even for a plot, I think it can carry you a long way and maybe even be the most important aspect of the work. Short of that, I think the writing ability, particularly in terms of how you handle characters, is what most readers are after.

 

[BWFoster78]

A piece of evidence for World Building that I forget to mention when I first introduced this debate is the hugely popular Comic Cons sprouting throughout America (and the world). Comic Cons are a testament to the power of World Building. People flock to these things dressed in their favorite characters costume. They paint their faces to match the pattern of the cat-folk from (insert whatever these cat-people belong to).

I don't see this as evidence of anything beyond that people like dressing up.

Are you saying that comic books succeed because the writers have created a great world? Seems to me that there are a ton of superheroes that fail to find an audience. You're saying that the main reason for this is that the world is bad?

From what you're arguing, it sounds like you're trying to say that having a central Idea that resonates is more important than writing ability. That's not the same thing as world building.