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Category: Reference
Description: World building involves more than elaborate settings, more than magic and magical beings, and more than paranormal happenings. Speculative fiction is a fast growing market, and world building is an essential tool for creating successful stories where the reader can suspend disbelief. Fundamentals of World Building gives writers the proper tools to craft a well written manuscript, rich with details, by guiding them through steps for choosing the right world elements to include in their story. Use a simple blueprint method to lay the foundation, then complete the story. Beginning writers in the genre can learn to identify potential pitfalls. More complex concepts are included for intermediate to advance level authors. Use the extensive worksheet and get started world building today!
eBook Publisher: L&L Dreamspell/L&L Dreamspell, 2010 Spring, Texas
eBookwise Release Date: September 2010

2 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [89 KB]
Words: 17368
Reading time: 49-69 min.

World building is so much more than creating a planet in a galaxy far, far away. Writers must take the foreign, the alien, the unfamiliar, and make it resonate with readers. Readers should feel welcome in the world created, not like an outsider or a spectator. They need to identify with the characters, be they humanoid, demon, angel, vampire, were, or an alien form of life.

Simply stated, the writer must make the unbelievable believable.

In the world of speculative fiction, it's not only important to have a great story, it's imperative to have a great story world. A thinly veiled version of life on Earth, either from the 12th century or the current century, will read exactly like what it is--an artless and amateurish attempt. Readers won't accept the work, no matter how well the author has crafted the plot, if the story world doesn't enhance the story to its fullest potential.

The story world must be as fully developed as the characters and the plot. Even a world of chaos must be structured and fleshed out in such a way that the reader can relate and fully immerse himself in the world. Readers need to feel at home in the story world, whether it's another planet or another dimension.

Balance is the key. The story world should not overwhelm the story. Nor should it linger around the edges of the story, creeping in only when needed to explain a story element. Story and story world should be an intricately woven tapestry, each thread dependent on the other to present the whole pattern. Any bare spot, any frayed edge, any torn or faded thread will ruin the aesthetic value of the art.

To build a story world, the author must be part artist, part engineer, and sometimes part mad scientist. Elements need to be built and structured with the greatest attention to detail and then painted with the visionary's palette.

This is not intended to be a complete reference, a compendium of world-building knowledge, or even how to write a speculative fiction novel (although bits of character development, plot development, and conflict may sneak in while the story world is under construction). It is a starting point and quick reference guide to the construction of a story world, the elements that comprise the different types of world, and how those elements interact to create a believable story world.