Region-building

[saintjon]

Okay, the thing is, why do you need to be a world-builder? I expressed this about making RPG's in the games forum but I think it holds true here as well.

I don't think that how good of a world-builder you are has any impact whatsoever on how good of a fantasy writer you are. I think it's more a question of the author's taste. Couldn't that be more like a merit as an author in general, as opposed to a fantasy author?

AArgh!! I'm getting muddled up in language. The point is, there are some people who think that just because Tolkien invented this crazy good world, with all of it's history and everything, and Lord of the Rings was such a sweet fantasy story, well, if you can't do the same you can't compare.

However, lately I've been liking this idea of a fantasy story which only touches on a small part of the world like say, a mountain range in the desert or something or a subarctic forest region, the characters never leave that region for the duration of the story (I know this has been done a lot for one-shot books, but I'm thinking several volume epic here) and the history of the world is never delved into in great detail (how well can we pinpoint the history of our own world, anyway? or better yet, how well could we in midieval times?)

I think that doing this would force an author to develop that one area much more richly than many of the postcard settings which pop up in a lot of stories today. I think that would make for a very refreshing story element and one which did NOT require the author to spend years compiling notes on the history of this or that underdeveloped setting piece.

 

[Stor-All]

I'm a little confused if you are asking "Why does an author need to be good at building a world?" or "Why does an author need to even build a whole world? Why can't s/he just focus on one area?"
In my opinion, I think the first question is kind of obvious. If an author can't build a world well, then the story is going to be exeptionally bland. EX. "X rode his black mare into Smallville. The town had a dock at one end. It had some buildings also." And if s/he can't build a world, then what are the chances s/he can build a good cast of characters?
As for the second question, it's a rather good one. I think, if done well, this would make for a very interesting book - or series if that's what you are looking for. You could really get an idea of where the character(s) live and what goes on. However, in the Last Rune Series by Mark Anthony, he uses two fully developed worlds very well. The characters travel back and forth between Earth and Eldh, a parallel world to Earth. They travel all over Eldh, not so much on Earth though.

 

[kahnovitch]

The nature of LOTR was about a titanic struggle set over the whole of Middle Earth which is why there was such a large universe to be detailed.
It's seems to be the trend and the benchmark by which everything is measured and writers seem to be unable to break out of this mode of thought.
Sci-fi follows the same trends if you look at the Star Wars/ Trek stuff that's been done.
Maybe writers always gear towards large scale environments rather than the indivudual micro-universes of a localised region.
Something like a first person perspective indivudual account of the events of the region might be a nice change instead of the global conflicts we usually see.

 

[estranghero]

Guy Gavriel Kay does that lot.

In 'Tigana', he focused on a small peninsula and the kingdoms therein. There were some mentions of the surrounding empires and kingdoms of the peninsula but that was it. (Think Italy.)

In 'A Song for Arbonne', he focused on an area that can be likened to France in the real world.

Likewise in 'Lions of Al-Rassan', he focused on an area that has analogies to Spain and its surrounding environs.

And in the Sarantium, he creates a world similar to Byzantium and its neighboring provinces.

 

[Eventine]

This topic sort of goes along with the other thread around at the moment, Writing style - traveling characters.

I'd also be intrigued to see a fantasy novel where the weight is more on characterisation rather than world building. Non fantasy novels don't need to lavishly describe their settings, as we are familiar enough with the real world (hopefully!). When taking a reader to another world however, it is customary to describe it in enough detail that they can vivdly depict it in their mind. What if an author were to use a setting familiar enough that s/he wasn't forced into this description? Isn't that the whole point of having novel after novel set in pseudo-medieval europe?

If an author can't build a world well, then the story is going to be exeptionally bland.

I disagree. Your example of a bland characterisation of a town is fair enough, and if an author attempted to sell that to me I'd be pretty dissapointed. If the character then went into the local inn and had an hours worth of amusing banter with the locals however, I'd feel much better about it.

Of course, good characterisation and world building can and do exist together. They don't have to, and maybe modern fantasy wouldn't be so fat if authors stopped trying to create an atlas for us....

 

[saintjon]

Well, you would think authors would be more likely to attempt a region before a world wouldn't you? It seems like a lot of them are trying to run before they can crawl.

The question was more like the second one. I think in a good side effect of a story in a setting like this would be that the conflict would tend to have more human and less "fate of the world" stakes to it.

Also, you ever notice how in these so-called "fat" fantasies in a given town where a character lives they'll have like one place they like to go hang out, and that's where they'll spend their free time, but just in Ottawa, which isn't a big city by international standards, there are tons of interesting places to go.

 

[ChrisW]

Also, you ever notice how in these so-called "fat" fantasies in a given town where a character lives they'll have like one place they like to go hang out, and that's where they'll spend their free time, but just in Ottawa, which isn't a big city by international standards, there are tons of interesting places to go.

Umm ottawa is probably huge compared to nearly every town in any fat fantasy book. How many places to go in a town with a pop of 1000? Well in aus that town would probably have 10 pubs but heh thats not the normal populationub/Inn ratio world wide.

 

[Bond]

"but just in Ottawa, which isn't a big city by international standards, there are tons of interesting places to go."

I'm curious but what are these places?

 

[kegasaurus]

Originally posted by Caldazar


Umm ottawa is probably huge compared to nearly every town in any fat fantasy book. How many places to go in a town with a pop of 1000? Well in aus that town would probably have 10 pubs but heh thats not the normal populationub/Inn ratio world wide.

You must be from a dry region. Where I cxame from in the 1800's there was over a hundred and fifty places which served alcohol adn this serviced a population in the tens of thousands. We also, per capita, consume the second largest quantity of alcohol to Darwin, and we're in Victoria. Gee I'm impressed with myself and the local citizenry.

 

[rune]

I personally think too much detail kills the plot.

It is nice to see an author concentrate on characters and action in a story rather than filling up on what the world they live in looks like. Fortunately there are some fantasy authors who don't feel the need to bog the reader down in too much detail

e.g. Robin Hob, Terry Brooks, Salvadore


rune

 

[saintjon]

Well, there's the places I have to go for necessity things.

School, grocery store (often stop at chapters on the way)

Then, there's all the bars, restaurants, friends houses and landmarks of Ottawa I go to, plus places I don't usually go to but visit sometimes all the same.

Sure, in a medieval fantasy setting, the places to go and do stuff throughout the week would be different, but certainly they'd exist.

I wasn't trying to say I don't want details either, I just want details on a more focused area, as opposed to a half-realized continent or two.