Embracing the Clomping Foot of Nerdism

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

From somewhere, I have got it into my head that a love of worldbuilding is not a respectable reason to want to write. Which is a shame, as imagining other worlds is one of the things that gets me most fired up creatively. And when I try to leap into a story and not worry too much about the world, the results seem paper-thin, severely lacking in immersiveness and cohesion. (That feeling of immersion is something I deeply value as a reader.)

During a writing collaboration a few years ago, I found that writing character bios really helped me to bring them to life. Alongside the descriptions, even just a short list of biographical facts really helped me to root them in the real world. Which is harder to do for people on another planet in the year 4,000....

....especially as I won't let myself wallow in world-building enough to create solid-feeling places for them to come from! This looks awfully like a self-defeating loop. So I have decided to clasp M. John Harrison's "Clomping Foot of Nerdism" to my bosom, and put some quality time into the nuts and bolts of a setting I want to use. I have set aside a monstuously thick A4 excercise book solely for the details of a particular imagined world, ranging from planetary orbits down to what a shop in a small town might look like. Anything to nail this down as a real place, with special attention to anything that might help all those forlorn unfinished stories along. 'Cus the mono-buttocked state of their world ain't doing them any favours.

Anyone else relate to this at all?

 

[Venusian Broon]

Seems to me you have some great reasons for wanting to write. If it comes from deep diving into worldbuilding, I think that's fantastic.

I like to have depth and to have "connectivity" in my worlds - from the biggest to the smallest thing. They don't have to be scientifically accurate, I'm not an ultra hard-sf writer but I like things to 'make sense' . And yes, it can (if the plot calls for it!) get to: "Does this society have 'shops'? If so, how would they operate? What would they look like?"

I think the main problem that some authors have with world-building is that, all that work doesn't actually directly lead to actual story being put down. And therefore can just lead to procrastination.

 

[msstice]

I read a post on reddit a week ago where the person said they were giving up writing stories and just doing world building because that's what brought them most joy.

 

[ckatt]

a love of worldbuilding is not a respectable reason to want to write.

I believe that any reason to want to write is respectable. But in the end, you're not showing readers your reasons, you are showing your writing.
So whatever motivates you to keep laying down sentences is working.
Personally, I try not to worry too much about the nitty-gritty of the world-building until I need it in the story for something.
That said, when I'm not at my keyboard and I let my mind wander into the world I'm working on, I tend to imagine all sorts of things the never make it into the manuscript. Like who lives on the next street over from where the action is happening. Or what was this character's father's major in school--totally irrelevant stuff. But it helps me become more immersed in the world, and when I am writing I need that immersion or nothing goes right and I end up tossing everything out. Sometimes its takes hours of living "there" just to do fifteen good minutes of typing. But it's always worth it.

I only ever read one of Harrison's books and I didn't love it. I thought the world he built was one of the stronger points yet the plot and resolution left me underwhelmed.
Writing Excuses recently did a series on world-building starting at episode 16.43. You might want to check it out.

 

[DLCroix]

One of the main criticisms against fantasy and science fiction, by readers of mainstream literature, has to do with the lack of aptitude or mental laziness in the construction of worlds; but, on the other hand, if this item was not important, then the enormous success of travel books is not explained, in my opinion, a market niche that was discovered in biographies. Although we must also remember that precisely one of the most important reasons why we read is that we like to know about the adventures of others, the places where they have traveled, fictitious or not (the only difference with travel literature is that the sites are or were real), so that in some way we can know those places. In fact, there is also a playful aspect to this activity that becomes especially important for the literature market during the holidays.
But the point, I say, is not to include this item in our stories out of commercial interest or obligation. The idea is to do things, or write them, with pleasure, right? In fact, I must also say that authors such as Perez Reverte or Anthony Burgess (in reality he is much more than just the author of A Clockwork Orange) and their vivid descriptions of the places where their stories take place taught me a lot and made me aware of the real importance of world building.

 

[Rufus Coppertop]

Anyone else relate to this at all?

Absolutely!

I have categories nested in other categories dealing with all sorts of stuff such as toponyms, names of newspapers, brand names, cultural icons and institutions, descriptions of places and important streets and parks and buildings and landscape features and names and more names and on it goes.

 

[Aknot]

I think world building is a skill that takes time to learn. It's a tool for writing that requires practice. Through work and studies I've picked up a few things that helps me lay a foundation without too much work.

First, practice makes perfect. It takes time to do it well. Also, long projects for one setting might not give as much as short projects for several. Short stories where you introduce a new world, for example, might help to hone your world building skill more.
The less references the reader has, the harder the setting is to create. This might seem counter intuitive but the more you lean on what the reader already knows, the easier it is to have them focus on the good stuff. Consider simple, alternate versions of reality, for example versus strange alien worlds where things never work as we expect it to.
Find a naming convention and stick to it. I often make lists of names that seem similar, then use it as reference, crossing out those I've used. Culturally different names give a lot of weight to a world.
A short one liner is often enough to describe something. You don't have to explain a lot, as long as it sounds cool and can be a trigger for the readers imagination.
History, anthropology and many other subjects are great inspiration.
Mood boards are great. Collect pictures, names, words or snippets of text. This is especially important if your work later requires art.
Don't create more than you need. Pages of backstory or notes about places that nobody will read might feel cool, but most of the time not worth your while.

All that said, I'm sure there are plenty of great authors that do the opposite but the above has helped me a lot.

 

[HareBrain]

I don't think you can or should divorce world-building from writing stories. The human (or equivalent) element of any world is based on stories -- myths, legends, history. Any of the great invented fantasy worlds are stuffed with them. If world-building interests you more than writing stories set in the present-day of those worlds, then maybe switch to writing the stories that form the bedrock of those worlds instead.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

Update: a story is squeezing itself into existence, triggered by a description of an apartment building on a high-gravity world.