World-Building MISTAKES New Writers Make ❌ Avoid These Cringeworthy Cliches!

exactly and I I've like dnfed so many books I have not finished books that that start this way because when your reader goes into you know opening the first page of a book they're already disoriented cuz they this is like white room they have no idea what what they're looking at so to dive first into like okay so here's the world I explain everything is like oh my goodness my head's going to explode because there's so much overwhelming information we're sisters best friends and authors on a mission to help you stoke your creative fire and live the life of your dreams we believe that purpose fuels passion and that creativity is your secret weapon for Mass construction there's never been a better time to bless the world with your dream realized you're listening to the Kate and Abby show what's up guys welcome back to another episode of the Kate and Abby show today we're talking all about World building specifically mistakes that new writers make with World building and how to avoid those mistakes so World building or crafting any sort of fictional setting is a very important pillar to any story it's the stage that your story is going to take place on so figuring out the setting and writing it in an immersive compelling way really sets the stage for your whole story but World building is also easy to mess up and when you mess it up and you start revealing your world in the wrong way it's very easy to lose your reader attention and to bore them and make them want to put the book down because they're just overwhelmed with all this information so that's why in today's podcast Kate and I are going to be breaking down the dos and don'ts of World building common mistakes that we see a lot of writers make and how to avoid these pitfalls and make your fictional settings unique and compelling and memorable so super excited to dive into this topic it's a big one so you're definitely going to want to take notes so grab a notebook and we will Dive Right into this but first before we get started we want to thank our patrons you guys you are the supporters and the sponsors behind the Kate and Abby show and we so appreciate your support so if you get value out of this podcast go to patreon.com the Kate and Abby show and help us keep it alive and free of interruptions also when you join the patreon you get to hang out live every month with me and Kate at the end of each month we do a live monthly hangout where we chat about our stories our writing projects with you guys answer your questions it's super fun so check that out when you join the patreon okay let's get into the dos and don'ts of World building number one don't infodump all the World building in the first chapter and overwhelm us with information such as names places kingdoms magic all that's involved in your world building and this this goes for Fantasy as well as like contemp in any story but especially with fantasy we've seen this a lot and sci-fi dystopian um genres like that a lot of times the World building all happens in like the first chapter the opening and we just get this huge load of exposition and the reason why this is this is a mistake is because it loses our interest because we can't make the connection of why does it matter right it's just a bunch of information there's no like reference point of a character we're supposed to about that all this matters right and you have to also remember too that your reader will have to sort of remember all of this right right so we want to we want to really weave this part together in a way that's memorable for the reader where they don't have to wait a minute let me go back and consult this huge piece of um information at the beginning to remember what that you know thing was called or whatever it's just like if someone asked you hey would you pick up um some oat milk for me at the store you would be able to remember that but if they're like can you pick up some milk for me at the store and can you get red bell peppers and can you get the specific type of cereal I want and can you get green beans and can you get apples and can you get some bread but get this kind of bread you'd be like okay I can't remember all of these things anymore that's kind of the same feeling at the beginning of a book when it's like this is how the world works this is what the government's like here's the people in the government they got here through this these means they did this in order to get here they killed these people those people are part of this clan and this clan is clashing with that clan that Clan's from another planet but these planets work like this these Clans this is the relationship they have with one another here's the names of the leaders you're like okay I can't remember all of this at the same time and then then you have okay a couple chapters later characters are referencing that and you're like I remember sort of kind of there was like something about a corrupt government but I don't really remember you know so we want to we don't want to give them the whole list all at once we want to weave it in in ways that like aby's saying make it matter to the character and that's how we'll remember it we'll remember it because oh that's important to that character because of this reason right exactly and I I've like dnfed so many books I've have not finished books that that start this way because you're overwhelmed and another thing is that when your when your reader goes into you know opening the first page of a book they're already disoriented cuz they this is like white room they have no idea what what they're looking at so to dive first into like okay so here's the world I explain everything is like oh my goodness my head's going to explode because there's so much overwhelming information so on the flip side of this do expand your world as your character interacts with it Exposition through action and you see this done in stories that really immerse you in the world cuz you're starting with a person you're starting with a character that you can care about like I always say you know the characters are the most important part of the story because they're the ones who go on this transformative Journey they're the ones who have internal conflict we care about them as an individual human right so because of that we are now seeing everything that's happening to them through their eyes and using them as a measuring device for why everything matters so as they start to interact with with the world how can you weave in descriptions and worldbuilding and building this setting setting this stage through their interactions with the world and the specific things that are meaningful to them and their conflict and I think you do such a great job of this in the blood race series and in all your books but because your books are more like fantasy centered like in the first book of the blood race series we have ion who's the protagonist and he is superum he has the superh human abilities but he doesn't know where they came from he doesn't know how to control them and the inciting incident is really him coming into the world of the dimension that is like this other realm where there are all sorts of people from all over the world and different timelines in history that are just like him and have these same powers and as he steps into the dimension he's disoriented like he doesn't know what's going on or what any of this is like but he has a guide in the second protagonist Hawk who brings him into this world and starts to explain things to him and as he interacts with the dimension and starts to meet people he starts to learn what all of this is and what it means but we are like in deep point of view with him because we don't you know we we don't know what's going on either right you know so as he interacts with everything else we start to learn about the world and the world starts to sort of all the pieces start to fit into place because we're seeing it through his eyes right unfolding through the character right yeah exactly and like you're saying and I'm glad you think so but like it's like you anchor in that character you know and then you're seeing it through their eyes rather than seeing a synopsis it almost feels sort of like going to Wikipedia and reading okay what you know what's a breakdown yes of these worlds and um and then finally we dig through all that and oh here's the main character underneath all that stuff you know what I mean it's sort of like digging for a needle and a Hy to find the main character um and like also other stories like The Chronicles of Nar we've talked about numerous times in World building that they do a great job of really introducing you to the the characters and then from those main characters specifically Lucy we see Narnia slowly grows bigger and bigger the further she and the pebes Venture into it not the other way around we're not introduced to narnian the lore and the history and all of that first and then finally here's the pebes so kind of start stting small and zooming out rather than trying to find the main characters amongst this vast landscape that we've painted yes because like you're saying you're walking into a white room you don't know what to expect and if we can anchor the reader with the main character as quickly as possible now they feel there's a sense of safety there like okay we've got our main character now all we have to do is follow the main character and I know I've seen films we've both seen films where you're kind of wondering who's the main character what who's what is the main story here and your mind can't really relax and enjoy the story until it Finds Its point of reference right yeah and so another easier way to look at this would be like instead of starting zoomed out and zooming into the main character you're starting zoomed into the main character and then you're slowly zooming out exactly okay so you're starting with that of meaning number two don't make your character's conflicts begin and end with the the way the world works so this is something that we've seen a lot with stories and most of the time it's with these plot driven stories like a lot of times it's it's not a character-driven story because the whole conflict and everything that's happening to this character is really circling around the way the world works and by that I mean maybe the society they find themselves in or the dystopian world that they find themselves in or um whatever the case may be whatever setting your story is taking place in depending on the genre if the conflicts begin and end with okay well this is my place in society or whatever and so I'm being sort of Knocked around by society and by the rules of my world and because I you know live in this place or on this planet or I'm part of this clan or this people these things are non-negotiable things that are happening to me if that's where your Conflict for your character begins and ends you're going to find yourself hitting this wall of meaninglessness basically because you'll find you'll get to a point where you're like okay well what's the juicier deeper stuff behind this what's the thing behind the thing what's really driving their internal motivation if it's all on the surface and it and it could be following anybody in this world then it's not really character driven you know right that's the thing is if you could easily pivot and have it be about the subar and the conflict is exactly the same then perhaps look a little deeper what is the unique issues facing this character yeah because and that's true to life too because we all as human beings have unique conflicts within us personally so that's the that's why it's important to tap into well what is their personal internal conflict not just how are they interacting with the world just like everyone else is because most likely the their family their friends would be influenced by the same things if you were writing a fantasy scenario like you were describing right exactly or even you can apply it to contemporary as well but like just finding that unique thread right yes and and like you guys if you've been on my channel for a while you've probably seen my videos on like the inciting incident writing the inciting incident making the first plot Point matter to your story if you're using the threea story structure and in those videos which I can link below um I use some story examples one of the examples that you know I've used before in the past about World building specifically and this character-driven thing is Divergent and how that story opens with like the a lot of info dumping first of all a lot of exposition about the world and how it works in society and the main character the protagonist Tris is kind of a she finds herself in this Society but she doesn't have a lot of deeper layers to her personal conflict it's more to do with like well because I'm part of this group in this Society I'm being pushed in these different directions and so she has this element of where she's different from everyone else because she's Divergent but that's not really a personal belief thing that's more of like a thing that I happen to be and so this is this is just a pitfall you want to avoid when you're building your character's world and the way the world works the way the world Works can't be the only point of conflict they're facing okay make it deeper than that challenge yourself to make it deeper than that and they may still face conflicts of the way the world works and how their society is pushing them here or there but challenge yourself to see if we can make this even deeper on a personal level for this character so on the flip side do leverage the way the world Works to make your character's unique internal conflicts more compelling okay so you can layer and stack these things is the best way to do it I find like okay we already have this layer of society is against them or the the world and the rules of the world are against them but on top of that or beneath that beneath the surface we also have this personal desire versus fear this personal Push Pull of something this character wants and something they're afraid of a misbelief that's holding them back a fatal flaw right that constantly gets in their way of finding true happiness so how is this conflict flying under the radar how is it going to make their experience in this world even more complex and complicated because it's so unique to them right and we can't switch to another character because we care specifically about this character because their internal conflict is unique right to them exactly and even finding that with larger scale fantasy like even things that appear to be plot driven like one that pops into my head is like Lord of the Rings for example which has very large scale plots of big huge Epic Fantasy battles moving forward lots and lots and lots of World building but we are anchored with Frodo and we are seeing what is his personal internal conflict about the you know his interactions with the power of the ring and what emotions are that bringing is that bringing about for him and other people who encounter the power of the ring and so we have that we're still zooming in to that anchoring point and without that element if you took that element out of out of it we didn't have froto as an anchor point it wouldn't pack the same punch it would just be meaningless Epic Fantasy battles moving forward without really any reference point for why does it matter what is the emotional core of the story so things like this can help you cut to the Crux of the Matter What is the thing if we peeled back all those onion layers what's at the heart of the story this is what really helps you find that yes 100% so true before we continue on to mistake number three I just want to quickly pause here to tell you guys about a special live training that I'm going to be hosting this coming Sunday all about World building so if you want to take your world building to the next level and learn my tried and true techniques for crafting an unforgettable story world then I invite you to join this live training it's happening Sunday February 4th at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard time and in this live training we're going to dive even deeper into World building and crafting setting I'm going to share with you the life saving techniques that have helped me so much to make my settings more immersive believable and Unforgettable so in this training you will learn how to leverage your story world to deepen your character's internal conflict my secret hack for effortlessly writing Exposition through action how to write immersive setting descriptions without slow slowing down your story's pacing how to organize the details of your world and keep track of everything and the best way to curate a one-of-a-kind Vibe for your story world and have fun while doing it so this training encapsulates every important lesson I've learned about World building and I want to share all of this with you so join sign up grab your save your spot at the link below this video and space is limited so definitely C that link as soon as possible to save your spot again is happening February 4th at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and if you can't make it to the live stream don't worry you can still watch the replay as many times as you want and when you sign up for the live training you also get access to all of aby's past live trainings too yes so if you've heard heard talk about like a lot of these other trainings that you're like oh I haven't had a chance to catch up this might be your chance to be able to do like a complete writer study hall and make lots of notes heading into this Bright New Year of lots of writing yes tons of valuable resources in the whole live training archive there's over like 17 hours of indepth training on all writing topics so yes I'll I'll see you over there click the link below to save your spot at this upcoming live training okay moving back on to our world building mistakes so number three don't paint yourself into a corner with the rules of Your World this is this is something that Kate and I have discussed a lot with writing our new series because there are a lot of fantasy elements to this series it's urban fantasy mostly but there's a lot of stuff that is in the world that's unique to the world and we're constantly bouncing ideas off of each other poking holes in each other's ideas to help us make sure we're not painting each other into a corner with the rules of the world going back and saying well does this work up against this scenario work this scenario and one of the comforting things too is that you can there's always the editing process so you can kind of go wild and hone in on it um when you edit but you also don't want there to be like too many surprises when you go through the editing process so always keeping in mind where will this take me then you know will this um will this work and um not painting yourself into a corner or if you decide to ignore the fact that you've painted yourself into a corner then it just feel can come off feeling a bit sloppy um we've talked about this with um especially Marvel films like which we both we've both done a lot of you know we've talked a lot about things we love in Marvel films but how sometimes it's like okay this in certain scenarios everyone has superpowers and can deal with everything and then in other scenari that's goes out the window so it's like well so so you have to really kind of ask yourself okay well if this works here does it work here and does it work here and does it work here and just going through that mental checklist yes to see what is it going to work up against exactly and and this can apply even to contemporary stories as well even if you're not writing fantasy even if you're writing a story that takes place in the real world there's still World building and setting development to be done and make make sure that some of the things you choose to do don't pain you into a corner so it can be something even very simple like maybe a character doesn't have a car but at some point in the story they need to get somewhere and they only have themselves to transport themselves there how are you going to make that work um or even like when I was riding the other world I had to sort this out too because the setting of that even though it's taking place in the real world in the 9s taking place in the sanan islands in Washington and I have the story taking place on an island right and they have no mode of transportation to other Islands or to the mainland so I had to figure out okay what are the rules here you know how do they get there if they need to um you know do they take a boat do they take a plane what what are the rules yeah exactly like setting up the rules of your world in such a way that everything else works with it um so do stay consistent with your world's rules but leave room for new possibilities so this is especially true for like writing any kind of characters who have superpowers or super natural strength or whatever what are some of their weaknesses what are some defense mechanisms that can be used against them because if they're all powerful and they can't be defeated then you kind of have painted yourself into a cour right with like well now they can't be defeated so where's this story going to go so kind of taking the time to decide what is your character's Kryptonite what is going to create the sense of there's actual Stakes here right so if you want your character to be imp Peril and for your readers to feel like a sense of nervousness to see what the outcome will be instead of just oh well they'll be fine because they're indestructible in every single way then figure out at the at the GetGo what is the Kryptonite here what is the the weakness maybe it's a person maybe it's a place maybe it's a Memory deciding what those things are of course it could be a more Fantastical element like this certain magic or this certain you know wizard whatever you can really decide those things you know at the outset and that way it's like okay well they have this but then there's this that balances they balance each other out yes yes exactly making sure that you have still you leave a little bit of breathing room there so that if later maybe you're writing a series or something you want to introduce a new loophole or a new um you know defense mechanism or a new strength and weakness for this magic or this world somehow um that you have the room for that but it's not so changeable and inconsistent that your reader feels like they're just being slapped in the face by this story like anything can happen you know don't question it because that can feel really um it can feel like a betrayal sort of to the reader because they're trying to build the parameters of what is possible and what is imposs here so making sure that your world stays consistent but you still have room for new possibilities if you want to try something new in the future right just it doesn't have to be complicated either it can be something really simple like one that jumps to my mind is in the movie Tangled how simply if her hair is cut it stops having magical powers now we've created Stakes there with that very very simple thing like oh her hair gets cut it the magic dies so so now we're like ooh is that going to happen at some point and when it's needed and then she won't be able to you know work her magic powers we've created that now if it's like no you can cut it you can braid it you can do whatever and nothing ever happens and everyone lives happily ever after it's like why am I reading this you know we have to have some Stakes so it doesn't have to be anything super complicated like you don't have to come up with like H let's come up with the most complex magic system that you know sometimes that can be worse sometimes it's better to keep keep it really simple like we really understand okay this has that consequence and then we can we can play from there right very true yeah um and finally number four don't slow down your story's pacing with wordy descriptions of the world now when I say slow down your story's pacing I'm talking about basically bringing it to a screeching halt which we've seen done in many many books um and even films but like when you hit pause on the current story with your main character to go into a big long description of a setting or um you know something from the past or anything about the World building but even a specific like a current setting that your character is in is the momentum still moving forward or have we stopped for like page after page going into the descriptions of what this place looks like how it functions the history of it um the parameters of what's possible here um is that something that if you have a lot to say about it definitely keep keep all of this in your notes that's an important thing to do have like your own little Wiki of information for your whole story world but are there ways to sprinkle the the the more expansive details in throughout your story so that your character is learning interacting exploring they're they're picking up new pieces of information but it's not all you know okay pause hit stop on the story we have to go into a big explanation of this now or huge long description of what we're looking at um is there a way to not slow down right but to keep the momentum going forward and that's the flip side of this do make your descriptions Vivid but meaningful to the story so keep things moving forward and make sure that when you're describing something it's something that is immediately mattering to the characters it's mattering to the story so we're not getting distracted like looking at things that have no significance right and also remembering that everything you're bringing your character's attention to you're actually bringing your reader attention to that so just asking yourself what is the reason for bringing my reader attention to this is it important because your reader is constantly subconsciously asking like okay how is this important to the story how is this important to the story is that going to appear later is this going to have a consequence and if if it's for no reason at all you might want to second guess like should we really have that there or is there a quicker way that we can just Breeze right through that and keep going yes yeah exactly and so this might be a little bit tricky might be a challenge to sit down and okay I have this you know I have this new setting that I want to describe and introduced to the story whether it's a new realm or a fantasy world or a country or Planet whatever the case may be how do you then create an immersive description that is Meaningful to your characters that brings the exposition through the action that there are so many different ways to do this like it really depends on your writing style and this is something that I would say time time time practice practice practice and you will find your voice your Unique Edge for doing this but this is something that I'm going to dive deeper into in the upcoming live training we're going to talk about creating these immersive descriptions without slowing down the momentum of your story so that you still have that meaning and significance and you have the colorful Vivid writing but you're not hitting pause on the current story so again in this live training we're going to cover how to leverage your story world and deepen your character's internal conflict my secret hack for effortlessly writing Exposition through action how to write immersive setting descriptions without slowing down your story's pacing how to organize the details of your world and keep track of everything and the best way to create a one-of-a-kind Vibe for your story world and have fun while doing it we're going to dive deep into World building in this training and this is something that I've had a lot of suggestions from you guys a lot of you have asked for a training on writing setting writing World building and doing all of that so super excited to dive deep into this with you guys it's something that has been on my mind for a while and I'm really looking forward to this live training so again happening Sunday February 4th I hope to see you there click the link below this video to save your spot at the live training and when you join my patreon at the live training pass level you are getting access to all my live trainings so the whole archive that's over 17 hours of in-depth training on topics like writing publishing writing romance relationships plotting and so much more so I hope to see you over there tons of value to explore in the live training Vault and click the link below to save your spot at this upcoming training on World building it's going to be awesome so I will see you guys on Sunday at that event but just to recap today what we have learned about World building the dos and don'ts don't info dump all your world building in the beginning of your book and overwhelm us with information instead expand your world as your character explores it don't make your character's conflicts begin and end with the way the world Works do leverage the way the world Works to make your character's internal conflicts more compelling don't paint yourself into a corner with the rules of Your World do stay consistent with your world's rules but leave room for new possibilities and don't slow down your stories pacing with wordy descriptions of the world instead make your descriptions Vivid but meaningful and keep the story moving forward so hopefully you took lots of notes and got lots of value out of this episode comment below and tell us what you think join the discussion we would love to hear from you guys and we would love to hear your thoughts on World building what are some great examples of World building in fiction or film share your favorite examples in the comments below thank you guys also for listening on audio podcast platforms if you're listening over there give us a nice rating it really helps us out and again thank you to our patrons who make this show possible and and help support this show thank you again to your for your amazing support and we we so appreciate it so if you want to support the show join the patreon the link to that is also in the description box below I will see you guys at the live training on Sunday and Kate and I will see you in the next podcast until then stay stoked and rock on

Channel: Abbie Emmons

Views: 50,115

Keywords: world building for writers, how to write setting, how to write setting descriptions, how to world build, how to build a fantasy world, the dos and don'ts of worldbuilding, worldbuilding mistakes, writing immersive descriptions, how to write good descriptions, how to write a fantasy book, how to write a novel

Id: dWKDS2nwdss

Length: 31min 22sec (1882 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 31 2024