Standing Worldbuilding Post

[guardiansverse]

This is a post to talk general worldbuilding, either by posting questions/musings about your own world, by presenting questions/prompts for other authors to comment on, or for general discussion of worldbuilding as an exercise.

1. Discussion below in thread format. Anonymous comments welcome.
2. If you are talking about something currently being posted to FFA, please clearly mark for any possible spoilers!
3. Please don't post plot or character questions here: take it to the Plotting and Brainstorming Post. Similarly we have a Concrit Post for writing you want constructive comments on.
4. Keep in mind authors' preferences as expressed in our introduction post.
5. FFA by-rules apply: don't be an asshole.

Comments

[sigridharem]

Yeah, I think infodumps can be overwhelming and unless particularly interesting aren't likely to grab most readers. But on the other hand, if a world is especially unusual it can be confusing to jump in too abruptly. And I do like it when a writer establishes say, a fact in one character's point of view and they goes on to challenge this fact in the narrative.

[guardiansverse]

I'm very fond of worlds that turn out to be different from what the PoV characters believe, but I feel like you have to be extra careful with those because there is a degree, as with all twists, where it can feel like the author going gotcha? And you don't want your reader to feel like they've been made a fool of. It's a fine art!