As far as I'm concerned, story comes first.

That's just because you can almost do endless worldbuilding (worldbuilding.se has countless examples of all the aspects you can consider while doing so) without sketching out a single plot line, or character arch.

It's true that if you are a very descriptive kind of writer you can start your novels with wide descriptions of your setting, but sooner or later you'll need to start the plot somehow.

Worldbuilding surely does back up your story and helps build your characters, but it's the plot that propels the story forward.

Consider a simple plot line:

• little red riding hood has to bring food to her sick grandma
• she needs to cross the wood
• the wolf tricks her
• eventually, an hunter saves the day

It's really scarce, but it's an example of basic storytelling, and it's what humans have done for centuries. As childish as it is, it works. From the worldbuilding perspective, we could expand indefinitely any of those aspects:

• Who are those characters? Where do they live?
• Why does the wolf talk? Do other animals talk, too?
• What creatures and plants inhabit the wood?
• What's the background of the hunter?

We could (possibly) spend hours imagining a whole nation containing Red's house, the wood, and the grandma's house, going so far as adding politics, intrigue, magic and so on. But without a basic plot, this is just drawing a map without a clear idea of where you are going. Per se, that's nice. Half the fun of worldbuilding, to me, is imagining what kind of characters or stories my world could support.

But again, even if worldbuilding gives you plenty of possibilities and interesting concepts, you'll eventually have to focus on some plot. If you start a book there is only so much you can go on without giving the readers some hint of what the plot will be. Let's take for example the Lord of the Rings: the first chapters are very descriptive, the story starts slower than we are used to by modern standards, but in the end we get that there's this hobbit and he'll start a journey.

Contrarywise, even the most compelling plot needs a bit of worldbuilding, or you'll risk being a bit unrealistic or not immersive enough. But I dare say that plots can live on their own.

So, to me, if writing a story was like riding a car, the plot would be the engine and the wheels, and the worldbuilding would be everything else. I wouldn't like to drive the most powerful engine without any bodywork, and I wouldn't like to have the most beautiful car without any engine inside.

So, just do both - but if you have a good incipit for the plot, don't let the lack of a complete worldbuilding drag you down.

posted over 6 years ago

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Liquid‭

770 reputation 44 140 116 3

Both is the way to go

Your story will be influenced by the world it plays in. For example, lets say your story starts in a desert. If magic requires eating certain plants that only grow in marshes, your story will look vastly different than if you need to absorb magic from sunlight.

Your story needs to interplay with your world, or else readers will feel a disconnect between them. Therefore, you can't really write your story if you don't know what your world will look like. Sure, general lines aren't a problem - boy can meet girl regardless of the existence of dragons - but down to the details, it needs to fit together.

On the other hand, your world will need to provide what is required for the story to be interesting. If there is a final showdown between Mr. Hero and Mr. Villain, you might want awesome flashy explosions, and the magic/bazooka's need to make that possible.

I'd think it's best to first think of a general, one-page explanation of the world and it's magic. No details yet. Then grab a story and see how it fits in the world. Introduce magical possibilities that you think enable the awesome moments of the story. Then rewrite the story completely to make sure that there's nothing impossible early story but possible late, or the other way around

For example, Harry Potter is a great story - mostly because JK Rowling is just that good at writing a compelling story. However, there are legions of plotholes between different books - things that were possible in book 2 might not be possible in book 7. In my opinion, this is sub-optimal. On the other hand, a writer like Brandon Sanderson pays closer attention to world building, and keeps his rules like a law of nature. There's some awesome blog posts he wrote here and here. (And by the way, checking out everything Brandon writes about writing itself might be a good idea to read, IMHO.)

posted over 6 years ago

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Gloweye‭

15 reputation 0 2 3 0

Plot, character, and world are all an integral part of story.

You don't have a story, if you don't know who lives it and where it takes place. You may not know all the details when you first have the idea for a story, but you will certainly know in equally general terms who, where, and what happens.

From this first idea, the best approach is to

develop all aspects in parallel

You may want to work on the world for a while, or develop the characters in more detail, but a character lives in a place, and you cannot develop a character without knowing where he lives. So you will always be working on all three aspects of your story – plot, character, and world – at the same time, even if one of them is momentarily more in the foreground.

If you work on the world without considering plot and character at the same time, your story will lose its integrity.

Note how plot and story are not the same. Plot is the structure of the events. Story is what the reader reads.

posted over 6 years ago

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Biological Stupidity‭

5 reputation 0 1 1 0

You need the broad strokes of the world filled out before you can really start to run characters through their paces. You can know what your characters are going to do long before you have a finished world but in order to have characters interact with the world as well as each other you need to know something about that world.

I usually worldbuild first, probably more than I strictly have to because I used to build RPG worlds and players will always poke at the blank spaces on the map. The world can inform a lot about characters, or not, depending on your exact setting, genre considerations etc... but until you rough in the general outlines you just don't know how much you really need to tell your tale. I'd advise starting with a bit of the world at least, even if only the very broadest stokes.

posted over 6 years ago

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Ash‭

320 reputation 9 41 62 0

For me (and for the people who answered before me, I see,) story and worldbuilding go together, with the story in the driver's seat.

Let me give you an example:

Suppose I'm writing a military sci-fi story. First there's the general shape of it - where's the fighting, who's doing the fighting, what kind of military it is, who's the MC and how he experiences the whole thing.

Then comes worldbuilding: I'm writing about military, so I need structure. Let's take something modern, and later tweak as the story demands. I need weapons - let's read up on what's being developed, where military tech is going.

Back to story: the military tech I found goes in the direction of having soldiers fight from afar, with guided missiles etc. But story-wise, that's boring. I want danger, I want battles, I want the smell of gunpowder and blood. So, back to worldbuilding - why is the tech actually limited? And so on.

If, on the other hand, I was trying to write a Star-Trek-like story, it would make no sense for me to sit and balance weapon capabilities. Instead, my worldbuilding would be more along the lines of "my characters land on a planet. What interesting natural or social phenomena do they find?"

Or, another example, a fantasy story this time:

Story: my MC is coming of age. Worldbuilding: what does the coming-of-age ceremony/celebration look like? At what age does it actually happen? How exactly do the rights and duties of a minor differ from those of an adult?

Story: MC goes into the forest, and meets some interesting non-humans who help him in his quest. Worldbuilding: Are the non-humans known to the human population, are they mere legend, or is it a "first encounter"? If they are known, what is known about them, and how does it relate to the truth about them? In what ways are those non-humans different from humans - are they human for all intents and purposes, or are there differences in lifespan, intelligence, magical ability etc.?

And so on. I do not start delving into the intricate culture of mermaids until my MC actually finds himself at sea.

posted over 6 years ago

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Galastel‭

1885 reputation 81 551 319 3