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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/42913
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/42913
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

 **Possibly related:**

- [How can I get readers to accept more than 1 "buy" in worldbuilding?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/42906/how-can-i-get-readers-to-accept-more-than-1-buy-in-worldbuilding)

Worldbuilding is a tireless art; that's what our brother site Worldbuilding-SE is for, and why as a writer you can actually catch the infamous _[Worldbuilder's disease](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiG1ZSsvebgAhXD8eAKHTODD1oQFjACegQIChAL&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthewritersaurus.com%2F2015%2F03%2F06%2Fthe-dreaded-world-builders-disease%2F&usg=AOvVaw2EdsrIInG-ippQplvOfzGX)_.

A lot has been said on the topic. Brandon Sanderson, in the podcast Writing Excuses and in his lessons ([here, example](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v98Zy_hP5TI&t=5s)) suggests focusing only on **three-to-five aspects of the worldbuilding of a given novel** , unless one is willing to spend 30 years in crafting the next _Lord of the Rings_ series. His advice is, roughly speaking: choose a subset of your world and characterize it well. For a novel, one could focus on weaponry, architecture and fauna; while working on flora, religion and politics in the next one.

Moving on, Herbert's _Dune_ (the first of the saga) could be seen as an extreme example of the aforementioned idea. While there are a lot of details in the book, I'd argue that the most worldbuilding revolves around the sandworms. Everything - from the native colture and religion, to major plot point in the book - falls in the sandworms extremely detailed and imaginative ecosystem.

From what I've gathered, it's either:

- Detail almost everything, Tolkien style, even if this delays enormously the publication of your novel;
- Focus on three-to-five subsets of the worldbuilding and gloss over the rest;
- Find a really cool idea and build around it until you've squeezed all the potential from it.

Of course this is nor a complete, nor a correct list; but it resumes differnt opionions on the matter.

thus said:

## How many elements can you focus on during worldbuilding?

Original score: 4