185 Tips on World Building (The Art of World Building, #7) (Paperback)
185 Tips on World Building (The Art of World Building, #7) (Paperback)
4.3 Stars, 122 Amazon Ratings (as of 1/2024)
From his best-selling series, The Art of World Building, author Randy Ellefson has collected some of his best advice from every chapter in small, bite-sized tips. All three books are represented in the topics covered:
Creating Life - analogues, species/races, gods, monsters, word figures, plants, animals, and undead.
Creating Places - planets, continents, land features, sovereign powers, settlements, land travel, water travel, space travel, time and history, places of interest, and drawing maps.
Cultures and Beyond - cultures, organizations, armed forces, religions, the supernatural, systems of magic, items, languages, names, and more.
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Chapter 1
Everything we need to know about how to create gods, species/races, plants, animals, monsters, heroes, villains, and even undead is included in Creating Life (The Art of World Building, #1). Some basic techniques are also discussed, such as using analogies and deciding how many worlds to build in a career. As with every volume, this book includes reusable templates that can help you build better, faster.
The tips in this section are from Creating Life (The Art of World Building, #1).
Analogues
These tips come from Chapter 1.
Tip #1: Use Analogues
An analogue is a world-building element that has a corresponding version on Earth. Maybe we create a country modeled on Japan, using cultural and physical elements so that we don’t have to invent everything from scratch. This shortcut helps us create realistic items for our world but has a caveat of being less interesting and less original. Use wisely and you can save time and effort.
Tip #2: The Rule of Three
It’s more of a guideline than a rule, but when using an analogue, it’s a good idea to make at least three major changes to it so our audience doesn’t immediately recognize it. A large, four-legged, pack animal with big tusks, floppy ears, and a trunk is obviously an elephant. What would you change to make it seem new?
Tip #3: Don’t Use Names Poorly
Avoid using a familiar name for something that’s very different from something on Earth. If you call something an elf, people expect pointed ears. Failure to follow certain expectations will make them assume you don’t know what you’re doing. Use a new name if you've changed anything fundamental.
Tip #4: Mix and Match Analogues
We can combine elements from different analogues to help obscure where we got the idea. Take staple foods from one land (like rice and fish from Japan), culture from another (like Nazi Germany), and the typical appearance (including clothing) of people from a third (an African tribe). Look at Earth like a buffet from which you can create a unique meal.
Tip #5: Make It Worth It
Audiences have short memories, so we should keep
an analogue easy to describe and remember. This is aided by making the changes significant. Adding two extra legs to a horse may not be worth it, especially if all the horses are that way. It’s not like the six-legged kind are faster than the four-legged ones that don't exist in your world. Make the alterations relevant or leave it like the original.
Table of Contents
- Creating Life Tips
- Creating Places Tips
- Cultures and Beyond Tips
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