World Building: When is Enough Enough?

"Tha's enough! Tha's enough! Where is this Count Rugen now so I may kill him?" -- Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

I told you yesterday that today's post would be the most important thing we discussed all month in terms of world building. And some of you already know what it is.It's the moment when you realize that you need to stop.World building is important. Especially for those of us writing fantasy (or sci fi... sorry, sci fi... I love you still and I don't mean to leave you out of the Fantasy Month Fun). There are so many different things we could talk about. Endlessly.But — and this is important! — if you are a writer, at some point, the world building needs to END!Remember, way back at the beginning of the month, we learned an important tip from one of the master world builders of our time:

~Focus your world building on things that will most impact the plot and characters~

Just because J.R.R. Tolkien created an entire language for his elves, doesn't mean you have to do that. Just because C.S. Lewis created an origin story for Narnia, doesn't mean you have to do that. Just because Brandon Sanderson created a super well-thought out magical system and gave it all sorts of rules and structure and limits... doesn't mean YOU have to do that!What is your story?Who are your characters?What elements of world building will most impact those two things? Focus on those elements. If, along the way, you need something else for the story or characters, by all means, take a minute to figure it out and add it in. But it doesn't make a lot of sense to create a hugely complex and detailed map of the entire world if your story only takes place in a single village.

~It's OK if you don't use everything~

Remember my extremely detailed currency I created for the Minstrel's Song series? I never describe the coins in the books. I use the terms "stater" and "ryal" only a handful of times. I spent a lot of time on those details, and I barely used them. And that's ok. I don't consider it a waste of time, because when I was creating the currency, I thought I was going to use/need my characters to pay for things more than they actually did.I actually have 80,000 words of history/back story that I wrote for The Minstrel's Song series, as well, most of which never made it into the books at all. However, I did use snippets from that back story as quotes at the beginnings of each chapter in Minstrel's Call, the fourth and final book of the series.

~You can add things as you go~

You don't have to have all of the world building elements figured out before you start writing. Not every author is a "build the world first" author. Some authors do better creating the characters first. Some authors figure out the plot first. Some like to start with the world building.Personally, I'm a weird blend of all three. Though I've learned to do more world building up front because I hate how much editing is required when I don't plan well, I generally start with an idea of a character. If you've ever seen "The Man Who Invented Christmas" (which is fabulous, by the way) there's a scene where Charles Dickens is agonizing over the name of this character he's had an idea for. He tells the maid, "It's just a name. In a story I'm concocting.  You get the name right and then— if you’re lucky, the character will appear."A moment later, he comes up with the name "Scrooge" and Ebenezer Scrooge suddenly steps into the room, fully formed, fully realized.It's a little scary how accurate that is to the way my characters show up. I don't do a whole lot of character-building before I start writing. The characters tend to show up, their backstories in tow, their personalities and preferences fully formed... sometimes they don't tell me everything right at first, but usually I know enough to get started. Only twice have I been wrong about a character in a way that's required excessive editing of their personality throughout a story (Turrim Archive holds both of these pesky characters).But in terms of world building, I usually like to start with a general set of guidelines... a feel for the culture/landscape, a basic map (see horrible hand-drawing from my post on maps), and a time-period. Then a lot of other things get filled in as I write, depending on what the story demands. That way, I don't pour too much energy into aspects of the world building that will never even be hinted at in the story itself, because as much fun as world building is, my main goal is to write a story I can share.It's okay not to have everything figured out before you start writing. Even in the examples I've been sharing of Revelod, not everything is figured out. There are large, blank spaces on the map, the currency system hasn't been hashed out, I'm not sure exactly which races I'll be using or what all the cultures look like around them, I don't know what magical creatures or regular creatures will come into play during the story... there are still a lot of things we haven't quite thought of, and I'm not certain we will spend the time on them before I start writing in this world. And that's okay. Because sometimes it's better to allow for some discovery as you write. That way, you as the writer can infuse your words with that same sense of wonder you are hoping to inspire in your readers as they step into this new realm you have built and enjoy the magic of it.Remember... Lucy's first steps into Narnia are the magica you are trying to create for your reader!

~Have Fun~

Mountain Segue

First and foremost, world building should be fun.We can talk all day about the "rules and regulations" and sure, there are things that you can do to make things easier for your reader to understand or easier on yourself as you are writing... but at the end of the day, this is YOUR fantasy world and YOU get to make up the rules. So write your story. Take your characters on an adventure through this beautiful new world you've created, and try not to get lost going down too many rabbit holes while you're researching the exact moment that running water became commonly used or when apple pie was first invented.I hope you've enjoyed this little month-long fantasy world building workshop we've been having here on the blog. I sure have! Tomorrow I will announce the winners of the giveaway and we will have a little celebration of King's Warrior's EIGHTH BIRTHDAY!PLUS, I have an EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT tomorrow! So make sure you come back for all of that!(All the exclamation points!!!!)