Writing Workshop: How Much of My World Do I Build

Title: Writing Workshop: How Much of My World Do I Build Category: Story Process Clicks: 0 Listing added: Mar 9, 2008

First, let me say that worldbuilding is an essential skill for every writer, regardless of genre. Not all writers need to concentrate on all areas of worldbuilding, but every writer must do some worldbuilding if he hopes to have a novel that is coherent, consistent, and real. Second, writers seem to come in three varieties -- those who really have no idea what worldbuilding is or why they should bother with it; those who do know, but figure they'll wing the details as they go; and those obsessive folks who secretly believe that they really can't start the book until the whole planet is in place. I've spent time in all three camps -- most of my time in the last one. My yearnings still run toward nailing everything down in advance of writing, but after years of dealing with deadlines and the cold reality that money doesn't come in until the work goes out (actually, until well after the work goes out), I've learned to do a minimalist version of worldbuilding that still doesn't skip on the essentials. I used my new system to develop the world of Matrin -- a world critics uniformly praised for the depth and complexity of its world.