I've been reading a lot of space opera lately. I enjoyed David Weber's Honor Harrington books, but the later ones really bogged down in all the techno-babble he puts in. Then I discovered Tanya Huff and Elizabeth Moon each have space opera series with female protagonists. I've really enjoyed those. Their writing styles are different than mine, but there's a lot to learn from. The relentless pacing, use of deep third-person POV, giving each character a unique voice, and use of setting to move the action forward, it's all been very helpful. I struggle with those things.
Active setting is a great device I need to get better at. There's sooo much world-building in fantasy. Some is just background the writer needs, but some stuff is important for the reader to know. If done well, an active setting allows writers to inject info about the world into the story as part of the action, without the dreaded 'info dump'. If this interests you, one craft book that's helped me is, 'A Writer's Guide to Active Setting', by Mary Buckham, published by Writers Digest.
Related to my topic; after I finished the Huff and Moon books, I started re-reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. I've read through it twice, but the last time was about 10 years ago. Now the TV series has me recalling how much I enjoyed it - at least the earlier books - so I thought why not start book one, and then see how I feel. The biggest thing I've noticed this time around is Jordan's world-building. Oh my goodness, there's sooooo much of it! His world is lived-in, gritty, multi-layered, multi-cultural, and there's 1,000's of years of history, legends, music and art.
Even so, Jordan doesn't put all that stuff in. The books are each about 700 pages long already - imagine what they'd be if he included all the world-building. He uses events and characters that are integral parts of the plot, but also serve as a way to include details that give a sense of the world's history, cultures and legends, without long explanations that interrupt the storyline.
(Side Note: What the producers have done with the TV series is, uh...controversial... at least for long-time Jordan fans. Of course you have to condense the story when converting it to TV. But some changes are, to me, poor choices. There's 18 books of character development, conflict, action, tension, etc, etc, to use, but instead they make stuff up? WTH! But I'm watching the series anyway. Because high fantasy on TV! Nevermind, I digress.)
The point of all this is, a few months ago I found a submission call for an anthology of fantasy stories that involve a tavern and its food, due by March 31st. You can even include recipes as part of the 6,000 words. I had an idea for the origin story of my novel's main character (MC) and wrote a rough draft.
Now that I'm revising -- focusing on developing character, conflict, and a more active setting -- I've found weak spots in world building. It's so easy to get bogged down with world-building in a fantasy. I try to do *just enough* to let me start writing, do more world-building when needed, and then get back to the story, so I can make progress. And interestingly, when I reach a place in the story where world-building is lacking, that slight pressure helps me come up with new ideas I wouldn't have thought of otherwise.
An example; The MC has just turned 20 years old. It's an important day, she's participated in a coming-of-age ceremony with other young people from her village. Now she and her family are walking through the capital city to a tavern for lunch. Her parents have visited the city many times, but none of the kids ever have. In the rough draft they're just walking, and the kids are hungry and annoyed because they could have shared a wagon with some friends. But no, mother wanted to walk.
In revision, I realized more tension was needed here between MC and her mother, so their later confrontation makes sense. So, as they walk, the parents will point out a few historic landmarks or monuments. It gives a reason for interaction and dialogue between MC and mother. I can't put in huge chunks, gotta make that word count, but a few sentences would fit.
Except....I hadn't fleshed out the capital city at all. Of course a well-established capital city will have landmarks, monuments, and government buildings. Which implies historic and cultural events. And I hadn't yet thought about any of those things. A world-building gap that needed filling.
Monuments typically commemorate important people, or significant events. I needed some for my story. Including some people who lived so long ago that their actions have become more legend than history. That gave me a place to start writing background.
And that led me to think about the tavern itself. In the rough draft it's just a tavern, built about 100 years ago. To us, vaguely late medieval-ish. But this is a fantasy story. A fantasy tavern needs a wider clientele than just humans. World-building gap number two.
I'm still working on it, but I've started building a world history - complete with calendar change, military and civic heroes, and a legendarium. And I've created new races of people I hadn't thought of before.
In the end, I'll only use a few of those details in this story. But I hope they will show the world has a history, legends, a variety of cultures and customs, and increase the feeling of realism for the reader. And all this for a short story.
I know it's unlikely it will be chosen for the anthology. There's so many people writing these days. The numbers are against me. But to me, nothing in world-building is wasted. Even if you don't put all the information in, it creates more possibilities, ideas that beget new ideas. It helps you write a better story.
