Today’s guest post is by Kahina Necaise.
Worldbuilding is often one of fantasy authors’ favorite parts of the writing process. It can even be the reason they choose to write fantasy in the first place, knowing the freedom they’ll have in a genre where anything is possible. After the honeymoon burst of inspiration, though, most also find that world-building is harder than it looks.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common challenges in bringing new worlds to life in a story. We’ll also go over exercises that you can try out with your own world-in-progress right now.
Let’s get to it.
- Writing Specific and Concrete Details
A common criticism on book-review sites like Goodreads goes something like this: “Parts of the world sounded interesting, but I just couldn’t really picture it all.”
The problem in these cases is usually a lack of specific sensory detail. However clear the world might be in the writer’s mind, they haven’t put enough of it on the page using words that activate the imagination.
And no wonder. Most of us grew up with a writing education that prioritized academic abstraction over concrete imagination, leaving us with a relatively limited vocabulary for artfully conveying the sensory details that translate world-building into actual story. Continue Reading…
