This is such a fun angle and way of thinking about writing and how it is similar to design. I love the similarity between visual cues and written cues and how they relate to worldbuilding!
You know, I'm often seeing authors advised to reveal a world through movement and encounters. Personally, I think there's more to it than that, but how far do you think the idea of line differs from it?
I really like the framework of applying design principles to worldbuilding, especially the distinction between movement through a landscape and encounters with cultural boundaries. Both are natural ways to reveal a world without pausing the narrative for exposition.
Reading the excerpts, though, I found myself wanting a little more of Lena’s immediate experience of these things. The landscape and inn give us useful information, but one or two more specific sensory details, or a stronger personal reaction, could make the setting feel even more inhabited rather than simply observed.
For example, the reference to “a stringed instrument of some kind” made me curious. Since it is unfamiliar to Lena, I wondered whether its sound interested, unsettled, or simply distracted her; any of those responses could reveal something about both her and the region. Likewise, the map is clearly important to the scene, but I found myself wondering what it is physically like and what it means to her: is it a valuable object, something she protects, or chiefly a connection to Casyn and to her search for Maya?
Perhaps those things are developed elsewhere in the novel, and an excerpt cannot carry everything. But to me, that extra layer of relationship between character and object or sensation is where worldbuilding becomes especially vivid.
These are both dealt with in the book (or at least the series.) Both music and maps will become important to both her and the overall story, but these excerpts are from early on in Lena's story, and are the first hints of things that will matter to her later. But at this place in her journey, literally and figuratively, they're just 'there'.
This is such a fun angle and way of thinking about writing and how it is similar to design. I love the similarity between visual cues and written cues and how they relate to worldbuilding!
You know, I'm often seeing authors advised to reveal a world through movement and encounters. Personally, I think there's more to it than that, but how far do you think the idea of line differs from it?
I really like the framework of applying design principles to worldbuilding, especially the distinction between movement through a landscape and encounters with cultural boundaries. Both are natural ways to reveal a world without pausing the narrative for exposition.
Reading the excerpts, though, I found myself wanting a little more of Lena’s immediate experience of these things. The landscape and inn give us useful information, but one or two more specific sensory details, or a stronger personal reaction, could make the setting feel even more inhabited rather than simply observed.
For example, the reference to “a stringed instrument of some kind” made me curious. Since it is unfamiliar to Lena, I wondered whether its sound interested, unsettled, or simply distracted her; any of those responses could reveal something about both her and the region. Likewise, the map is clearly important to the scene, but I found myself wondering what it is physically like and what it means to her: is it a valuable object, something she protects, or chiefly a connection to Casyn and to her search for Maya?
Perhaps those things are developed elsewhere in the novel, and an excerpt cannot carry everything. But to me, that extra layer of relationship between character and object or sensation is where worldbuilding becomes especially vivid.
These are both dealt with in the book (or at least the series.) Both music and maps will become important to both her and the overall story, but these excerpts are from early on in Lena's story, and are the first hints of things that will matter to her later. But at this place in her journey, literally and figuratively, they're just 'there'.