World Building

To mix things up a little, I thought today I'd talk about an element of writing that can really make or break a book. This element is what I like to call world building.

World building is the foundation of most every novel, and yet it's one of the easiest aspects to get wrong (as a side note, I want to make it clear that personally, I don't know everything about world building. These are just my observations).

Last year I went to a writing workshop called Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers, where you learn helpful tidbits and get critiqued on your writing by published authors, such as Carol Lynch Williams, Matt Kirby, and Mette Ivie Harrison. I happened to be in Matt Kirby's class, and the most revolutionary idea he instilled in me was the importance of world building.

It seems like common sense, right? How do you have a story without first creating a world in which characters can interact and start their journey? However, this is one of the trickiest components in writing (especially in fantasy) and requires oodles of patience. You most likely will have to establish a type of government in your novel, as well as landscape, social classes, style of dress, kinds of food... the list goes on and on. 

As a reader, I find it's best to be introduced to these categories without knowing you're being introduced to them. Books are first and foremost about people. For example, I'd rather not have to read all at once where a castle is placed in comparison to a range of mountains that block a group of monstrous invaders. I get bored and minute details seem to be more important than the characters I am trying to get to know.

On the other hand, a story that doesn't have enough world building has little credibility. How can I care about a teenage girl who is off on a journey to make her fortune when I can't orient myself in the world she lives in? I need to see what she sees, as though I've lived there my entire life. This can only come through world building, with details integrated into the story so effortlessly that I don't realize I've never seen them before.

The most common theme I found in the workshop I attended last summer was a lack of world building. No matter how good of a writer any of us were, our stories simply couldn't stand on their own two feet without the writer knowing the world they were creating inside and out.

Writing is work, people. Writing is often researching ancient civilizations and knowing what made them succeed or fail, and then incorporating that into your own story. While an active imagination is necessary, we live in a world that thrives on facts. Without offering some hard evidence that your made-up world is real, your readers will flounder in your novel, standing on a foundation that is not truly sound.

However, I know there are plenty of readers out there who love the kind of world building that I tend to dislike, and can't stand the type of world building that I love. There are pros and cons to each. So, which do you prefer? What kinds of worlds grab you into a story and make you eager to read more?