World Building vs Story Writing
Note, this might be off topic and belong on World Building SE?
I have always been far more interested with building the world my stories take place in than the stories themselves. I will spend large amounts of planning the geography so small pockets of interesting species can live secluded, how the trade between countries work, what the impact of mushroom forests could have on wild life, how airships can be used in warfare, and so on. After writing a chapter or two I get bored and abandon the project.
Are there manuscripts people have written that are simply an encyclopedia or history book of a fictional world, and are there some kind of guidelines that would help me write one? I always thought this is how Lord of the Rings was written; an interest in language and how races would interact.
Another question, would writing a fictional world's history book and maps even be practical?
You seem to be interested in creating a "parallel universe" for your story. That is, a world slightly different from the …
9y ago
I would suspect that you may be having a specific problem with storytelling (which is not quite the same thing as writin …
9y ago
LotR does in fact have such a book (I believe it is the Silmarillion). However, that book could only be published becaus …
9y ago
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You seem to be interested in creating a "parallel universe" for your story. That is, a world slightly different from the "real one."
In your shoes, I wouldn't sweat the "worldbuilding" part. You want to tell just enough about the alternate world to make your story work, but you don't need to discuss your world in excruciating detail (unless your "world" is, in essence, your story). People will assume that except for relevant details, the parallel world is much like the actual one.
Perhaps the most successful example of building an alternate world was "The Wizward of Oz" (U.S.). Dorothy found herself in a "world" similar to her own with slightly different parameters, but in a recognizably worldlike environment. Finally, the secret of the golden slippers allowed her to return to the "real" world.
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I would suspect that you may be having a specific problem with storytelling (which is not quite the same thing as writing.)
I myself do a lot of worldbuilding for fictional purposes, and your description:
"I will spend large amounts of planning the geography so small pockets of interesting species can live secluded, how the trade between countries work, what the impact of mushroom forests could have on wild life, how airships can be used in warfare, and so on"
feels very familiar.
For what it's worth, I think that worldbuilding and storytelling are very different headspaces. They use different facets of the creative mind, and my suspicion is that not too many of us are good at doing both at the same time. (In college, when I was simultaneously majoring in Physics and Art, I ended up having to trade semesters off rather than do a blended curriculum. I experienced strong mutual interference: my art sucked and my math/physics were way harder when I was trying to do that.)
When you say
"After writing a chapter or two I get bored and abandon the project"
it makes me think that you have a hard time telling stories when you're still in your worldbuilding mind.
Don't know if it will work, but you might want to consider this:
Build your world.
Solemnly pinky swear to yourself that the world is no longer subject to edits, at least for the time being.
Tell stories set in that world. If necessary, pretend you're writing fanfic about someone else's world.
Don't bail out too soon. It's likely going to suck for a while until you get good enough at at storytelling to make your stories about your built worlds good enough to fit your worldbuilding. (My experience: I'm still a marginal storyteller and a very good worldbuilder. I keep telling stories...)
If, after long earnest shrewd effort, you can't get your storytelling up to scratch, maybe you should find a collaborator who's a damn good storyteller but who doesn't do worldbuilding very well. :-) Hey - it could happen, and it might work out.
Good luck!
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/17397. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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LotR does in fact have such a book (I believe it is the Silmarillion). However, that book could only be published because the Hobbit/LotR books came first. In short, there would be no interest in it without LotR in the first place. This is why an encyclopedia or history book of a fictional land will not work on its own. It may get published, but the interest simply won't be there.
LotR was indeed backed by massive worldbuilding. It helped that the author was a linguist, enabling him to make authentic-sounding languages. In its most basic form, however, LotR was a story.
In order to write a story in your world, you may look into getting over writer's block, some of which deals with getting bored. There is an excellent question about that here. My answer on that question, which I would also recommend for you, can be found here.
When it comes down to it, you need to design a theme first. A theme is the idea or thing you are writing about - what it is that you are trying to show the reader. Once you have that theme, you can build a world designed to show it, and then build a story designed to use your world to show your theme. If your theme is truly something you are greatly interested in, you won't get bored of writing about it.
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