I just finished The Young Elites by Marie Lu and it has taught me so much about worldbuilding. Here are the top five things that I've learned about worldbuilding from The Young Elites and Storyworld First by Jill Williamson:
1. Religion strengthens: In The Young Elites I observed that one of the many reasons why Marie Lu's world was so realistic was because it had it's own religion with gods and legends and beliefs of it's own. Jill Williamson also talks about this in her book and how to make a thorough, realistic religion. It was very helpful and after finishing Marie Lu's book I decided to make my own gods and goddesses and legends for my characters to believe in. I watched as my world strengthened and grew with that one simple change.
2. Description: Also in The Young Elites I noticed who Marie Lu focused on her descriptions and details so thoroughly. The way she described a city in only a few incredible sentences took my breath away and it inspired me to describe my city, Luz, through my main character's eyes on a piece of paper and then weave the description into my first few chapters. Also Pinterest helped a lot. I went through and was inspired by the landscape of New Zealand so I made a board for my three top kingdoms, Luz, Malum, and Erdiko and pinned pictures that helped me imagine them. That made my character, Lindsi's, world feel so much more realistic. My advise is pay attention to description and make sure to weave in the details in subtle details instead of just plain out saying what a place or character looks like. It makes everything feel so much more realistic.
3. Unique Creatures: I got this one from Storyworld First and I found the chapter on creating your own creatures to be so awesome and fun. Actually I kind of disappeared into storyworld la-la-land and went into a mad frenzy to create tons of creatures that didn't fit into any book I had ever or probably ever will write. But if your world is a world that can inhabit awesomely cool and intriguing creatures I suggest you make your own to strengthen the realism of your world. In The Young Elites, Marie Lu made Baliras, giant sting ray like creatures that can fly and swim. They made the world seem real and added depth.
4. Maps: Just so you all know I'm a terrible artist. I tried making my own map and it looked like a big blob with a bunch of words and dots on it. But that doesn't mean that you can't make your own and that didn't stop me from making my own because in my eyes it looked like my world. To everyone else it probably looked like some strange thing with really weird words on it. A map helps to visualize your world. I don't actually use maps a lot because I prefer describing my world in a few sentences on a scratch of paper then putting it into the story but Jill Williamson said that it was super helpful for her so I suggest you try it out and see if maps help you. If not find your own way to visualize your unique world. Each writer has a different way of doing things and that is perfectly ok.
5. Language: So I'm not exactly J.R.R Tolkien. I can't make my own elvish language. I'm just not patient enough to do that. But what I did find helpful is in Jill Williamson's book she talked about first making your own language and then using curse words and slang that is unique to your world. If you have gods and goddesses your character could say in a fit of frustration, "for the love of the gods," or "what in the gods' name...?" I thought that was helpful because I hate books that have swear words in them and I strongly refuse to put any sort of fowl language in my books. So instead I replace those real world dirty words for my own curses that are specifically made for my world and my characters. I strongly suggest that you consider some slang or curses for your character to use when their frustrated. Especially for those rough-around-the-edges characters.
I hope these five worldbuilding tips were helpful. Truthfully I would go through chapter to chapter in Storyworld First and even The Young Elites and talk about all the things that I found helpful but then this post would be very, very long and I would hate to bore you with my talking. So if you want to learn more about worldbuilding I suggest you go and by Storyworld First by Jill Williamson and if you want to experience the pure, heart wrenching awesomeness of The Young Elites go buy it because they are both so worth reading.
Do you have any tips or suggestions for worldbuilding? How do you do your worldbuilding?
3. Unique Creatures: I got this one from Storyworld First and I found the chapter on creating your own creatures to be so awesome and fun. Actually I kind of disappeared into storyworld la-la-land and went into a mad frenzy to create tons of creatures that didn't fit into any book I had ever or probably ever will write. But if your world is a world that can inhabit awesomely cool and intriguing creatures I suggest you make your own to strengthen the realism of your world. In The Young Elites, Marie Lu made Baliras, giant sting ray like creatures that can fly and swim. They made the world seem real and added depth.
4. Maps: Just so you all know I'm a terrible artist. I tried making my own map and it looked like a big blob with a bunch of words and dots on it. But that doesn't mean that you can't make your own and that didn't stop me from making my own because in my eyes it looked like my world. To everyone else it probably looked like some strange thing with really weird words on it. A map helps to visualize your world. I don't actually use maps a lot because I prefer describing my world in a few sentences on a scratch of paper then putting it into the story but Jill Williamson said that it was super helpful for her so I suggest you try it out and see if maps help you. If not find your own way to visualize your unique world. Each writer has a different way of doing things and that is perfectly ok.
5. Language: So I'm not exactly J.R.R Tolkien. I can't make my own elvish language. I'm just not patient enough to do that. But what I did find helpful is in Jill Williamson's book she talked about first making your own language and then using curse words and slang that is unique to your world. If you have gods and goddesses your character could say in a fit of frustration, "for the love of the gods," or "what in the gods' name...?" I thought that was helpful because I hate books that have swear words in them and I strongly refuse to put any sort of fowl language in my books. So instead I replace those real world dirty words for my own curses that are specifically made for my world and my characters. I strongly suggest that you consider some slang or curses for your character to use when their frustrated. Especially for those rough-around-the-edges characters.
I hope these five worldbuilding tips were helpful. Truthfully I would go through chapter to chapter in Storyworld First and even The Young Elites and talk about all the things that I found helpful but then this post would be very, very long and I would hate to bore you with my talking. So if you want to learn more about worldbuilding I suggest you go and by Storyworld First by Jill Williamson and if you want to experience the pure, heart wrenching awesomeness of The Young Elites go buy it because they are both so worth reading.
Do you have any tips or suggestions for worldbuilding? How do you do your worldbuilding?
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