How do I answer all of my story questions?

[ChickenDogg]

Thinking of starting a Webcomic with this idea I’ve had for forever but I keep worrying about how do I answer everyone’s questions about the story? Like “How does this world work?” or “What is a (insert species name here)?” and “Why are the humans extinct?” or something. My story has a lot of Worldbuilding so I’m worried on how to answer all of the lore and stuff without missing anything important, Like what if I think I wrote everything down but I actually have much more to work on?? Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me? I hope this makes sense, thank you. <3

[GamerPrincessXI]

Its takes time. Don't rush it. Story boarding and outlines always help me.

[Apsinthos]

Woah, no, you are not alone. I'm worrying about the same. But what i found out is that all you need in the begining is basic info which influence characters and starting plot. It's better to amiss something than doing info dump probably. Adding info should be gradual you know, better to be integrated in dialogus and scenes.
What works for me is someone else critique. I have a friend who reads my script/chapters before making/publishing. I check if they have questions, or if they think this is too info heavy. It's not universal, cause now i see that there's some places there i could done better in already published chapters, but it still helps a bit.

[VibrantFox]

like the above says it's normal not being able to cover every detail in your story, especially not right from the start, but having outlines and personal notes to keep all your info organized will help

in animation (and probably other industries as well) i've seen folks organize what's reffered to as a show bible which has all the info about the story, worldbuilding details and other notes that may be relevant so that as you progress with the writing and storyboarding you can reference that bible to add in or flesh out and show details through your story telling

obviously it's gonna take time and may not be easy, especially if this is your first story, but focus more on just doing what you can and trying your best. besides it's often told to newbies that while your first work may not be "perfect" what matters is just kind of enjoying the process and using it as an opportunity to learn till you make the next one or just ask you go depending on length of the first one

[ChickenDogg]

Thank you!! This is pretty helpful!!

[ChickenDogg]

Dude, thank you so much, this will definitely help me in the long run!! The story I’ve mentioned is a huge Magnum opus of mine so I’m thinking of working on another (short) story first to get the gist of the (simplier) Worldbuilding and lore. :))

[cherrystark]

My advice for world-building is always to start small. For example, your MC is the son of a poor farmer. How does his family make money? What is his home life like? What limitations does his position put him in? Basic character-building stuff. Then when he goes to the next location in the story, what does he learn? We don't need to know the whole socio-economic breakdown of the town, but knowing that old Bob controls X which is going to prevent the MC from doing Y is important. Slowly add world-building layers as it relates immediately to the story.

Like “How does this world work?” or “What is a (insert species name here)?” and “Why are the humans extinct?” or something.

I am learning that the people who really push these questions are nothing more than "intellectual" internet trolls. I know that sounds mean. But unless you are specifically asking for their opinion or for answers to a strict list of questions, they are basically trolling you. They don't really want to read your story. They want you to describe your story to them like a Booktuber's video for them so then they can tear apart everything from your sentence structure, design choices, to the tropes you use. I know this is an extreme, but it's not really your job to answer those questions. If you work to create the best story possible, the readers will be able to answer those questions themselves.

[ChickenDogg]

Thank you so much!! This will help a lot! The questions part (For some reason It won’t let me quote it) really makes me understand that I shouldn’t be focused on answering ever little tiny detail in my story. This made me feel better! (And them being trolls makes sense-)

[cherrystark]

I wish you nothing but the best with your stories. I still struggle to wrap my head around the idea of writing trolls but they're there. Even if they aren't actively trolling you, they'll definitely make you feel like crap when they ignore your work. It'll all work out in the end, I hope.

[francescacoreno]

Depends by a lot of factors. you should try and write yourself a world bible if all this stuff is trully important, so you can chechk on it to keep the worldbuilding in check
but you also need to ask yourself how much of it is important to the story you are trying to tell. like, ok. you got no humans, but why do the characteres in universe care? why is it different from a simple alternative universe story?
lore is important to add flavour to your setting, but you don't need to write your own silmarillion if you don't need or want to

[BoomerZ]

I truly think most of that stuff doesn't matter if it doesn't impact the story. What do the elves farm in Lord of the Rings? How do they till the fields? Do the use magic to help them? When do they harvest it? See what I mean, it doesn't matter. World building should be just enough to tell your story. The rest is wasted effort. World building is not the story, it's the setting for your story to take place. Your magic system, the royal court, etc, means nothing if you don't have a compelling reason to include it. Most people will go "cool, magic works like magic does in every story".

Here's a real world example. The police detective shoots a robber. You don't explain how gunpowder is made using sulfur and saltpeter. You don't explain how a primer sets that charge off. You don't go into the details of a rifled barrel stabilizes the bullet in flight to make the detective able to hit the robber. All this means nothing to the reader. The bullet and how it works is not part of the story. The actions of the detective is.

[ChickenDogg]

This is very helpful, thank you! I will keep this in mind! :))

[Legendofgenii]

If you don’t feel comfortable sharing things (or your project is still a work in progress), you can always answer with a cheeky - “Spoilers.”

[river121693]

You don't have to answer every questions. Audience focuses mainly on the plot and character arcs. Prioritize them and use world building when appropriate as the flavoring. Too much unnecessary explanations will slow your plot pacing to a crawl, for an already slow-to-update medium like webcomic. Too much details can also ruin the "magic" of your world because readers can't engage with their own imagination.

Does the reason for human going extinct have any importance to your plot? if not, then you don't need to explain it. Focus on writing a cool ass story with interesting characters first. Maybe down the road, you reveal that your characters have 4 toes, and readers can infer that there was a nuclear war that mutated them at some point. But you don't need to go further than that.

[TheLemmaLlama]

(And them being trolls makes sense-)

Not saying it's not possible, but I wouldn't assume they're trolls (and definitely not accuse them directly!); it's possible they're just readers who feel like they should support the author by commenting on their work, and trying to think of things to comment that displays a genuine interest in your work

The important thing is, even if they're not trolls, you're not obligated to answer their questions :] (And you definitely don't have to answer their questions in the actual story; they're probably just expecting a reply or a piece of supplementary material or smth :P)