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Too many species, or not enough?

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the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: Simon Hogwood on May 22, 2015, 02:32:33 AM ---*And it turns out there are a lot more of these than it appears at first glance. There's Men, Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits (maybe a sub-species of Men), and Orcs (ditto for Elves),

--- End quote ---

Orcs are explicitly metaphysically corrupted Elves rather than a subspecies, iirc.


--- Quote ---whatever Tom Bombadil is . . .

--- End quote ---

That one seems obvious to me; the Ring can't touch him at all, he lives with his partner in an idyllic garden, he swats down threats without acknowledging them as anything more than annoyances, and pretty much the only thing he does proactively is name the party's animals; that reads a lot to me, in Tolkien's cosmology, like an unFallen Adam who literally lacks the knowledge of Good and Evil.

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: Farmerbob1 on May 22, 2015, 06:07:00 AM ---If you do not have a specific reason for including additional races, then don't.  Follow K.I.S.S.

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If you want a fictional universe to be convincing, it has to contain a certain amount of background detail that has nothing to do with the plot.  Putting that in isn't without purpose, because it gives the readers clues as to how that universe works (which is more vital the more distinct it is from the world your readers live in; LotR and Star Wars both have to establish what certain fundamentals of How Stuff Works are at a level that, say, the Dresden Files don't because they can assume readers know what cars are and what cops do) and which bits your viewpoint character thinks are important gives your reader characterisation information.

Farmerbob1:

--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on June 16, 2015, 07:50:37 PM ---If you want a fictional universe to be convincing, it has to contain a certain amount of background detail that has nothing to do with the plot.  Putting that in isn't without purpose, because it gives the readers clues as to how that universe works (which is more vital the more distinct it is from the world your readers live in; LotR and Star Wars both have to establish what certain fundamentals of How Stuff Works are at a level that, say, the Dresden Files don't because they can assume readers know what cars are and what cops do) and which bits your viewpoint character thinks are important gives your reader characterisation information.

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It is very possible to add extra details that have no purpose.  Without knowing a lot more about the lead, objective, conflict, and knockout that define the plot, or anything about the structure and planned scenes of the story, we can't judge.  That's why I carefully stated that "If you do not have a specific reason..."

If there is a specific reason, then, well, it's needed.  World building (background) can be that reason, if those aliens are sufficiently important or sufficiently entangled in the story.

meg_evonne:
Keep in mind that the Star Wars world was conceived with a major cheat. You could physically see the races on the screen. When you read the followups, they simply work off the knowledge the reader has assimilated.

K.I.S.S. - I agree. If you limit the number of races you do not risk losing readers.

It is how you introduce the races that counts. The more races you have the more you need to spread out the introductions. (And the best intro is in context of action rather than reporting.)

Now, wading into backstory discussion... Nah, not going there. Let's face it, you can either do this exceedingly well - think GRR Martin (And I curse thee "for the watch" move!). Can you accomplish that massive world building?

It is easy to add a race or a world species backstory, but if you included it initially and then have to cut it for reader clarity and purpose of the plot? Ouch, that's a lot of work going into little 'cut' files that may never see the light of day again.

Jim once famously said on moving into the comic book industry, "I knew that a picture paints a thousand words, but I didn't know that I would have to write a thousand words per panel."

The visual advantage that Star Wars had probably isn't something that you can take advantage of working.

Another example of multi-races is the Harry Potter series. My guess is that she had tons of the race differences in her head for all the animal species but included very little in the actual text by comparison.

Best wishes on your project.

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