Building worlds, writing lore, and putting it in your story
Mar 1, 2024 14:32:30 GMT -6
Post by DBOgden on Mar 1, 2024 14:32:30 GMT -6
Was recommended this video a few days ago and it made me want to discuss world building and lore-writing and using one or both in a story.
I really like the point he makes about leaving room for mystery. It's true that when I get into a story, one of the coolest things to me is the way that a fan community interacts with it. I love coming up with theories and looking into other fans' theories through their writing (or let's be honest here, a lot of YouTube videos for me).
We could have a whole other discussion about people's feelings on fanfiction and all that but it is a major aspect of a lot of my favorite pieces of media. A lot of people make the claim that writing fanfiction is easier because you don't have to do as much establishing exposition but there's a part of me that wonders if maybe that's overlooking the very real value in that specific aspect of fanfiction writing. Because they give the reader the benefit of the doubt on things about the setting and characters, they often completely avoid all the over-expositing and clunky writing that can happen in an original work that doesn't have a pre-established setting and cast of characters. I think that maybe some of the same ideas would actually work for writing original work. Like maybe you have to do a little bit more up-front to establish a character or some locale and describe it but writing a compelling story as if you're writing fanfiction I think can help in some places. Like maybe you'd hit that 10% golden zone if you just assume that your readers can or have already figured a bunch of this stuff out. So there's no reason to weigh down your prose with anymore explanations. Though maybe it's not a one-size-fits-all sort of blanket way of thinking about things but just a thing to consider when you feel like your worldbuilding in the story is becoming a little clunky.
That's just one aspect of the thoughts this video evoked for me, though, or perhaps it's a bit more accurate to say that's a synthesis of some of the thoughts I had. I think that it can be tough no matter what to shine a light on the bits of world building you've done for a story.
I'm currently working on building a world for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign setting for a game I want to run for my (late teens) younger siblings and I've just decided I want to start using the rolling 100 as a means to write little lore tidbits every week, inspired by the prompt. I've only got one so far, but it's kind of just, coming up with an idea and going back and forth, when writing and editing, between what's really happening and what normal people might think is happening until I hit a spot that feels right, but it's a bit haphazard and I'm still figuring it out. I'm also trying to keep in mind that what people believe about things in the world could be only half-right or completely off base and that's been just as tough of an idea to account for in my opinion. Though, I'm hoping, will make the world feel a bit richer and function as another way to add mystery to how everything really works.
Would love to hear your own thoughts on what's expressed in the video.
How do you go about world building for your stories and how do you incorporate your tidbits into the actual writing or presentation of the narrative? Do you have any tricks for finding that balance between what's interesting and necessary for the story and what the hard facts/truth of the world are? What are some other ways you might think about it that's helpful for making yourself show more, or as is probably more frequent, show a bit less?
I really like the point he makes about leaving room for mystery. It's true that when I get into a story, one of the coolest things to me is the way that a fan community interacts with it. I love coming up with theories and looking into other fans' theories through their writing (or let's be honest here, a lot of YouTube videos for me).
We could have a whole other discussion about people's feelings on fanfiction and all that but it is a major aspect of a lot of my favorite pieces of media. A lot of people make the claim that writing fanfiction is easier because you don't have to do as much establishing exposition but there's a part of me that wonders if maybe that's overlooking the very real value in that specific aspect of fanfiction writing. Because they give the reader the benefit of the doubt on things about the setting and characters, they often completely avoid all the over-expositing and clunky writing that can happen in an original work that doesn't have a pre-established setting and cast of characters. I think that maybe some of the same ideas would actually work for writing original work. Like maybe you have to do a little bit more up-front to establish a character or some locale and describe it but writing a compelling story as if you're writing fanfiction I think can help in some places. Like maybe you'd hit that 10% golden zone if you just assume that your readers can or have already figured a bunch of this stuff out. So there's no reason to weigh down your prose with anymore explanations. Though maybe it's not a one-size-fits-all sort of blanket way of thinking about things but just a thing to consider when you feel like your worldbuilding in the story is becoming a little clunky.
That's just one aspect of the thoughts this video evoked for me, though, or perhaps it's a bit more accurate to say that's a synthesis of some of the thoughts I had. I think that it can be tough no matter what to shine a light on the bits of world building you've done for a story.
I'm currently working on building a world for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign setting for a game I want to run for my (late teens) younger siblings and I've just decided I want to start using the rolling 100 as a means to write little lore tidbits every week, inspired by the prompt. I've only got one so far, but it's kind of just, coming up with an idea and going back and forth, when writing and editing, between what's really happening and what normal people might think is happening until I hit a spot that feels right, but it's a bit haphazard and I'm still figuring it out. I'm also trying to keep in mind that what people believe about things in the world could be only half-right or completely off base and that's been just as tough of an idea to account for in my opinion. Though, I'm hoping, will make the world feel a bit richer and function as another way to add mystery to how everything really works.
Would love to hear your own thoughts on what's expressed in the video.
How do you go about world building for your stories and how do you incorporate your tidbits into the actual writing or presentation of the narrative? Do you have any tricks for finding that balance between what's interesting and necessary for the story and what the hard facts/truth of the world are? What are some other ways you might think about it that's helpful for making yourself show more, or as is probably more frequent, show a bit less?
You add them to your profile as you do them around the forum.
