tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post7932275101996395497..comments2024-03-25T09:56:16.164+00:00Comments on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure: World building for beginners - N M BrowneUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-85230768729694661072008-08-04T12:48:00.000+01:002008-08-04T12:48:00.000+01:00I build my worlds by throwing in little asides tha...I build my worlds by throwing in little asides that force me to be creative. I'll put in something like "As everyone knows, there's not a self-respecting hamster alive who doesn't have a rhubarb tree at the bottom of their garden".It's ridiculous, but it keeps me trammelled: The rules of the world take shape. Works for me. Or maybe it doesn't: I guess I'd have to leave that decision to my precious few readers. <BR/>Tooty NolanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-31044828782973788692008-08-01T12:46:00.000+01:002008-08-01T12:46:00.000+01:00I actually prefer a few questions and anomalies an...I actually prefer a few questions and anomalies and ambiguities, even in the final version - gives the reader something to worry over.Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13770069472552779217noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-34963810222923424192008-08-01T09:54:00.000+01:002008-08-01T09:54:00.000+01:00Your method sounds like a vastly preferable way; t...Your method sounds like a vastly preferable way; to let the world support the story, rather than the reverse. Otherwise you risk merely taking a reader on an elaborate tour through a landscape that doesn't really do much other than coldly impress with its detail. I admire authors who can really get every detail right up-front, but admiration isn't the same as love.<BR/><BR/>Mind you, I think Tolkien did it more 'your way' in actual fact. It's evident from early drafts that he was making up TLOTR as he went along; and the world of Middle Earth had been made up over his lifetime through another work of fiction, The Silmarillion. True, he had all those languages he invented, but everything else I suspect happened organically, much as you describe. Frank Herbert, now there's a pedantic world engineer...Nick Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11307045090887391553noreply@blogger.com