What would you call 'Wonderland'-style worlds? And how would you build one?

ColGray said:
Was it a thought that acted at an angle which was acute, but behaved as if it were obtuse?

Full circle non-Euclidian geometry horror!

(I see what i did there);)
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No, I think it's more a sine of my tangential thinking.
 
Does Itchy and Scratchy Land Count ? Or KrustyLand ? ;)
 
Harpo said:
If it was me, and I wanted it to be sort of like those worlds you listed, I would start by gathering together all the actual bits of them you most like, like a wonderscrapbook or whatever. Then, use your wonderscrapbook to write little bits to fill in any gaps, and maybe invent whatever characters and situations come to mind. When your new little bits add up to more than the contents of the wonderscrapbook, remove the wonderscrapbook and all its contents, leaving just your own ‘network’ of bits and pieces.
And then keep inventing bits to go with those.

Just an idea.
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This is largely how I came up with my magic system in my own WIP. I wanted something that felt fairy tale-ish, so I thought of a couple of examples of modern media I liked that had that feeling to them. I then made a list of what they were doing and how they were doing it to create that affect. From there I was able to take those elements to fashion something of my own creation. I've done this for themes, characters, everything, really. It's an excellent strategy.

So while you don't want to copy exact marvels from those worlds, you might try seeing what sorts of things those worlds share in common with one another and think of how you can do your own variation. For example, Alice in Wonderland and Super Mario both feature oversized plants, so something of that nature might add to the aesthetic you're going for.
 
Such a world might be called "whimsical" and "absurdist." Imho, these worlds are more interesting than typical Medieval fantasy fare.

How to make one? I've made my own (fictional, of course) hybrid creatures in the past. You might start there.
 
OK, I just asked somebody who creates comics how to make an absurdist fantasy world. They recommended putting the absurdist part at the forefront by making up its rules for the physics. For example, if someone drinks milk, let's say it can make them walk through walls. The rules should be dogmatic. Maybe invent laws that don't exist in our world. Be as weird as possible.
 
When I wrote the first draft of Hairy London, the overriding rule was: Do not edit your subconscious. This is the key. If your sense of humour is already absurdist, that's where the good stuff is lurking. My upcoming The Humour Mines & Other Unlikely Stories is in part about this process of humour.
 
Stephen Palmer said:
If your sense of humour is already absurdist, that's where the good stuff is lurking.
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Sometimes, my humour is best with a muzzle and leash. It will chew through in no time, but at least those who don't get my humour have a head start to run away.
 
Turn off the part of your brain that says "I can't do that, that's dumb!" Comics writers have an easier time with this than prose writers - there's a strong streak of non-realism in comics.

The thing I'm working on now: I'm trying to square the circle between "do some necessary world-building" and "don't suck all the random fun out of it."
 
I have found that a lot of world building comes from the characters themselves. All those little behaviors and past experiences can be used to slightly expanded your stories world. Or putting characters into an environment that they would never go into is a good way to expand your world too.

Even introducing a character (or their past) that is contradicting or opposite to the rules of your world can add that little change to the story and help keep the story telling prosses alive while expanding your world building.
 
There's a related group of settings I've taken to calling "hard-boiled wonderlands," after the Haruki Murakami novel "Har-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World." Lands of magic, wonder and whimsy mixed with brutal repression and horrific consequences. One example is Emma Newman's "Split Worlds" series, where the Fae-Touched live forever in a magical period-drama society that has invented several new forms of slavery.
 
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