Aug 2022
14 / 38
Sep 2022
Oct 2022
darthmongoose
Aug '22

Backstory or setting detail, and the story you tell in your story, aren't the same thing, and you can't write a truly great novel or write and draw a great comic without both.

Some people put tons and tons of work into their background and setting, creating a really richly detailed world and knowing their characters down to their favourite flavour of milkshake... but they get so invested in hashing all of that out, or writing the fictional history of every continent in their Fantasy world that they either never get around to making an actual story and end up with something more like an RPG setting guide, or they tell a poorly structured story that doesn't start in an interesting place and meanders around, because they enjoy just existing in their world and around their characters so much, they don't realise it's less interesting for other people.

But then there are people on the other end of the scale, who write a rip-roaring story where stuff is going down! People are going places! Stuff is blowing up! ...But they never put any real thought into any background or characters, so everyone is a generic archetype you've seen in a million other comics or anime or light novels, every place is described or drawn with minimal detail... You know like those Isekai comics where every background is that same overused 3D model of a castle that's in every Isekai, and like.. no thought was put into the worldbuilding, so the clothes are all just that sort of... generic "Fantasy dress" you only see in webcomics, where peasants dress in sort of early medieval style clothes, but then the maids and butlers all dress like they're from Victorian England and the male royalty wear early 20th Century formal military uniforms? It's boring, uninspired, it looks like everything else and has no personality. It's basic.

The latter is easier to read, but you'll have forgotten it immediately after reading it. Specific detail is what gives a work personality, and yeah, you can't get too bogged down in it if your goal is to make something the audience can enjoy, but you shouldn't neglect it unless you truly don't mind your work being disposable. Some creators are fine with their work being just a "snack" that somebody consumes and discards, because it can make money, but others want to make stuff with a bit more staying power. If you get that perfect balance of both, that's when you get stuff that really sticks in people's minds, like Fullmetal Alchemist, or Final Fantasy VII.

Stargazer31
Aug '22

I do wish that isekai characters would wear different clothes every now and then (I'd love to see a cattlepunk or afro-futurist isekai.)

RobertBMarks
Aug '22

Um...what is "cattlepunk"?

(I now have an image in my head of cows with colourful mohawks...)

TheLemmaLlama
Sep '22
bronte448

I don't have anything new to add wrt why people do worldbuilding that won't feature in their stories, but I will say I also have some trouble understanding people who worldbuild 'minutia', as opposed to someone like me who does a lot of 'unnecessary' worldbuilding but builds 'outwards', integrating new things whenever cool ideas occur to me but not worrying too much about 'filling the gaps'.

My first assumption is it's born of 'anxiety for not being perceived as "legit" enough' as @Kuma put it, or not wanting to be nitpicked by CinemaSins-style pedants (although I'm 99.9% Sure CinemaSins is only being nitpicky for comedic/entertainment purposes and doesn't actually seriously believe most of the 'sins' need to be addressed). But maybe people genuinely enjoy being thorough like that, and maybe it's rude of me to assume it's fear/obligation just because I personally find it tedious ...

You need a banner :]

CandyDaisies
Sep '22
1
NickRowler

Exceptional meme, @NickRowler. Exceptional.

I think you have to strike a good balance between a relationship driven narrative and a world that feels lived in. You can't dawdle on details, but if there's no there there in terms of a setting (especially for fantasy/sci-fi) I tend to find it falls flat.

To me, success is walking that line and creating a compelling mix of both. And it's hard to do if you have a preference or flair for one or the other. It just takes practice, and some folks are earlier in that process than others! :slight_smile:

Kuma
Sep '22
RobertBMarks

I suppose is some kind of Futuristic Western setting.

@Stargazer31 I saw a Sword and Sandals Isekai for a change, that looks more Greek or even older, instead of generic medieval.

ar-ninetysix
Sep '22

Bruh, just say you don't know how to make your world interesting outside of making reading material. It's okay, we won't tell anyone, promise

this is a joke, do not come after me pls i don't do well with confrontations
smokesalty
Sep '22

some of us just like figuring out little things, it makes the world come alive! I don't think it's garbage to enjoy worldbuilding, and while I'm definitely not extensive with it, I think it's cool when people know all the little things about their world because they love it so much.

While yes, you can't include every detail, I don't think it's stupid in the slightest. It really is about how you present your information to the audience.

TroyVSTheWorld
Sep '22

I can explain people who world build too much!

Take JK Rowling, for example. Do you know how wizards relieve themselves of their bodily wastes? I do! Thanks, Rowling!

EDIT - I probably don't want to bring up the subject of JK Rowling right now because she just gets worse every time you hear from here

LostKelpRegular
Sep '22

Yknow people buy Dnd books all the time, people have jobs about the lore of Tolkien books, I'll bet everyone here had a dragonology or wizardology or whatever book as a kid, the angelarium and all future tomorrow's and warhammer and scp archives are all just lore and people love that shit! It gives them a new world to explore the depths of and a new perspective on reality through the lense of an authors (usually multiple authors) imagination. I get that when you're reading through a fiction on ao3 that seems like a standard love triangle you can be blindsided by the info dump of the last 13 wars and revolutions of a minor island off the peninsula of who-what-where-now? But lore itself is fun, in its own way and can be used in lots of interesting ways to tell stories that you can't with just a few characters, like alot of people have said previously in this thread its not what you write its how you write it.

Lensing
Sep '22

I tried to work with writers for some years and I read a lot of the
giant world - no story / story which is not understandable scripts.
As an artist I enjoy a very detailed character description and this is something which is, in my opinion,
very important. I like to know every little detail about the character and that´s also something which
is interesting to read for me. From their parents/where they were born over how they grew up to
what´s in their fridge, which medicine they take, what they read etc
And again, this is just my perspective as an artist reading scripts: there are many scripts with
crazy big, detailed worlds with characters you can´t count with nothing interesting happening in
the world. I love scripts with 1-3 main characters which focus on the characters and not on the world(s)
around them. What do they want, how do they get it, what gets in their way etc the normal storybuilding
blocks and not 50 characters in universes that I don´t understand, how is the reader of the comic or novel
gonna understand that?

RobertBMarks
Sep '22
1
TroyVSTheWorld

Well, you were doing fine until you wrote this.

EDIT: You know what? Never mind, it's too late. Sigh.

TroyVSTheWorld
Sep '22

What? No, I was just talking about that tweet explaining how wizards defecate.

adkahdj
Sep '22

To go back to the main question : Can someone explain people who “world build too much”?

One very down to earth reason for me is that I like to keep my mind busy thinking about my world/characters.

Since it takes much longer to write my stories than to create them in my head I keep adding stuff to my world every day.

Rai_Muffin
Sep '22

Some people like that kind of story.
A friend of mine loves the movie Dune, citing its world building in particular, while I was bored by it being more of a character guy.

Ideally a story should have a balance of good world building, plot and characters,
but I find that I can forgive a dull plot or shallow world if the characters are engaging.

So I think there's an audience for a world building focused story, even if it's not you or me.

Lensing
Sep '22

Dune is a good example what´s so difficult about building a world like that.

The 1970s try to film it was such a failure, they made a documentary about it.
It´s called "A documentary about the greatest movie never made"
The 1984 version was a flop even though they had all ingredients, famous actors,
director, design etc. 30 million$ budget.
The 2021 version was successful, I have no clue why :smiley:
3 trys to film a movie.
For me this is a good argument not to create too complicated big worlds,
especially when you are in a webcomic, entertaining online novel genre

Lensing
Sep '22
adkahdj

For me as a reader or artist who works with writers "world build too much" means that it´s something
nobody understands anymore, characters you can´t follow, too many too detailed descriptions of things I can´t relate
to on the emotional site

LunarScyphozoa
Sep '22

There were so many kind ways to word that question and this is none of them. But worldbuilding is important, and some people enjoy it. It’s really none of your business how people build their stories