World-building - a shamefully underrated art

[wiseheart]

I love world-building. My favourite books are the ones where the author manages to create a believable environment, either an historical one or a future one. I tend to do a lot of world-building myself, in my own writing, and always enjoy doing it very much.

Unfortunately, few people appreciate the effort and thought that goes into world-building. Once I created four different alien species for a single chapter of the story, just to make the planet convincingly different. No-one ever took notice.

Yesterday I pasted Chapter 4 of "A Stitch in Time" to AO3. That's the chapter where I made a great deal of thought about the 456 (the evil aliens in Torchwood CoE) and, if I may say so myself, came up with highly interesting things. So far, no-one has taken notice.

I'm really disappointed. I thought that such an important (and canonically underdeveloped) race would catch people's interest, as Torchwood fans are generally a bunch of people who still care for the show very much. Well... apparently not so much anymore. Which is a shame, as 456 stories are rare; so far, I've found one single story that tried to explain them, their motivations and their background.

Other than that, I had a busy cooking day today. It was exhausting, but since it means I won't have to cook tomorrow and probably the day after, it was worth the effort.

Comments

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

I like reading or watching good world building, anything from Lord of the Rings to Avatar the Last Airbender.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Of those I only write in the Lord of the Rings fandom. I've created an entire little Gondorian fishing town called Halabor, with regular inhabitants: craftspeople, soldiers, farmers and the ones. I've got miles long character lists, jotted down who's related to whom and where they live and the likes. I wrote three finished stories and two WIPs taking place in that town and featuring various inhabitants. ;)

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

cool!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

They're all posted to AO3, should you be inclined to read fanfiction. ;)
Don't feel that you have to, though.

[red-day-dawning.livejournal.com]

I haven’t read it yet. It’s in my To Be Read list. I look forward to reading it later today or tomorrow.
While I haven’t read your new chapter, I think you’re absolutely right about world-building being an underrated skill. Most readers don’t appreciate how time-consuming and challenging this kind of writing can be.
See you later on Ao3!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

World-building is also very exciting. It is complicated, for sure, but when the things come together (if they do), the results are most satisfactory. :)

[wanderingmogwai.livejournal.com]

I hear you! While I dont write my photography is very important to me. Some people just seem to think it's just point and shoot. It's not.
I wish I still had enough of an attention span to read your work. I'm sure I'd love it!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Believe me, I know all too well how complicated photography can be. My photos are usually of very poor quality.

[noadvertising.livejournal.com]

I must read your LoTR stories now. Not so sure about Torchwood, because I have never watched the show. I hope it is still on Amazon so that I can give it a try! I love world building but would never have the stamina to do one of my own!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

You can always start with the LoTR stuff. Everything is on AO3. I'm Soledad there, like everywhere except on LJ where the name was already taken when I joined. :(

[noadvertising.livejournal.com]

Oh my, there´s a lot of fics for me to read!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

What can I say? I'm an industrious writer. I hope the quality will be on equal level with the quantity, though. *g*

[elwenlj.livejournal.com]

It's always frustrating when people don't notice stuff in your stories that you've sweated blood over.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

True, true.

[mirasaui.livejournal.com]

I can vouch for your Halabor series, well worth reading about the town and its inhabitants. One reason I love your writing, all the details and the research you put into it.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

You do say the sweetest things. :)