Fantastic piece, Vanessa. Love the details and that thinking.
I'm especially fond of when books make subtle changes to the norm of our world. Nothing too overt or contrived, but if it fits and make sense then it enriches things so much.
Jul 26, 2023·edited Jul 26, 2023Liked by Vanessa Glau
I enjoyed this worldbuilding article a lot, Vanessa. The details that you're building into worlds are fascinating and I like how you use your own interests to explore your secondary world. A good example of 'write what you know'. When we do that we can give more texture to our stories.
The book sounds indeed fascinating and thank you for writing a while article about it. What I had in mind was a short note: I like/didn't like the book. 😅
I happen to have a similar approach to yours. Right now, I just finished a story and for the next one I’m preparing to read a book for research before I start writing. Even though I already have the worldbuilding, I want details and texture and atmosphere. I feel like a story lives from its nuanced world.
thanks for the post and sharing what happens behind the scene in your writing and worldbuilding. The area I come across as a challenge when world building is how tightly knit the language and the cultures are and it's hard to tease them apart. Thus when we write our stories, we are bound by our social and cultural norms of our time. Do we simply write in our language and culture or try to reimagine our world's?
Ah, there's a similar problem in translation: whether to preserve as much of the original flavor as possible or render the text more understandable for readers with no background knowledge. There's no one solution to this.
When it comes to SFF writing, I try to sprinkle in some cultural & linguistic flavor to hint at the setting, the rest is up to the readers' imagination. It's a delicate balance for sure - too foreign & readers get confused trying to keep track of it all, too familiar & they get bored, thinking it's the same European medieval setting they've seen a thousand times before.
Thank you! Yes, I prefer doing it alongside the writing because it ensures I always build just the amount I need to keep the story going. Of course, what goes into the story is just the tip of the iceberg but at least I don't get sidetracked with details I'm never going to use (in theory haha).
Fantastic piece, Vanessa. Love the details and that thinking.
I'm especially fond of when books make subtle changes to the norm of our world. Nothing too overt or contrived, but if it fits and make sense then it enriches things so much.
The notion of drips for time is great.
I enjoyed this worldbuilding article a lot, Vanessa. The details that you're building into worlds are fascinating and I like how you use your own interests to explore your secondary world. A good example of 'write what you know'. When we do that we can give more texture to our stories.
The book sounds indeed fascinating and thank you for writing a while article about it. What I had in mind was a short note: I like/didn't like the book. 😅
I happen to have a similar approach to yours. Right now, I just finished a story and for the next one I’m preparing to read a book for research before I start writing. Even though I already have the worldbuilding, I want details and texture and atmosphere. I feel like a story lives from its nuanced world.
thanks for the post and sharing what happens behind the scene in your writing and worldbuilding. The area I come across as a challenge when world building is how tightly knit the language and the cultures are and it's hard to tease them apart. Thus when we write our stories, we are bound by our social and cultural norms of our time. Do we simply write in our language and culture or try to reimagine our world's?
Ah, there's a similar problem in translation: whether to preserve as much of the original flavor as possible or render the text more understandable for readers with no background knowledge. There's no one solution to this.
When it comes to SFF writing, I try to sprinkle in some cultural & linguistic flavor to hint at the setting, the rest is up to the readers' imagination. It's a delicate balance for sure - too foreign & readers get confused trying to keep track of it all, too familiar & they get bored, thinking it's the same European medieval setting they've seen a thousand times before.
great insight into your word building. definitely inspiring to take more time to develop the world sling with the writing at draft stages
Thank you! Yes, I prefer doing it alongside the writing because it ensures I always build just the amount I need to keep the story going. Of course, what goes into the story is just the tip of the iceberg but at least I don't get sidetracked with details I'm never going to use (in theory haha).