Questions tagged [world-building]
This tag should be used for questions about the act of creating elements for your own fictional world that you will use in your creative writing. If you are considering asking a question about world-building, please consider asking it on StackExchange's launched site dedicated to this specific topic, worldbuilding.stackexchange.com.
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How can I write about a necromancer in my historical fiction novel without it being too slow, too fast, or too unrealistic?
Book details: it's a novel set in the 1700's American Revolution. The leader of the antagonists was killed and resurrected, and now he can summon an army of the dead.
My issues: Writing about him ...
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Is creating my own gods better than using existing ones?
I think that using mythological gods causes a story to feel cheap because they have been overused as hell, making them uninteresting to use. Is creating original gods better than using existing ones?
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How could I create a naming system for non-biological creatures in my book that makes sense to the reader and a character in-world?
I'm wondering how to create a naming system that makes sense both in-world and the reader.
The creatures I speak of come in various different forms/species. They're made of metal and can vary in what ...
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How do I smoothly introduce alien units of measurement?
I’m writing some decently-hard science fiction which revolves heavily around an alien species on another planet, far away from our Solar System. Rather than live on a rocky planet, this species ...
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In my polytheistic world, how should I prevent people fighting over which god to worship? [closed]
Remember when I set the protagonist, Berta Newton (Issac Newton's incarnation into isekai), as an angel? As the accepted answerer aptly said, people will be interested in her magics themselves, rather ...
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How do I introduce my readers to new words as gracefully as possible?
Let me apologize in advance if this question has been asked before. The ones I found only discuss this issue in the context of writing in general and do not touch on writing narrative fiction.
I am ...
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How do I fit angelic and demonic magic? [closed]
My magic system in my book is based on physics and real-world consequences. Fire spells will cause you to be frozen if you use them for too long. Creating stuff out of thin air will cause wormholes to ...
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How do I write a story in which no one can understand each other?
I have this story I want to write where there's different species that each speak their own different language, but none of them can understand each other at all.
Then the main character comes and ...
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Can I write a story based in a world without humans?
I have this world I'm building that I want to write a story on, but there's absolutely nothing human in the world.
It's entirely built around elemental creatures including the protagonist.
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How do I turn my Imagined-Daydream-Fantasy-Book into an Actual Book
Problem
I love writing and I love reading. I also love coming up with all sorts of books/films in my head so that if I'm bored in real life, I can just dive into my imaginary book/films to entertain ...
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Writing a surreal, dreamlike setting?
I am working on a concept for an existential horror / comedy, similar to works like the DHMIS TV show and Little Runmo. I already have a collection of strange, dreamlike entities; like an organic ...
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Is there a smooth way to indicate that third person pronouns don't matter so much in my worldbuilding in English?
For context, I am nonbinary, and also East Asian.
My language of fluency is English, but I know other languages and also have an anthropology degree. (Japanese, Korean, a tiny, tiny bit of Mandarin, ...
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How do you know if your story is too complicated or just complicated enough?
I've been working on my current story for almost a year. It's a great story but at times it seems really complicated. How complicated is too complicated in a story?
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Is it better to create a new word, or add anew connotation to an already existing word? Does it matter?
This question arose from another question I asked on the English Language & Usage Stack: "Is there a specific name for that singular exhalation laugh that happens when you read something only ...
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In a superhero story, is it better to make all the superpowers come from one source or multiple sources?
In my world I had a idea for four power sources for superhumans. The four power sources were mutations, magic, technology, and skills. Mutations are genetic based superpowers. Magic users get their ...
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How would the "one good member" of an evil organization/culture see themselves?
I have a character that is the stereotypical "token good member of an evil organization". The organization is a brutal social darwinist one that sees nothing wrong with killing people and ...
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Getting it across
I'm having trouble wording something so people understand it.
I have a man across the street from someone holding up a wallet in the air up to another guy across the street. The guy across the street ...
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Is 'infodumping' the important parts of a story via an in-universe lesson in school/documentary/the news/other educational medium bad storytelling?
I have done this twice at the beginning of 2 of my stories (IIRC.) The first was a lecture on the Dust Dragon, an extinct creature in this world. The second was a schoolteacher giving a lesson on the ...
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Is my story too much like Harry Potter?
Is my story too much like Harry Potter?
My story is set in a magical world hidden within our own, and it has many magical version of things we do.
It has wands but I have decided to change it and ...
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How to keep an original fiction from becoming fan fiction with world-hopping?
I've got an original fiction I'm writing with the concept of a multiverse where every story written or drawn in one version of modern earth generates attached universes. Everything from anime to ...
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What counts as exposition dump and is it possible to do exposition dumps without affecting pacing?
One effective technique I was told to use is to integrate the exposition within the narrative, rather than presenting it as a separate block of information. This can be accomplished through various ...
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How do you prevent yourself from neglecting scientific accuracy in a sci-fi-fantasy story without telling?
In a sci-fi setting, I was told it was important to follow scientific principles to some extent. Neglecting these principles can create confusion and disbelief among readers or viewers.
For example, ...
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How can you create a story that incorporates magical or supernatural elements in a way that is subtle and understated?
How can you create a story that incorporates magical or supernatural elements in a way that is subtle and understated, without overwhelming the plot or detracting from the realism of the narrative?
I ...
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Having Real-World Gods in a High Fantasy Setting
In my fantasy world, there are various religions and beliefs. To not get too obsessed with the worldbuilding (it is already pretty thick and heavy,) I was thinking of, in terms of their religions, ...
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How should you name an imaginary machine?
How should you name an imaginary machine? I was thinking of naming a time-machine/transdimensional teleportation machine Proteus, but I am not sure if giving it a generic name like that makes sense. ...
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Just how unrealistic can I make my science fiction stories without alienating my readers?
Just how unrealistic can I make my science fiction stories without alienating my readers?
I read a lot of comics and often the science in them is just wrong, so I know a lot of people do this and they'...
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Does it make sense to use the English language ungrammatically because the worldbuilding of your world tells you to do so?
Does it make sense to use the English language ungrammatically because the worldbuilding tells you to do so? I was thinking about writing a story in a world where gender pronouns don't exist and ...
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How can I further develop this warrior fantasy story of mine? [closed]
My fantasy story is about an 18-year old knight who was trained from 5-years old to 18-years old as a knight. He is an expert when it comes to using a two-handed double-edged longsword as a weapon. He ...
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Use of racial slurs in a fantasy setting
I was thinking of making the characters use racial slurs, because there's no way that in a fantasy setting people are progressive and respect people of every group, but I wasn't sure what would be ...
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For a fantasy world, what word can I use instead of "human" in order to include elves, dwarves, etc.?
I've been creating this fantasy world where many different races coexist, so most aren't human. I'm trying to write all the worldbuilding details down, and I'm stuck on a phrase "She is the ...
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Using Labels on Character Sexuality (to add subtle worldbuilding)
For my fantasy story, I was thinking of having the characters say their sexuality, but in a different way. In most stories that do representation right, they show it, but do not directly say it. For ...
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Handling language barriers
I am trying to write the story for an RPG I will make in the future. The world itself is huge with multiple continents and landmasses, but the current story takes place on the main four continents. ...
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Do I need to create fictional places to make things work?
The story I'm writing takes place in the USA. I have a huge problem as my protagonist is crossing states and needs to end up at a place where a lot of things have to come together. Like there need to ...
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Are unexplained or inconsistent worldbuilding elements considered plot holes?
Are unexplained or inconsistent worldbuilding elements considered plot holes?
Let's say that coal and railroads are used in a medieval fantasy world, but people are still serfs and poor. If you don't ...
user36239
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Is it okay to use mythology names of creatures in a fantasy world?
In creating my world, I am trying to write down and create mythical wildlife and monsters. I had been thinking of using sirens as one of them. Not a creature based off of them, but the actual Greek ...
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Can you put your readers right in the middle of things without assuming they know anything?
Can you put your readers right in the middle of things without assuming they know anything? Let's take a very strange world with very unique world building like Made by Abyss or The Elder's Scrolls: ...
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Information dumping in the first few chapters?
Is it a good idea to do this? I just started writing and I dislike dialogue heavy texts so I have grown to write moderately descriptive stories instead; people have, however, told me that I should not ...
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Is a constantly changing world bad?
I'm making a story about a guy who travels through many worlds. There's also a world that he stays in for a larger period than others, with changing hierarchy, powers, laws, and so on.
I know that ...
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Is it ok to explain magic in a very abstract way in a fantasy setting?
I bound the spell to a different domain of existence, which allowed me
to change the secondary effect of gravity well, which make me immune
to any gravitational effect created by the spell.
This ...
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Can you write a short story that's only an exposition for worldbuilding?
Can you write a short story that's only an exposition for worldbuilding?
Let's say that you have a collection of science fiction short stories. In order to have strong worldbuilding, is it possible to ...
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Is there a method to determining how many books long your series needs to be?
I set out to write a trilogy, and feel my characters, world, and story are complex enough to warrant it. However, the more I dig into it, I’m sensing three books isn’t enough. But it will be a huge ...
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How should you refer to modern words and concepts like DNA and neutrons in a fantasy book?
How should you refer to modern words and concepts like DNA and neutrons in a fantasy book? I see people use DNA and neutrons in TV shows where the setting doesn't allow for it for simplicity sake, but ...
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How should you tell reader in what world your story takes place if you are writing a collection of short novels taking place in different world?
How should you tell reader in what world your story takes place if you are writing a collection of short novels taking place in different world? Is it a problem if in some situations it's almost ...
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Is there a good way to store worldbuilding information so that I can get a quick reference and overview without having to go through an entire doc?
Is there a good way to store worldbuilding information so that I can get a quick reference and overview without having to go through an entire doc? I don't need to store it, I can store it in a word ...
user36239
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How could I show good worldbuilding without ending up with info-dumps?
A horror story I am writing involves the protagonist in another world. It is like an isekai, but it is horror and the protagonist is trying to survive as long as possible.
The main story surrounds the ...
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Would it be wrong to base a fictional country on multiple real-world countries?
I was trying to work on the worldbuilding of my story. The concept of fictional nations being based on real ones is nothing new, but it is fun to do. Usually, when there's a nation based on actual ...
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Is there a good reason to use a fictional country in a world with an alternate earth?
Is there a good reason to use a fictional country in a world with an alternate earth? I see a lot of TV show where we have an alternate history on earth and where we see Russian, American people ...
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I want to name a fantasy species something, but it's the name of a similar species in WoW. Is that okay?
I came up with a name for a species in my fantasy world, and looked it up to see if it had been used already. Turns out it's the name of a species in WoW. They are both big cats. Am I infringing on ...
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How to coherently include medieval elements in a sci-fi story?
I'm trying to write a novel that's sci-fi but with medieval elements (something similar to the He-Man, She-Ra world). I'm thinking of having ships that travel through space and people living in ...
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How seriously can the wild wild west nature of pro wrestling be taken in a story or fictional world that takes place in a modern setting?
I wanted to take a realistic approach to pro wrestling when it came to world-building. If you are not a fan of pro wrestling, I would tell you that pro wrestling is an insane concept when taken ...
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