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Q&A How feasible is it to write a story without any worldbuilding?

The question needs to be rephrased. Of course it is possible to write a story without any world-building. Here are some examples: War and Peace. Pride and Prejudice. The Autobiography of Malcolm X....

posted 7y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:08:47Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26927
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:08:47Z (over 4 years ago)
The question needs to be rephrased. Of course it is possible to write a story without any world-building. Here are some examples: _War and Peace_. _Pride and Prejudice_. _The Autobiography of Malcolm X_. Almost everything Agatha Christie ever wrote.

Those books assume that the reader has the necessary cultural background because they were written for a readership of the time and place.

So, the question should not refer to a "story" (or novel), but specifically to a story set in a time and place that the reader would not immediately understand. Even so, we do understand concepts such as force, territory, empires, travel, hunger, competition, and many other concepts that do not require much elaboration.

If you have access to them, have a look at the original StarTrek TV episodes form the 1960s, and note how the appearance of the characters, their interpersonal relationships, and their reactions to events are very 1960s. You can give the hippies a haircut and a uniform, and put them in a spaceship, but they're still hippies.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-02-26T03:16:20Z (about 7 years ago)
Original score: 0