The Pen & The Sword: A Discussion Book

|Discussion Article|World Building Part 2 of 1000|

Mahana here! WE HIT 1K VOTES ON THIS BOOK. This is the first book to do so on our account and we are majorly excited. Be on the lookout for Trope Breakers next week and regular updates of Discussion Articles coming soon! 

Now I will hand the reins to Shannon. Enjoy!

So, as I was perusing the comment sections of various chapters here in the Pen and Sword, (because we admins don't skulk, we peruse) I noticed a handful of you have requested more advice on world building at least once or twice. Soooooo.......yeah. This is that. This is the thing.

Moving forward, I'd like to reiterate what @Mahana258 said in the previous world building article. 

World building is an immense undertaking. Diving down that rabbit hole of wonderful ideas and long crippling nights of research can take weeks, months-- years even. It can be the single most daunting aspect of writing a High-Fantasy story, particularly if your plot travels many of your nations or has many nations take a central role in wars and politics etc.

With that in mind, let's dive into the first thing to remember, whether you've only just started to world build, or you are a frequent visitor of the aforementioned 'rabbit hole'.

Know your needs, know the needs of your story.

Okay, so as tempting as it may be to go absolutely bananas with detail, to plot entire countries, their monarchs, what kind of wine they like with their food, a history of the world stretching over a millennia before your story even takes place-- before all of that, I need you to ask yourself one question, just one.

What does this story need?

Because, unless your story literally travels to every corner of your fictional world, there is simply little point in explaining to your readers how cool the far-off country of Badassia is when your story takes place in Prologuetopia.

Using my own work as an example, Of Fire and Blood takes place in a single location, the protagonist's hometown of Dunbery. Now, there's nothing I'd rather do than drop hints of the world at large (as it makes me feel quite clever) and tempt you to ponder these magical, foreign lands and their hopefully interesting cultures. But having large, irrelevant info dumps, no matter how well you've masked them behind dialogue or narrative prose, can only bog down the pacing of your story, or even worse distract and confuse readers.

Aim small, miss small.

Focusing purely on the locations, cultures, and characters relevant to your current story will allow them to be better fleshed out. Readers are patient-- especially the ones here on wattpad as most of them are writers like yourself. We know you've worked hard on your world, just as we know that you no doubt can't wait to show it to us.

But we can wait. There is no rush.

Instead, take your time with the world-- start small, and allow your world to build naturally on top of itself, layer upon layer, much in the way your narrative will build with each chapter. Find what culture, religion, history is directly related to your protagonist and start there-- where do they live? What is the culture like? Be patient, be flexible, allow your world to tell you what it needs on occasion. You may just surprise yourself.

You've all the time in the world, so why not stop and smell the imaginary roses?

They're called bread CRUMBS, not bread slices.

Lastly, and this applies just as much to those of you who have already done extensive world building as those who are just beginning.

Don't overdo it early on.

Too many times I have begun reading a wattpad story, only to become burdened with the plethora of important character names, distant and exotic kingdoms, or important-yet-antiquated rituals before I've even had the chance to remember the protagonist's name!

The first few chapters of your novel are critically important to hooking reader and giving them a reason to stay. Keep your world small and focused, giving the reader only what they absolutely must know for now. And instead of bloating the chapter with unnecessary worldbuilding, those are words that could be better spent fleshing out your protagonist, the villain, or one of the side characters.

Because while I can't speak for everyone, I can say with absolute certainty that what keeps me coming back to a world isn't the world itself, it's the people that inhabit it. 

Inline comment some questions you have that you think might be good discussion starters. We will begin posting those questions with our Trope Breaker magazine! So ask here and let the Writing Faery answer all your questions!   

As with all things the Fae Folk admins attempt, Shannon is not a master writer. All comments within this article are merely the suggestions, mad ravings, and opinions of the author. They should be taken with a grain of salt and understanding that he may just be a well worded lunatic and not a literary expert.