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Worldbuilding and writing
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Worldbuilding and writing
Worldbuilding and writing fantasy..ouch.
So, do you guys struggle with worldbuilding or just writing fantasy novels in general?? I have so many fun fantasy stories I would absolutely love to write, but I can't figure out how to commit myself to just building on one plot. And I would also love to write a series or two, or like, 7, but I just don't understand how you can't get distracted. Even when I write realistic fiction, which was my favorite to read and write for a while (basic I know lol) I would fing hard to make the atmospheres feel natrual. I think fanatsy books are soso cool, but I just struggle with worldbuilding and finding the motivation to keep at such an in-depth story.
So yeah,that's pretty much all. Does anyone relate and/or have advice??
Yeah, I hope you have a wonderful day!!
<33 Spellbound
submitted by Spellbound, age 13 she, xe, They, lost in therapy
(March 27, 2022 - 10:04 pm)
(March 27, 2022 - 10:04 pm)
(May 14, 2023 - 10:51 am)
The main world I've built really took shape when I drew a map for it and invented all these places with fascinating backstories... Idk, drawing the map really stimulated my imagination for some reason :P
I also love to make up cultures and ethnic groups that are supposed to live in the real world... like the Aiscuc tribe I made up that lives in the northeastern US.
(July 5, 2023 - 12:42 pm)
(July 5, 2023 - 7:49 pm)
World building in general is pretty easy for me! I love making worlds and characters to live in them.
Plots though are... Not really easy.
Example: I spent most of last year writing a comic based on Adventure time (only setting wise, themes and characters were all me) and I wrote this insanely long detailed timeline that was probably gibberish to anyone who isn't me. This took... One day, tops. The actual plot took an incredibly long time. The beginning was practically just slice of Life for a while.
But,once you have a plot going, it kind of writes itself? At least in my case. It gets easier. Which is how I went from slice of life to The Main Characters Are Being Stalked By A Deranged Version Of Winnie The Pooh From Another Timeline Who Thinks His Child Is The Emperor of the Multiverse.
Yeah... Things got weird toward the end, but you shouldn't be afraid to write weird things. Human beings are meant to create, we are innately creative beings. It doesn't matter if you are any good, or if anyone else sees it. Creation is part of a healthy life, and the more self indulgent the better. The act of creation is indulging the self and recording the results.
Okay, so I have this thing where I start saying one thing and at the end it's completely different. And I did it again. But I think you get the gist.
(July 13, 2023 - 9:39 pm)
Ooh, that was really interesting! One thing that helps me, at least, think of a plot is to just think of what I want to experience in real life, or what I want someone else to be able to experience. Not everything that happens in the story has to be something you would want to go through, but the end result, and the main storyline, should be like that - like once I wrote a novel about a girl who goes to live on her aunt's and uncle's farm, where she learns to be a happier and healthier person than she was before she came there. I love farms and nature and I really want to be able to provide better lifestyles for all the unhappy people I see around me - I can't actually do it, but writing the novel let me do it in my imagination at least...
(July 18, 2023 - 9:37 am)
Yeah, inspiration is incredibly important. It's kind of weird for me though, because I'm inspired negatively as well as positively, which is to say that I am inspired by things I dislike almost as often as things I like. For example, my comic was obviously positively inspired by Adventure time. I adored the idea of a bizarrely cutesy take on a nuclear post apocalyptic story, and so I made my own take on what that would be like. So while the story couldn't be further away from Adventure time, at the very center of it, the kernel that grew into the idea originated from Adventure time.
On the other hand, I am currently writing a book type thing. ( which definitely will not be done by the end of this year so....) And the book is negatively inspired at it's core. Of course, it's a book, so it has several layers of inspiration, but at it's core it is negatively inspired by the works of HP Lovecraft. The thing about Lovecraft is that he was a terrible person, which is a well known fact. So I felt kind of uncomfortable with reading his work, but I am a huge science fiction geek, so it was kind of inevitable that I read some of his work. And I... Really did not enjoy it. The concept of a host of beings that exist outside the boundaries of our universe, and are so incredibly powerful and unknowable that we cannot fight them is very interesting. But his protagonists are all basically the same. They are tortured individuals, who give up all hope of winning as soon as possible. So as I read it, I thought: what if the people in these stories were real people? Human beings who love each other, who love their homes and are willing to fight for it, and for one another, even though they know they probably won't win the battle? And I realized how much I wished that was the book I was reading. But that isn't a book yet, so I figured I should write it. And so that's what the core of that story is. A desire for HP Lovecraft to be better than he was.
(if you enjoy Lovecraft, that's okay. I promise I am not judging you. this reads more aggressively than I intended. sorry!)
(July 19, 2023 - 12:40 pm)
I... actually haven't read Lovecraft! But from what you say, I'm positive I wouldn't enjoy him either. I really dislike it when the characters in a book don't even try to fight/win their own battles. The interesting thing is that the characters don't actually have to win for it to be a good story, but they do have to really fight for a happy ending - like with Shakespeare's or the ancient Greeks' tragedies. Anyway, I think it's really awesome that you're writing something about humans who are actually more hopeful, and especially that they're motivated by love - I feel like a lot of characters in books are motivated by hate, which is another thing I personally dislike.
I totally get why you would be inspired by things you don't enjoy - that's happened to me too, the urge to change something around so that it's closer to what I want it to be - and, of course, the things you do like. If it hadn't been for watching Frozen II, reading C. S. Lewis, and so on, my writing wouldn't be the same at all. I think C. S. Lewis also did that - I seem to remember reading that he said "I wrote the books I would have loved to read" or something like that, which is basically exactly what I do all the time. I think "There ought to be a book like this!" and then realize that there isn't, and so I get inspired and go off and write it. Btw, have you read Lewis' science fiction works? You mentioned that you like science fiction, so... Anyway, good luck with your Lovecraft-inspired book! It sounds great :)
(July 23, 2023 - 9:35 am)
I have read CS Lewis' science fiction, and it was totally awesome.
The thing you said about fighting to succeed being more important than actually succeeding is very true. I am not sure whether my characters will win in the end or not. ( they will probably win. I love them. they are like my children, but instead of giving birth to them, I created them, and control their every thought and action like a god)
I'm actually okay with characters being motivated by hatred or vengeance, sometimes. I just dislike the glorification of revenge and violence in media. Although it's actually kind of interesting, because people rarely ever actually act on thoughts of revenge, everyone knows it's a zero sum game. But our culture has a bizarre fixation on the concept. Shrug!
Writing the story you want to see is something everyone should do. In the ideal world, everyone would be an artist, even though only a few people would be really good at it.
(July 23, 2023 - 1:11 pm)
Ok, so... does anyone have any advice on drawing maps? Bc I rly want to do that for my world to help with worldbuilding, but I can never rly envision what the world should look like anyways, and all the geography and stuff. I would love some advice pls! Ok just maybe drawing maps and also deciding what your world should look like.
(July 19, 2023 - 1:14 pm)
I desperately need advice with this too :\
(July 21, 2023 - 3:07 pm)
So here's what I do... idk if it will be much help, but I hope it gives you some good tips/inspiration!
Maps as a way of designing your world:
First it's good to have a nice list of fantasy place names that somehow inspire you; you don't have to have decided on the stories behind them or anything, that comes later. Things like "The Hill of the Eight Maidens," the "Lake of Caigh," "the City of the Dwarves", etc. The list isn't a must, but it's just handy if you already have one.
Then you start drawing the map. I find it more inspiring, usually, to include several of the countries in your world - or, if you're doing just one country, to divide it into areas or provinces. Countries usually don't have straight, neat boundaries, so you can just basically do squiggly lines (YES SQUIGGLY - straight will look unnatural) in weird or vaguely square-or-rectangular shapes. Once you've put in at least about five countries or provinces, name them and put in landmarks all over the place, such as cities, lakes, rivers, hills, etc, naming each one (this is where the list is useful). Southern countries will probably be warmer, and northern ones colder, so you can design the geography of each one accordingly - and, if you like, take inspiration from real-life northern and southern countries. For instance, you could make one area be a desert with nomadic peoples roving through it. The nice thing about doing several countries or provinces at once, is that you don't have to decide on just one culture or natural ecosystem - you can put in as many as come to mind.
Oops I'm just realizing that this comment will come out super squished, but I don't want to copy-paste into another one in case that makes the format come out weird, so let me post this and continue in a new comment....
(July 23, 2023 - 9:52 am)
(July 19, 2023 - 8:54 am)
Hi again :)
So where was I? Oh, right. As you go naming your landmarks, you can also put down any stories that come to mind. For instance, if you've included a Hill of the Eight Maidens, and suddenly it occurs to you that it's named that because eight sisters were born there who later went on to marry eight heroes and together they all defeated a nasty dragon and so now it's a famous landmark, you can jot that down on the back of the map. You don't have to work out all the details or even the full story of these snippets of inspiration - just small pieces of what happened there. It helps enormously when it comes down to writing stories set there, but at the same time, it's not necessary, so don't worry if you don't have any ideas :) Just the names are enough.
Some ideas for landmarks you could include:
-hills
-mountain ranges
-palaces in the middle of nowhere
-valleys
-rivers
-cities
-caves
-magical spots which no one knows very much about
-bridges
-oceans
It also helps to write down somewhere a short description of the culture, weather, etc. of each area - just putting down whatever comes to mind, without stressing too much. Do you want a northern country where it's always snowy? Choose one of your countries and assign it that weather. Do you want a mystic forest-y place? The same. You can make up the cultures from scratch, but it helps to draw inspiration from real-life cultures for at least the basics. And remember, it'll vary according to location - for instance, whether it's on a coast or on a mountain.
Not all of this needs to be done at once, and it doesn't need to be very detailed - but once you're finished, you have a full-fledged world that you can set stories in!
Maps of worlds you've already invented:
You have a lot less free range here, but on the other hand, everything's already made up! Here, you need to identify all the landmarks and cultural information that you've included in your stories about this place (let's say for simplicity that it's one country). For instance, what other countries border it? Does it have any rivers? What's the capital city? If you don't have much information yet, then decide what type of place the country seems like it ought to be - dry and warm? moist and hot? cold and snowy? Just the bare basics. Then you'll need to draw your map (if you haven't decided on the shape of the country, just draw a random, vaguely country-like shape - you can even copy the shape of a real country if you need to) and basically invent more places and landmarks to include - see above. Also include the things you've already worked out, locating them wherever on the map makes most sense.
If you do already have a lot of information, then draw a map of the country, and then decide roughly in which direction everything should be - for instance, is the capital city in the northwest corner, or the southwest? If you can't decide, put one landmark you've already written about - say a lake - on a random spot on the map, and then work out where everything should be in relation to that. For instance, if in your story the lake is a long journey away from the capital city, you'll need to put the city perhaps at the other end of the country. And so on. And if all else fails, just put everything randomly around the country and then use the resulting map as your base for stories.
As for deciding on the geography... well, like I said, basing yourself on real ecosystems, or a mix of them, is a great way to go. You can also make it have whatever type of ecosystem you'd love to live in, or whatever would be good for the culture - for instance, if your main characters are sheep-herders, there's probably a lot of hilly areas. It's also a good idea to take one important place in your story - for instance, the main castle - and imagine yourself standing there. Whichever type of landscape it has is what you can then base yourself on. For instance, if it's in a field of flowers and grass, maybe the whole country has a lot of fields and therefore a moderate climate (with maybe a few forests for variety?) And if it's a large country, you can make it have several different types of geography, just including whatever comes to mind - beaches, mountains, forests, large lakes... Basically, just include whatever inspires you and suits the story. It especially helps to try to think of the landscapes as you're writing - for instance, when you're describing a city, you can include what the view looks like from somebody's castle tower, for which you can just describe whatever inspires you at the moment.
I hope this helps! If you have any questions or need any more advice, just ask me!
(July 23, 2023 - 10:26 am)
Thank you!! All of that has been really, really helpful!
(July 23, 2023 - 9:12 pm)