 |
|
|
Scifi and Fantasy Forum: Writer's Discussion: Problems with Writing:
Fantasy worlds, How to create one?
Fantasy worlds, How to create one?
We have moved to new forum software and posting here is closed!
PLEASE BOOKMARK THE NEW FORUMS
Hi
I have always wanted to write a fantasy novel but the first hurdle I want to overcome is creating a fantasy world. Has anyone got any tips about creating a world as it still amazes me how tolkien created middle earth?
Cheers
Andy
Here's a nice directory of sites dedicated to world-building:
http://directory.google.com/Top/Games/Roleplaying/World_Building/
Actually, they are mostly about fantasy worlds for roleplaying games, but I believe most of the stuff also applies to fantasy worlds for literature.
I agree with Alexander on the role playing thing. My advice is to start with one character in a setting than build from that, as the adventure grows so does the world. Being a D&D player myself i have found it rather fun to make my own world and have used it in many of my stories. You might want to check that sight out if it deals with world building even though it is for a d20 game.
Posted By:  Aldan Mar 23, 2004 - 08:54 am |       | "...even though it is for a d20 game."
What version do YOU play?
I've played them all (well, I didn't actually get that far with the original D&D - the one w/o the "A", so as to have played any level above the second one (master?) - the one for lvls 4-6 or so), well, except the latest one (the d20 one), for which I've picked up the books. I started playing ages ago (obviously), and am just curious as to which is your favorite to play, and which you started with.
I have only been in it for a short period and am playing in the 3.0 and 3.5 editions. What i mean with d20 is the dice system. (just in case you did not know)
When I think of creating worlds, I think of cultures before anything.
| Posted By: Aldan Apr 25, 2004 - 08:58 am | | YES. If you're a character-interaction writer (as I am), then cultures, especially unusual or unique ones, are a GREAT starting point for your world creation. Often, for me, the cultures will "make" the world - such as a nomadic culture having a large "great plains" type of area come to mind, or something more arabic bringing to mind the desert...
There's a book available about Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" world. There's also books that detail the many drafts and first maps of Tolkien's world--the first being called: Return of the Shadow.
Inventing your own language(s) adds reality to the map(s). In fact, it shouldn't be done any other way.
| Posted By: Robohare Jun 26, 2004 - 07:45 pm | | how ta create a fantasy world? boy, dem things dont come off freakin trees!! a world needs to develop slowly, gracefully over time. it took [edit.Bmat] billion years fer this piece of crud ta come about, man, give yers a few years!
Ussually when trying to create a world I try and think about whats going to happen there. For example if a meatorite crashed into your world just before the story started then shouldn't there be a large crater? so choose whats going on with everything that happens in the world and add things to it if necessary.
| Posted By: Tobias Jul 25, 2004 - 02:09 pm | | Strangely enough for me, worlds have always sort of appeared in my head fully formed, but for others, here are a few tips:
Think of a base color or look for either the entire or part of a world and build on it. Such is the theme used by George Lucas in the original Star Wars movies. In the first the was tan, (desert) second was white, (snow) and third was green (forest.) I always find it helpful to base my entire world around a single color or idea.
For example, I thought of two elements--forest and rain. I thought about it a little and came up with a world made up entirely of huge trees, not densely packed, but each one incredibly gigantic. Rain was constantly pouring from the sky, drowning all plants living only on the ground, creating a virtual sea around the bases of the trees. The main species of the world lived only in the high branches of the trees, their entire culture suspended above the ground in a sort of magnificent treehouse.
Of course, that is only one example. With the same theme of forest and water, you could create swamplike terrain that covered the countryside, lichen, moss and ferns overgrowing everything, the main species living in bungalows that floated on small, muddy ponds.
The main thing to do when making a world, is to think of one thing, say a species, a culture, a color, or an element, then build on it.
Just use your imagination!
| Posted By: ricke Aug 23, 2004 - 11:47 am | | funny, I always start with economics - production and trade.
From there, I move to politics, and then religion.
religion, to me, is the most important, because it's the only non-pragmatic aspect of the three.
| Posted By: Magus Aug 23, 2004 - 11:51 am | | I start with characters. I develope what and who they are. I then investigate what kind of a world could have made them the way they are. What the sociaty is like, holds of value, practices as relegion and many other aspects as well. It works to make the most interesting stories, I think. After all, we all know how Tolkien came up with The Hobbit and thus started The Lord of the Rings in the process. But for those of you who don't...
Tolkien was working as a teacher at Oxford. On an exam a student left one of the questions blank. Not to waste space he jotted down "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." Then, in typical Tolkien fasion, ventured to discover what a hobbit is, why it lived in a hole, what kind of hole it lived in, so on and so forth.
| Posted By: ricke Aug 23, 2004 - 12:14 pm | | I guess my overall take is that I start with the story, then I build a world around it that can carry that story (which isn't largely constricting), then I use the characters as products of that society to carry out the story.
| Posted By: Magus Aug 23, 2004 - 12:22 pm | | That works too. Sometimes I do it that way, but it's rarer. I find that starting with characters works for me, at least in fantasy. But I do have a few that didn't.
But whatever works for you should be used. My general assessment of the situation is that you get more of a plot driven story by basing the world on the story and you get more of a character driven story by basing it on the characters. Both are highly important. Neither one is wrong but it will change the content of the story drastically depending on which way you chose to go. The choice is up to you to decide what to you is more important.
| Posted By: ricke Aug 23, 2004 - 12:43 pm | | I'm actually a little concerned with my current project... I have about ten chapters finished, and I noticed it started as character driven and then about chapter 6 or 7, it switched gears to plot driven.
To be honest, this has been my largest success, to date, so I keep the gears moving, but I am concerned that I will either have to redraft the first, or change change direction going forward.
| Posted By: Magus Aug 23, 2004 - 02:53 pm | | Hmmm...
That is an interesting dilema. Does the shift fit the story? If it does then I wouldn't worry too much.
Maybe you could make a topic about your story, tell us a little about it, and then we could try to give you some advice. Sometimes all a person needs to get back on track with a story is a little bit of help and kindly advice. It's worked for me here too many times to count. Maybe, if you're comfortable with it, you can give it a try.
| Posted By: Jude Feb 03, 2005 - 11:45 pm | | Hi, I'm new and this is my first post. I have just begun my third rewrite of the first ten thousand words of my fantasy-science fiction novel and am having difficulty with balancing exactly how much detail about what the landscape and spacescape in the created world looks like and what the charactors are doing as they move through the story. Appreciated productive criticism by a reader of the early chapters of my second rewrite has revealed that at times my work is overburdened with technicality. I don't know how to get the visuals loud and clear and then surrender my writing to the charactors moving in the story.
Welcome to SV Jude!
It's good to hear that you've got a novel into the revision stage. Just for curiosity's sake, how long is the novel? Is ten thousand words a significant portion of the text?
I'm also in the stage of revising my science fantasy novel, and I know how hard it can be to alter what looks like perfectly good work to you. My novel's beginning has many of the same problems you say your reader mentioned. Namely, I stall. I focus on describing insignificant, maybe even trite things. The real important parts are plot and character.
I read somewhere that if a paragraph doesn't advance either of these, it should be cut and its info should be put into paragraphs that do.
That seems a bit extreme to me, but the following advice sounds a bit more reasonable:
If a scene does not advance BOTH characterization AND plot, cut it; unless you are in the later parts of a long novel, in which case it is acceptable to advance only one of these two aspects.
Setting should usually be woven in between characterization and plot, even in a milieu-based story. In fantasy it is more acceptable to go off into descriptive passages than in other genres, but it should still be kept to a minimum.
I'll confess right now that there are parts in my book that don't follow this advice. For those parts, I have a Scythe of Editing +2, and it never loses its edge.
Good luck, keep writing, and don't despair. The only way you'll fail is if you give up.
| Posted By: Magus Feb 04, 2005 - 01:36 pm | | HEY JUDE!!!!!
Sorry, bad joke I know... probably get that all the time.
But, seriously, WELCOME!!!!!
Maybe you could post a portion of your novel in the Writer's Showcase and get critisizm from the members there.
|
|
|
|
|
Discussion
