Wednesday, April 1, 2009
World Building
Yesterday's ramblings lead to a more focused look at World Building today. I have always found world building difficult. Well, let me rephrase that. In the context of a short story it's almost effortless, for a longer work though I really struggle.
To me the less of the world you reveal in a short story the more room there is for the actual story. And if I need something, I just throw it in. Of course the problem with that philosophy is revealed when a piece starts to get beyond the short story range. It becomes hard or even impossible to just throw something in without breaking the world. This means that if I want to write more than just short stories I need to get a handle on world building (also plotting, characterization, outlining, etc...).
First I want to point out a great blog dedicated to World Building:
WorldBuildingRules!.
It's an informative and insightful blog that tracks resources and provides information to help writers design the reality in which their characters live. For example, the recent discussion on "Write what you know" was useful in allowing me to get my story together for my upcoming Writers Group meeting.
Continuing on with World Building here is an interesting article and other resources over at author S. Andrew Swann's blog Genrewonk.
He breaks world building down to Clarity, Conciseness and Consistency. These are the elements that will allow the 'World' to be an effective supporting part of a story. As long as an author maintains an awareness of these elements without losing their story to them (spending days on huge infodumps) then they should be on the right track. Obviously if the world is consistently crap, it doesn't matter how concise or clear the description is, but none of my worlds are crap, really! :)
And finally for those interested in a technological way of tracking the details of their worlds I would suggest a Writing Wiki. Using a writing wiki it's easy to organize and relate notes on characters, locations and more to each other. Much like in Wikipedia, the wiki about the Real World.
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4 comments:
I was searching around writing-related blogs and found yours. I too have a problem with world building, its complicated to do without adding things that are irrelevant or that simply appear to be thrown in.
I wouldn't say world building in short stories is effortless. In some ways its harder because you have to create just enough to make your story believable without over-doing it. It's a balancing act.
Thanks for the kind mention of WorldBuildingRules! And I'm delighted that something I posted helped you with a story you were writing. That's the ultimate in praise.
Worldbuilding in short stories vs. novels: I'm with JDS on this, that its harder to strike a balance in stories because unlike novels, a story has little room to sprawl and be irrelevant. I find that I sometimes have to sacrifice absolute fidelity to what I know is true about my world, in favor of simplifying some elements to make a workable short story.
"In the context of a short story it's almost effortless, for a longer work though I really struggle. "
Hee, guess I can't get away with 'tongue in cheek' lines like the above.
Both JDS and KSHayes513 read "effortless" as "easy or easier". My fault ;)
Just before that sentence I said "I have always found world building difficult". That's true for short stories as well as long. It's just I cheat in short stories. I don't world build.
As in I don't put effort in. ;)
*gasp*
I wouldn't call that 'Easy' so much as 'Lazy' though.
In my defence, I do go on to explain that this cheaters method of 'Effortless Worldbuilding' breaks stories really quickly when they are no longer 'Short'. I even finish by pointing out my need to improve my world building.
So in conclusion I agree that worldbuilding is a freaking difficult balancing act between details and story, be it a short story or a novel.
And I need to put more Effort into it, for both my Short Stories and Novels (Someday/Sigh).
On further reflection, I think it may be a good sign that you can say--tongue in cheek or otherwhere!--that you find worldbuilding easier in short stories than in novels. This suggests that you probably don't overload your stories with too many details.
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