McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

World Building vs. Backstory

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meg_evonne:
OK, call me dense, but I just figured this out. Well, a critique person pointed it out.  Your thoughts? Did I jump on her WB vs BS bandwagon too soon?

Back Story can be World Building
World Building can be Back Story
but World Building is not Back Story
and Back Story is not World Building....
Know which is which and when World Building isn't BOTH, cut it and show it in another way.  *arghhhh*

Both are essential, but you don't need to show world building as it should be the air your novel lives in, but back story you must include in order to tell your story. Right? or is that poppycock?

i think I'm going back to review my G.R.R. Martin and see if this is all wrong...

LizW65:
Another way to put it might be:
"Backstory is what happened; worldbuilding is what is."

MClark:
I've never thought of it like that.

It sounds like a good guideline. Thanks.

Though it seemed Kim Stanley Robinson broke the rule in his Mars trilogy. The characters were always getting on a glider, blimp, dune buggy or Martian winnebago, so Robinson could spend spend many pages talking about martian geography or the terrra forming scheme. Well, except when he talked about socialism.

I've heard not to spend too much time on world building. Brandon Sanderson on writingexcuses said to focus on areas of conflict, IIRC.

Rereading your post it sounds like I'm getting confused WB- in Story is what you are talking about. WBiS is spending too much time in story talking about your world. Which KSR does in the mars trilogy but gets away with.

The WB sanderson was talking about was just spending more time building the world than writing your WIP, eg "These noble families way over here are having a Gleph-Guibelline type war and I'm spending two weeks figuring out all the players (ie copying from italian history with the names changed a bit), even though my epic will not reach this part of the globe for four more books." Maybe call this World Building-Game Master, since its the sort thing RPG GMs do.

It seems authors will always have WBGM we don't show. Butcher has all sorts of WBGM planned out eg who gave the werewolf belts to the FBI. But you actually have to make progress on your work in progress, so don't spend to much time on WBGM.

Sorry, sort of a rambling post.

cenwolfgirl:
^we do them

i do back story for charictors and let them intreduce the world when are were it is relivent
i treat them sepritly

The Deposed King:

--- Quote from: meg_evonne on March 06, 2012, 11:24:02 PM ---OK, call me dense, but I just figured this out. Well, a critique person pointed it out.  Your thoughts? Did I jump on her WB vs BS bandwagon too soon?

Back Story can be World Building
World Building can be Back Story
but World Building is not Back Story
and Back Story is not World Building....
Know which is which and when World Building isn't BOTH, cut it and show it in another way.  *arghhhh*

Both are essential, but you don't need to show world building as it should be the air your novel lives in, but back story you must include in order to tell your story. Right? or is that poppycock?

i think I'm going back to review my G.R.R. Martin and see if this is all wrong...

--- End quote ---


Back story is what happened to the character, or is just about to happen to him.  As in there's an invasion and thus the army outside storming the gates is kind of important.

But unless you're guy/gal starts out as a mucky muck, you don't need to focus on how large the great land of Meg Evonne is.  Nor the king's penchant for abusing damels green skirts.  Nor the Fact that Governor Evonne is building the first transcontinental magic bridge.  That can all be a nice bits of world building tid bits its nicer to discover in a tavern, from ar courtier or when you are seeking a job, and someone tells you all about it in the front story, i.e. as she's living it not telling us her life/kingdome's story.  Same thing for all sorts of important information that can be revealed as you build the world around your heroine as she has her feats of daring do and/or runs away screaming before being locked up as she cuts her hands on the magic glass ceiling.

Not sure if I made any sense?


The Deposed King

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