FINALLY đ SOMEONE đ SAID đ IT. đ ALL OF IT.  đALL AT ONCE. đ
(Thank you @fallingawkwardlyâ for bringing this to my attention.)
I guess but also a lot of this stuff seems really boring to actually put in your worldbuilding. Like, maybe figure it out and consider it as a supplemental, but sometimes a handwave is all you really need.
World building /=/ story writing. Only one of them makes for an interesting read when itâs all laid out on paper.
Handwaving is fine. Covering things briefly is fine. Making some assumptions is fine. Taking into consideration all of these aspects to make a more realistic in-world economy and system is great, but actually inserting every minute detail into the story takes away from the actual plot.
Balance is key.
I hate this thread because who the fuck cares who domesticated the fucking wheat in a novel about dragons burning a whole continent to ash, really. History buffas and Medievalists are some of the most insufferable when it comes to critiquing SFF literature. The point of specfic is not to be realistic. Go read literary fiction if youâre hung up on where horses fucking come from. However, I also feel like a lot of this is overblown reacting for the purpose of pointing out how a lot of historical and Medieval-inspired fantasy reads as the same because no one actually thoroughly researches the things that would exist in the analogous time period theyâre painting. Then thereâs that whole thing of if any of these details are particularly necessary to the story.
Iâd agree, and Iâd also defend this in another way. If youâre not doing the research to twig into some of what the guy was tweeting about, youâre missing interesting ways to not just add details, but to build story and plot. The king not worrying about duke consolidating power for instance, if a person dived into that theyâd have some great subplots that would add tension and intrigue. Maybe the beer-making or horse-breeding questions would lead to some neat cultural stuff that would distinguish the novel from every medieval-inspired novel.
Agree with all my mutuals, and would push Dawnâs point that you could soooo definitely find a cool-ass story to tell from diving into a piece of mundane or background world building.
âWhere does the food come fromâ is the most important part of worldbuilding, imo. You donât need to have it plotted down to which field grows what kind of potato, but you do need the broad strokes, and sometimes that does require research.Â
Itâs also important to note what is being excused for the sake of âhistorical accuracyâ (sexism, modern homophobia, inaccurate ideas about the stability of kings, modern atheism) and what is being waved aside for the sake of a âfictional storyâ (everyone has great teeth, nobody has diseases, farming is something that just happens offscreen, there is no âcomplicatedâ middle class merchant stuff happening.) Things like rape and general brutality are excused in fantasy novels for âhistorical accuracy,â however things like dysentery and bad teeth are not.
Of course a book that covers in detail farming and horse breeding and the soil content isnât what anyone wants (ok Iâm sure someone out there does but like, general audiences donât.) However, a worldbuilding endeavor that decides to make everyone white, straight, and sexist, with good teeth in a medieval setting ⌠is making a lot of deliberate choices in their worldbuilding. And we should be critical and aware of that.Â
Here are some actual excepts from a talk Terry Pratchett gave on how to build a fantasy world:
Terry opened the discussion on mapping your created SF/fantasy domain with the unforgettable statement: âHow does the shit get out, and the clean water get in?â
Your characters have got to drink, eat, and shift by-products, so the design of Ankh-Morpork, on the Discworld, starts with the river (and what a river â thatâs a lot of by-products, which it would be, for a heaving great city). Would a city on top of a mountain work, or would only a small village last in those conditions? How would a city in the clouds function, in plumbing terms? Your readers will want to know these things, and if there arenât any satisfactory answers, you and your readers are both missing out.
A community functions on the basis of sanitation services, and provisions of food and water. Say, for example, you have a nomadic tribe living on a desert moon, who raise herds of giant herbivorous quadruped working-animals the size of double-decker buses. What are these herds of great land-creatures eating? Sand? Air? Where is their poop going? How are they kept from wandering off at night and trampling their biped masters in their sleep? How is the animal husbandry and midwifery managed? Enquiring minds will want to know.
Terry took a question from one of the younger audience members[âŚ] âWhat advice would you give to anyone wanting to be a science fiction or fantasy author?â
Terryâs thoughts on this were strong.
âDonât read too many books already published in your chosen genre. You donât want to be writing imitations of whatâs already out there. Read geography. Read history books. Read about science.â
âŚResearch how worlds function, what shapes them, geologically and politically. How they progress through technology and learning, arts and culture.
Look at this: one of the most prolific and celebrated fantasy authors in the world is arguing, consistently, that good historical, political and geographic planning are central to building a solid fantasy world. Omitting these details often seems to be a cheap easy tactic to bring in current cultural biases such as sexism and racism, without ever having to address them critically or even question their role in our culture.
âYouâre doing feudalism wrongâ is my entire life. If you canât bother to think about the critical functioning of your world, why should I bother to read it? Itâs going to come out same-y as the rest of the genre.
