Do you enjoy making lore for your stories and if so, how much do you actually show to your readers?

smokesalty 2022-06-10 11:30:34 UTC #1

I love writing lore! I actually find I only really start coming up with lore after I have most of my story figured out (At that point I know the ins and outs of the world for the most part)

I honestly write lore for myself because I find it entertaining. I usually ask myself "how did this happen?" and "what is the story behind this?" And I know my characters so well that it just feels like I'm knowing more about their life.

Like for me, my current comic, The Commune has the characters living in a cult commune in the middle of the woods. I can tell you how they get their food, what the original purpose of the building was, how said commune was found by the leader and how the cult members began joining the cult.

Is all of this necessary to understand the comic? Nah. (some is) There is absolutely lore that I explore in the story because it is important and quite interesting, but you won't catch me making a chapter on how food production works there

For me, the more unimportant lore is used in my extras, which I usually plan based on what chapter it will be posted after. While the lore is optional, I feel like it adds to the reading experience of people who enjoy learning more about the characters and world and for me it lets me expand on smaller parts of the story.

histo-shizuka 2022-06-10 11:34:41 UTC #2

I tend to sprinkle tidbits of lore sporadically throughout my writing, so the reader slowly gets to understand the world. Just like how in real life we aren't given all the knowledge at once, the same applies to stories/comics. For me, anyway. Though, I can't say I plan any of it out. I'm sure I'm an outlier when it comes to story planning.

Your comic sounds interesting! It sounds like you put a lot of time and effort into even the smallest things.

Fedriz_Marini 2022-06-10 12:06:32 UTC #3

I make Lorebook entries at the end of the Chapter of the First book, because, While there's lots of Lore, most of it only build the world and how it formed, and if put into the story would only slow it down, unless relevant to the plot or to "Debunk" previous Lore entries (Who are written in the POV of "Archives", so, written by the public and with public knowledge in mind, and as we know, History is always written by the winners, and over time the Story will tell us the truth.); As of now, I simply present the world as being normal despite element likes Harpies and Kobols being regular citizens, not making a big deal because it wouldn't make any sense.

MeltingCORE 2022-06-10 12:23:59 UTC #4

I love writing lore! But yes, I usually make extra content for really deep lore. Since my series is a novel, I run the risk of boring my readers with pages of lore by veering off course on what's actually happening "on-screen". But I do enjoy writing it. I'll also slide bits and pieces of worldbuilding in as the story goes on. (So it feels natural!)

TheLemmaLlama 2022-06-10 12:36:22 UTC #5

I guess I'm kind of the opposite; the series I've written the most lore for was a worldbuilding project I started with no more than the vaguest ideas of what stories I want to take place in it So I wouldn't say I make lore for my stories, and I certainly have stories I've written basically no lore for XD

With my lore-heavy universe, I do intend to show quite a lot of it to my audience. I have two series planned in that setting atm; a laid-back one about exploring the world and a story-driven one. The former is intended to be an exercise in how much lore I can convey in a fun and engaging way. I'd like to think my experience doing a 3 Minute Thesis talk on pure mathematics would help with that :'D

ShidoDraws 2022-06-10 12:51:13 UTC #6

I love making lores even when I first started writing novels, I'm not really much of a visual writer though, just an artist that likes drawing cute characters. Though, lately I think I've been nailing it with the lores in my comic. My writing's not perfect but I have a good base to improve on, really I've already planned my lore ahead before writing the story so it's hard to not be excited to work on it and who knows, I might already be burnt out right now and I don't even know it.

faisalhussein394 2022-06-10 12:55:11 UTC #7

I love making lores, especially in the area where the Main protagonist is set so that many would know what the MC will have to deal with. The entire Prologue which is over 56 pages, 38 of which are all about lore, history, and world-building.

The reason why I'm so fascinated in exposition is because of many histories such as the rise and fall of Rome, The napoleonic Era, WW1, and many more.

I am currently planning a sci-fi comic and I even added its info to my published comic Mukhtar as extras but not as extra episode but tag along the story page into one episode.

BoomerZ 2022-06-10 14:41:36 UTC #8

I make just enough lore to tell my story. Other than that I see it as a waste of time. It's the "over the hill" problem. If you have a detailed lore but the reader never interacts with it, why do it?

CommissarTarkin 2022-06-10 15:21:08 UTC #9

I absolutely love it. There is way more lore for my stories than what the reader sees, although if the whole thing catches on I might make an RPG sourcebook out of it or something.
Regardless, I simply enjoy making up the major and minor details of a fictional world. Some of them - a lot of them, in fact - are never going to be used story-wise, but others will provide a foundation for interesting plot developments or ideas for entirely new stories.

For example, I have a gazetteer for the setting, with short descriptions for each planet that is either important in general or relevant to the plot. For one of them I wrote a throwaway line that seemed a cool addition at the time, then I returned to that line and wrote a very short story based on it, then my artist read that story and told me it feels like a good premise for a whole novel, so I've been thinking about it ever since and might even get around to writing it sometime in the future.

NickRowler 2022-06-10 19:26:03 UTC #10

There is a lot more to my lore than what has been brought up so far. I don't really want to dump all of it because some of it isn't really necessary at this moment. However I might need to do a brief write up at one point because I am also concerned that I left out some details that would help people to understand what the hell is going on.

N1ghtm4r3 2022-06-10 23:47:02 UTC #11

its fun, here and there i have little tidbits of lore in around that have greater impacts later

375 2022-06-11 00:02:54 UTC #12

I love using lore! I normally use it for myself to keep my stories in line or else I'll have to go back and read what I wrote Other times I do it for the same reason because Its a lot of fun. However, sometimes my readers will not find out about this lore until later.

bronte448 2022-06-11 01:04:26 UTC #13

All lore behind my AU's past (thus far!)

Legendofgenii 2022-06-11 10:09:20 UTC #14

I get a little overwhelmed by it all sometimes.

allenT 2022-06-11 11:34:49 UTC #15

Ya it's enjoyable if I can put out some pages of worldbuilding info (as extras, not shown inside comic) most are just things that a common villager can perceive such as critters, currency, customs etc.
I keep the world lore hidden because it's beyond the scope of the story.

system 2022-07-11 11:34:51 UTC #16

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.