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Hi! Yeah wow, it has! It’s been really good, actually. We started school back in May. My WIP Healer is now above 50,000 words, too! Also I’m getting ready to do an online writing summit tomorrow and Tuesday, so that should be really cool!
That’s an awesome accomplishment! good luck with the writing summit!
Yep, worldbuilding is amazing! I can’t decide which I like more- worldbuilding or character building. They’re both fun! Characters and worlds are a lot more fun to work with when they’re developed, too.
I think I prefer worldbuilding more, but I really like character development still, especially when I can come up with cruel and unusual ways to torture my characters. Better still, when you can tether the worldbuilding into the character development, making it feel far more real.
He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.
Thanks!! I’m actually watching it right now XD
Yes, I love weaving characters and the world together! I get to do that a lot with Healer because of how the planets are so different from each other.
Follow your heart, but take your brain with you.
Yeah, absolutely. As I explained to HybridLore, I still personally don’t like to use templates, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be extremely useful, and if used correctly with a good mechanic, it can speed the process up significantly. And a template that still keeps things open as you say I think would work the best. Perhaps include an open section titled ‘mechanic’ or whatever other overarching idea, and then list all the general questions after that. Another good technique is perhaps to simply journal your experience in the day to day, searching for inspiration where it might hit.
He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.
Sorry it took me so long to do this! I’m finally getting around to it. Long replies intimidate me a little bit lol.
Yeah, it’s ok to to use an algorithm every now and then. I personally shun it more often than not in preference of finding a mechanic, and then building off of it in all directions, thus finding all the aspects and eventually answering all the questions the sheet system wanted you to answer, but in a far more natural way that feels like it is supposed to be that way, and not just some roulette machine.
I honestly haven’t spent too much time worldbuilding because I’m a hard pantser XD but I could definitely see myself working on some sort of solar system with extreme worldbuilding sometime soon. I’m just trying to work on my other WIPs right now, before starting too many.. lol.
Right. I think I too would just start with inspiration and kind of spin off that a bit, but for me, sheets can definitely help get a bunch of details that I wouldn’t already know. But I doubt I’ll ever take the time to fill out an entire one, lol.
You are right though that you can’t force ideas. I think honestly you can’t direct or shun towards any one direction if your searching for a mechanic. Sheets could definitely work, but so can a million other things that may be completely unrelated to even the topic of the mechanic you find. Sanderson for example says that a large portion of his ideas comes from road trips, like the mists. The only real way is to think, but you can’t make yourself think, sometimes you need to go on a walk, see something as simple as a mailbox, ponder on its nature and purpose, and let ideas flow, or yes, find a sheet that asks questions about your world, think about those questions, ponder why their asked, how can you perhaps go beyond them?
Yeah, that’s true. I don’t really have anything about sheets (like I said, personally, I don’t think I would take the time to fill them out) but I definitely don’t think they should be considered the only way to worldbuild.. which they’re not. They can be helpful, though, so I don’t think they shouldn’t be used. But yeah, creating ideas and expanding them in a more natural way will probably give you a better outcome — or at least, give you a better connection to the world.
As for your idea, I find it intriguing. If I was thinking in terms of mechanics, I would say that the carnivorous idea is more of a afterthought, but the swaying concept is the real mechanic. I say this because the diet part is more of the basic sheet style question of ‘what does it eat?’ then you say it eats meat, moving on. The swaying idea however seems like it has potential, so I would start with that, and perhaps from building from that idea, meat eating will become a natural biproduct. I like the idea though, because it could create a more eerie feeling if you were to walk in a forest of these trees. You don’t feel the comforting brush of the familiar wind, instead, you only see these trees that appear to bask in it without you, rocking back and forth. A sense of wrongness would come from them, you might start to question their reality, or perhaps you might start questioning you own, like your only watching as an observer, perhaps you’d feel like a lone ghost, unable to feel what is felt here.
Honestly I think the carnivorous idea would be a little too blunt and repetitious, and would take away from the eerie ambience, replacing it with a much more straight forward threat. Those are my thoughts at least, so don’t take my word as any authority.”Right, yeah, that makes sense. I’m actually really impressed you thought of that because it WAS two different ideas I just combined. Yeah, that was sort of the idea — I was thinking they’re sort of more sentient than normal trees, and the carnivorous thing kind of just made them feel almost more dangerous. But yeah, I get what you’re saying. I don’t really know where I would go with that and if I would even use that idea or not, but I appreciate the feedback.
Great job on the description, by the way. You somehow grasped what I was trying to say and explained it way better than I did, so props to you lol.
"Be careful, for writing books is endless, and much study wears you out." Eccl. 12:12
No worries! I enjoy long responses, but I’ve been busy the last couple days and have been struggling to get just a few posts done.
I honestly haven’t spent too much time worldbuilding because I’m a hard pantser XD but I could definitely see myself working on some sort of solar system with extreme worldbuilding sometime soon. I’m just trying to work on my other WIPs right now, before starting too many.. lol.
Right. I think I too would just start with inspiration and kind of spin off that a bit, but for me, sheets can definitely help get a bunch of details that I wouldn’t already know. But I doubt I’ll ever take the time to fill out an entire one, lol.
Yeah, that’s why I like my current WIP, because it allows so many different ideas to work together in a way that makes sense. A one big project instead of a bunch of small ones, I like calling it a worldbuilding lifehack😂
But everyone is still different in their approach on things, so my method that helps me feel less stressed, might increase the stress of someone else.
Yeah, that’s true. I don’t really have anything about sheets (like I said, personally, I don’t think I would take the time to fill them out) but I definitely don’t think they should be considered the only way to worldbuild.. which they’re not. They can be helpful, though, so I don’t think they shouldn’t be used. But yeah, creating ideas and expanding them in a more natural way will probably give you a better outcome — or at least, give you a better connection to the world.
Definitely. I like how you phrased it was giving a better connection to the world, that’s very much how I feel about it, it feels like it is much more your own, instead of falling in line of how someone else thinks is the best way to worldbuild. This of course might come off as a little hypocritical, as I have been saying that I think that finding a mechanic is the best way, but the point of finding a mechanic is that it is more personal, and sometimes even a template can trigger that inspiration.
Right, yeah, that makes sense. I’m actually really impressed you thought of that because it WAS two different ideas I just combined. Yeah, that was sort of the idea — I was thinking they’re sort of more sentient than normal trees, and the carnivorous thing kind of just made them feel almost more dangerous. But yeah, I get what you’re saying. I don’t really know where I would go with that and if I would even use that idea or not, but I appreciate the feedback.
Great job on the description, by the way. You somehow grasped what I was trying to say and explained it way better than I did, so props to you lol.
Yeah, it’s a fun idea! It is my nature to extrapolate on things as much as possible, so I’m glad you enjoyed that, thanks😅
He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.
I’ve stalked this ever since it started, and finally have some thoughts 😂
For me, I start off free-thinking (or working off a mechanic, as you put it), because like you said, it almost always yields more original ideas. In fact, I get ideas when I’m not even actively thinking – and those… I’m assuming my brain just subconsciously asked what if? when I never ASKED IT TO.
Then once I have a solid thing going on, I pull out the templates as a catch-all canvas. There are a lot of wandering threads in my head – which I’ll never see again unless I record them. I know they’re there, but at the same time, I can’t remember them on the spot. So just basic templates help enormously.
There are a lot of semi-identical stories out there that are very clearly based on templates, though, wjoch supports your point. You can almost taste no difference, especially in the middle grade\YA fantasies. Very streamlined. Especially if they’re based off classic fairy tale creatures. Dragons, elves, mermaids… It’s a, check off all these boxes and it looks so amazing kind of a deal, but there’s only one kind of “amazing.” It’s just the same thing we’ve seen before, only with different colored skin or something.
Not that stories with classic fantasy creatures are always unoriginal, because that there are so many authors that create their world more carefully and make something starkly different from what we’ve seen before – like 100 Cupboards or anything written by Jonathan Stroud, to name a few.
I think the reason a template doesn’t work as amazingly as the question what if? is this: In a template, whoever created the template is assuming facts or foundational concepts for something, thereby shoving us into a box.
The question what does this thing eat? assumes the thing eats. What does this thing look like? assumes the thing has an appearance. Without even asking a question, a template might assume your being is material, when they are actually of an entirely different make.
An example – with Hybridlore’s carnivorous tree idea. In a template, someone is most likely to assume the tree just operates on foundational definitions of an earthly tree – gains nutrients through roots, strong and upright. There might be a question asking, how pliable is the tree? but even then, that’s assuming only so far, and not necessarily asking for the fantastical element (trees swaying of their own accord).
Because of this, the writer might subconsciously stick themselves into that box. If they did already have a strongly developed idea, which they are willing to change up template questions for, then there isn’t as much of a problem. But if you’re creating a species completely off of a template, you are letting the template make the rules for you, when you should be trying to stretch the rules in new ways.
So… yeah.
“Everything is a mountain”
Yes! You’ve worded it perfectly Whale! It’s definitely not something you can control, I personally find it fruitful to just talk about it, and think openly with others, but my best ideas just kind of come to me randomly.
There’s ideas that could never be on a template, like: What if there was a world where light and dark switched roles, where a flashlight cast a beam of darkness, but when faced by an obstacle, creates a shadow of light. Might not make sense logically at first, but it could be rationalized one way or another, or maybe not, and we simply embrace the absurdity, but because of how absurd it is in our foundational understanding of how reality works, it could never be suggested on a template, unless someone wanted to really create the ultimate template that was super large, but it would become meaningless at that point, the amount of possibilities more immense than all the grains of sand upon every beach and desert, nothing could be derived from such a template, and no amount of generalizing of ideas could reduce an inkling of that. That wide expanse could only be accessed by those who are willing to ask the what if questions.
He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.
*Telepathy link* Exactly!! There are a million ideas that can’t come from a particular set, and where are you supposed to find templates for them? That’s why you make your own, once you know your concept well enough.
When you really think about it, the what if questions look for things completely outside of anything already created – because we have nothing set yet – whereas template questions merely make an idea ( one already available to writers as a whole) more specific.
So there’s nothing wrong with templates, we’re just using them in the wrong way.
Heeeeyyy, we had the same switch-light-with-darkness idea 😂 Just goes to show how even though there are so many possibilities, us humans only have the capabilities to scratch the surface.
“Everything is a mountain”
Lol! Yes, I would greatly advocate templates if they weren’t abused as much as they are.
That’s awesome you had the same thought, it’s still a rather simple what if, because it is a simple inversion of a binary concept we encounter daily, but that alone can still lead to incredible worlds of a completely different nature, with potential of telling stories unlike any other before. The idea can also be interpreted in millions of different ways, allowing for there to be continual exploration of the same ideas. The light dark switch makes a excellent thought experiment and point to be made on the topic of worldbuilding, “what can we really mess with?” it gets people to ask. It’s still something hard to wrap ones head around, and it might even touch ones mind, but then simply be dismissed. Worldbuilders like us think alike in the way that we can consider the simplest of concepts, and create whole different worlds from them.
He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.
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