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I'm not a fan of Tolkien's work, but it's relevant to my question, so take it as a reference point. I love linguistics, culture, and worldbuilding, but sometimes have difficulty focusing on specif...
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T01:41:37Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/3106 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
Jon Purdy
·
2019-12-08T01:41:37Z (almost 5 years ago)
I'm not a fan of Tolkien's work, but it's relevant to my question, so take it as a reference point. I love linguistics, culture, and worldbuilding, but sometimes have difficulty focusing on specific characters and events to build an engaging plot. Nobody wants to read a straight-up sociolinguistic history textbook from a fictional world, no matter how interesting that world might be. **How can I convey my world, while keeping the focus narrow enough to be compelling?** Should I just write for plot and figure out how it fits into the world as I go? I guess there can always be addenda and side materials, but I don't want them to feel retconned in; the Star Wars extended universe and prequels are good examples of worldbuilding gone horrifically out of control. I know it's often best to write sparsely and let the reader's imagination do its thing, but I guess I have trouble letting go.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2011-06-16T00:07:42Z (over 13 years ago)
Original score: 11