There are a lot of writing subs on reddit (some with over a million members), and it seems an overwhelming majority write fantasy and are very caught up in worldbuilding. There's even an entire subreddit dedicated to world building with 827,000 members! One thing that's become apparent from reading posts and comments is that people get incredibly fixated on world building and often have no idea how to start their story because they don't have one. Many posts will say things along the lines of "I have spent two years building my world and can tell you about the politics 1000 years ago or what people eat for breakfast in the various regions, but I can't figure out how to start my story." Often these posts will include a list of brief or vague plotlines and ask people which they think would be better. It's a perverse form of novel preparation where they dedicate enormous amounts of effort to building a world but don't give two seconds' thought to what might actually *happen*.
People will also post samples of their work in progress, and I would say no less than 90% of the time the opening chapter or prologue is a massive dump of information about things that happened in the past or who characters are, which is likely a direct result of people having lots of details about their world but almost no actual story. I recall one prologue that took place during a historic battle that was supposed to be relevant to the setting of the book. It had about 5,000 words explaining who the two sides were and why they were fighting, and it even had an inventory of how many of each kind of fighter each side had. Then it ended without ever describing the battle!
Ultimately it's easy to decide that the elves live over here and cast this kind of magic, but a lot harder to create an interesting story about who one of these elves is and decide what kind of unique challenge they face in this world and how they'll overcome it. If I sound a little derisive its just because I've read many, many posts that demonstrate the problem with excessive world building.
I think a lot of them are also very young and get caught up in the romance of the idea of being a writer. However, they lack confidence in their writing but feel comfortable engaging in the world building part of the process so they focus on that.
This is a sound observation--about the confidence. I suspect that as the world grows bigger, the confidence grows smaller. It becomes daunting. They may be D&D folks who find a lot of positives and fun with that--and it is! But making the move to actually telling original stories feels like too much.
For those in this mental place, it might be best to set all aside, and just start having that fun (bringing that same sense of play that got the person to such a place in the beginning!) and write short stories...then let them grow, then re-connect with the world, if one is so inclined at that point. All in steps.
I agree about RPG & D&D folx as I grew up with a lot of them lol. And tbh some of them are making great money in coding, computer “story-making” in a sense.
I admire the way some of my friends are so immersed in it because I have to force myself to do it. While I can love it one day I get bored the next and find it hard to sustain. So I’m jumping around.
I've worked with my son on plotlines and characters, and it's been fun. Though I can see how things can drift off. But if working with a group of imaginative folks with strong characters, a lot can happen. And yes, there is great money in game-creating.
This is just spot-on, Andy! I can't say enough about just digging in and writing as you build. Even "err" on the side of beginning to write the story, THEN start to build. Yes, that may mean tossing hundreds of pages... but that same time spent writing and tossing is better spent there than world-building (to my mind! And having tossed thousands of pages, no matter what I'm writing). You begin to understand your questions as they relate to the characters/story AS you go... This is key. The strongest fantasy comes of the best and toughest human questions.
For me, a guiding thought about speculative fiction is the question of why the writer has chosen "spec" or fantasy to tell the story: If the story can be told as contemporary realism, why choose otherwise? In other words, it has to be "spec" for a good reason. you're asking new questions.
For anyone interested in what I'm talking about, a search for "world building" and "years" on the reddit "writing" subreddit produced the following three examples at the top of the page and you could probably spend a few hours reading posts like this.
Deleted and reposted to fix a typo.
There are a lot of writing subs on reddit (some with over a million members), and it seems an overwhelming majority write fantasy and are very caught up in worldbuilding. There's even an entire subreddit dedicated to world building with 827,000 members! One thing that's become apparent from reading posts and comments is that people get incredibly fixated on world building and often have no idea how to start their story because they don't have one. Many posts will say things along the lines of "I have spent two years building my world and can tell you about the politics 1000 years ago or what people eat for breakfast in the various regions, but I can't figure out how to start my story." Often these posts will include a list of brief or vague plotlines and ask people which they think would be better. It's a perverse form of novel preparation where they dedicate enormous amounts of effort to building a world but don't give two seconds' thought to what might actually *happen*.
People will also post samples of their work in progress, and I would say no less than 90% of the time the opening chapter or prologue is a massive dump of information about things that happened in the past or who characters are, which is likely a direct result of people having lots of details about their world but almost no actual story. I recall one prologue that took place during a historic battle that was supposed to be relevant to the setting of the book. It had about 5,000 words explaining who the two sides were and why they were fighting, and it even had an inventory of how many of each kind of fighter each side had. Then it ended without ever describing the battle!
Ultimately it's easy to decide that the elves live over here and cast this kind of magic, but a lot harder to create an interesting story about who one of these elves is and decide what kind of unique challenge they face in this world and how they'll overcome it. If I sound a little derisive its just because I've read many, many posts that demonstrate the problem with excessive world building.
Sounds more like they’re building a video game! It must take so much effort that it’s quite sad if no story comes from it.
Yes.
I think a lot of them are also very young and get caught up in the romance of the idea of being a writer. However, they lack confidence in their writing but feel comfortable engaging in the world building part of the process so they focus on that.
This is a sound observation--about the confidence. I suspect that as the world grows bigger, the confidence grows smaller. It becomes daunting. They may be D&D folks who find a lot of positives and fun with that--and it is! But making the move to actually telling original stories feels like too much.
For those in this mental place, it might be best to set all aside, and just start having that fun (bringing that same sense of play that got the person to such a place in the beginning!) and write short stories...then let them grow, then re-connect with the world, if one is so inclined at that point. All in steps.
I agree about RPG & D&D folx as I grew up with a lot of them lol. And tbh some of them are making great money in coding, computer “story-making” in a sense.
I admire the way some of my friends are so immersed in it because I have to force myself to do it. While I can love it one day I get bored the next and find it hard to sustain. So I’m jumping around.
I've worked with my son on plotlines and characters, and it's been fun. Though I can see how things can drift off. But if working with a group of imaginative folks with strong characters, a lot can happen. And yes, there is great money in game-creating.
Thanks, Rylie!
This is just spot-on, Andy! I can't say enough about just digging in and writing as you build. Even "err" on the side of beginning to write the story, THEN start to build. Yes, that may mean tossing hundreds of pages... but that same time spent writing and tossing is better spent there than world-building (to my mind! And having tossed thousands of pages, no matter what I'm writing). You begin to understand your questions as they relate to the characters/story AS you go... This is key. The strongest fantasy comes of the best and toughest human questions.
For me, a guiding thought about speculative fiction is the question of why the writer has chosen "spec" or fantasy to tell the story: If the story can be told as contemporary realism, why choose otherwise? In other words, it has to be "spec" for a good reason. you're asking new questions.
For anyone interested in what I'm talking about, a search for "world building" and "years" on the reddit "writing" subreddit produced the following three examples at the top of the page and you could probably spend a few hours reading posts like this.
https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/pryz2i/ive_spent_years_building_my_world_and_finetuning/
https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/rvd5nl/i_cant_write_a_plot/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/ovk06p/does_anyone_have_any_idea_how_to_cure_chronic/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share