Sapho Economides's Reviews > World-Building for Writers: The Complete Handbook: From Constructed Languages to Mythical Realms

This guide has a different take on the way it assists authors in their world building journey, namely that it is told from a personal perspective. It wasn’t what I expected when I started reading, which would have been along the lines of textbook guidance, but I got into the flow of the narrative soon enough.

The book begins with a personal introduction, detailing how the author first became interested in world building, which I quite enjoyed. From here on, there are lots of relevant questions that authors can ask themselves, almost in a checkbox kind of fashion. For example, ‘Are the properties of my magical forest from Chapter 1 consistent with what I’ve written by Chapter 30?’ It’s easy for authors to lose track of such details, so it’s good to be reminded. I also liked the reminder that authors should be giving readers a feeling that there is something hiding around every corner, and that the world continues off the page just as much as it does on the page. With this in mind, the book made a strong habit of touching on believability for readers.

However, I did feel there was some lack of structure to the book and that reading it felt too ‘linear’ for me, perhaps because I was subconsciously expecting that spread-out textbook experience again. It didn’t seem like the kind of guide I could flick to for a certain page if I were using it whilst writing (I read the eBook; those with the paperback may disagree with me). There was also a lot of text that could have been cut which I felt wasn’t entirely relevant to the reader, such as the author’s personal theories and opinions. I would expect a handbook to be more impartial with its information.

All in all, I would say this is a handy read that can certainly point fantasy and sci-fi authors in the right direction, especially if they’re new to writing. The level of research the author has put into certain areas such as language construction is impressive and there are also useful resources shared like TV Tropes and Inkarnate.