Worldbuilding thoughts (Patreon)

 The first in my series of slightly rewritten posts on other forums. This one came about after I was asked for advice on how to do world building.

So here are my quick thoughts on the matter:

You don’t need half as much world building as you think you do and if you, like me, are a researcher, it can paralyze you. 

You  only need enough world to surround the story and make it internally  cohesive, but on the other hand, the world can also make the story grow  cooler and better so it’s a balance.

The most  important thing will be cool names and concepts. That's what people  will remember, not how they work. Calling magic users ‘smoke eaters’ is  more important than the rules that govern their magic. The right words  are important, it’s all in the name.

If the world  stands in the way of your story, change the world or the story.  Whichever is coolest. A lot of cool twists can come from trying to work  around what you said five chapters previously.

If  your story is not about politics, don’t bother with politics. If it  takes place in a city, don’t bother too much with the ecology. Focus on the  story. 

Remember to show the world from the  character’s point of view. A farmer from hicksville will describe the  foreign relations of the USA different than a career diplomat. 

The  characters can be wrong, or biased about the world. If they are, try to  work out how to show that they might not know what they are talking  about, without saying it straight out.

In a familiar world, you need to add strange concepts. Like being a cab river for ghosts in NY city.

In a strange world, you need to add familiar routines. Weird dragon sorcerers handling public transport via teleport circles.

Your world will change as you write, it’s never finished.

Start  the story even if you’re not sure about the world, it is perfectly fine  for the world to be birthed around the story and then hammered into  shape in future edits.

You don’t have to kill your darlings, just make them fit.

Stick  to a cohesive naming scheme, that way you can introduce foreign  concepts just by switching to another type of names. If you have Sven,  son of Sven, and Jarl One-Eye, then introducing something called  Issh'th'anthiar then that, by definition, is weird to the world of your  characters as well as to the reader.

Above all, have fun. If  you don’t have fun in your world, then you might need a new one. I’ve  had stories that grew a lot better just by shifting words or characters.  Move that dragon age rip off to the wild west. Maybe set that stale  noir detective story under the sea. Have your buddy cop drama be about  two demons in hell. Switch it up and have fun!