- Joined
- Jun 28, 2007
- Messages
- 22,289
- Reaction score
- 1,491
So, I've always been told that worldbuilding was very important. It was always important to have plausible geography, culture, people, etc, and that they should be cohesive in a story, especially so in a fantasy story. Well, I'm writing a fantasy story, but there's no world-building, and there's nothing cohesive about it.
Now, before you start yelling at me, allow me to explain. The setting is some sort of dream realm (whatever you want to call it), so therefore, the landscape and the inhabitants have to be somewhat surreal, by definition. The idea that all of the creatrues have vastly different biologies from each other makes anything medical very difficult, but one of the key elements in the world is that things are disposable, up to a certain point. At that point, the creatures or the settings become mainstays, viewed as practically divine. These things call the shots.
But the problem is that from place to place, there's nothing cohesive. I've got a desert right next to a rainforest right next to the insides of a space station with nothing holding them together, because that's just how they are. A guy with a rabbit for a head is the only guy with a rabbit for a head, and no, the rest of his race didn't die off, he's the only one. See, having a rabbit for a head is just the way he is, and there's no argument by the denizens there, because there's a guy with a human head for a head, so how's that much different?
The question is, can there be a good story sewn out of things that are so patchy and thrown-in, completely forsaking many elements of worldbuilding?
Now, before you start yelling at me, allow me to explain. The setting is some sort of dream realm (whatever you want to call it), so therefore, the landscape and the inhabitants have to be somewhat surreal, by definition. The idea that all of the creatrues have vastly different biologies from each other makes anything medical very difficult, but one of the key elements in the world is that things are disposable, up to a certain point. At that point, the creatures or the settings become mainstays, viewed as practically divine. These things call the shots.
But the problem is that from place to place, there's nothing cohesive. I've got a desert right next to a rainforest right next to the insides of a space station with nothing holding them together, because that's just how they are. A guy with a rabbit for a head is the only guy with a rabbit for a head, and no, the rest of his race didn't die off, he's the only one. See, having a rabbit for a head is just the way he is, and there's no argument by the denizens there, because there's a guy with a human head for a head, so how's that much different?
The question is, can there be a good story sewn out of things that are so patchy and thrown-in, completely forsaking many elements of worldbuilding?