{"id":346,"date":"2019-09-18T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/katrina.effexhost.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/18\/wordsmith-wednesday-world-building-in-a-fantasy-novel\/"},"modified":"2019-09-18T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T14:00:00","slug":"wordsmith-wednesday-world-building-in-a-fantasy-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/18\/wordsmith-wednesday-world-building-in-a-fantasy-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"Wordsmith Wednesday: World Building in a Fantasy Novel"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nWe have a guest this week! I’m super excited to introduce y’all to Russell Nohelty<\/a>, one of my favorite writers.<\/p>\n

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I\u2019m doing a lot of promotion for my new Kickstarter, Ichabod
\nJones: Monster Hunter<\/i>, and as such I have been participating in several AMAs
\naround the internet. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/div>\n

\nMost of the questions tend to be about the project, or one
\nof my other projects, but sometimes they turn toward writing, and specifically
\nwriting fantasy, which is something I am acutely qualified to talk about, being
\nas I\u2019ve made my career writing fantasy novels and comics. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
The biggest question I get related specifically to writing
\nfantasy is about how to go about world building in a fantasy story without an
\ninfo dump. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
An info dump is when you explain the world at length in the
\nmiddle of a scene without explaining it through action. It could be through a
\nsong, or a story found by one of the characters, or just somebody explaining
\nthe world at length to another character. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
This kind of world building stops the story dead and is
\ndreadfully boring both for the author to write and the reader to read. It also
\ndemystifies the wonder of the world, which is one of the greatest parts about
\nfantasy. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
So, how do you do world building the right way, then? <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
Good world building is done through the eyes of the main
\ncharacter, or characters, if you have multiple point of view characters, a la
\nGame of Thrones. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
In good world building, the world unfolds for the character
\nmuch like it unfolds for the reader, with each scene building on the next and
\nrevealing more and more about the world. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
Good world building is like building a train track while a
\ntrain is barreling forward. You should only lay that track moments before the
\ntrain arrives, but always with enough track that it doesn\u2019t fall off the rails.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
This means that you should strive not to reveal something to
\nyour reader until right before they need to know it, so that it\u2019s fresh in
\ntheir mind when the action happens. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
If you reveal a part of the world a hundred pages before the
\ninformation is needed, readers will forget and become confused when the action
\nhappens. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
Instead, it\u2019s important to reveal necessary information
\nwithin two chapters of when the characters will need to act on the information
\nthey\u2019ve received, and it is best to do so in the preceding one or during the
\nsame chapter when they experience the threat. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
For instance, if your characters go into a town and learn
\nabout a beast that roams the mountains, and then head into the mountains\u2026they
\nare going to either have to encounter the beast OR learn that there is
\nsomething else in the woods that is not the beast. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
This either reinforces or subverts the information given,
\nand thus cements it in the brain of the reader, because they have just read
\nabout the information, and then soon after seen the information for themselves
\nthrough the actions of the characters. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
I also like to use another trick, which is not to disclose
\nany information for my readers until after the characters experience it. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
In Ichabod Jones Monster Hunter,<\/i> the first issue
\nstarts with the main character creeping through an asylum unaware of what is
\nhappening and scared out of his mind, until he runs into a great, big monster
\nwhich chases after him, and the rest of the issue is spent trying to figure out
\nwhat happened and how to kill the monster. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
This plants the reader directly into the action, but it is also
\njarring for the reader, which means it needs to be used sparingly. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
In the case above, I used the jarring pace of meeting the
\nmonster to show that nothing is safe and Ichabod could be put in life
\nthreatening peril at any moment. It drew the reader in immediately and helped
\nthem connect with the character. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
Conflict is what bonds the reader with the character, and
\nconflict shows the true nature of the character. Good world building is all
\nabout how to show the mettle of the characters and put them in conflict with
\nthe world. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
When you write an info dump, you do nothing to show the
\nconflict of the world with the character, and thus, it serves very little
\npurpose. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
The world is only as interesting as the conflict it creates
\nwith the characters, which means that showing the world in conflict with the
\ncharacter is the best way to build empathy between your reader and the world
\nyou\u2019ve created. <\/o:p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
You can check out the Ichabod Jones campaign, and even
\ndownload the first issue for free at: bit.ly\/ichabod5<\/a><\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nFor more information about Russell, check out his website at The Complete Creative<\/a>. Also be sure to check out all of his novels and comics! He’s an immensely talented writer who I am proud to know.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nIf you like what you’ve read here, please share it with others using these buttons:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have a guest this week! I’m super excited to introduce y’all to Russell Nohelty, one of my favorite writers. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~I\u2019m doing a lot of promotion…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}