As an aspiring author, lemme just say YES, this series helped me grow SOOO MUCH, there's an extremely drastic difference between manuscripts I write before and after/while I listened to Dear Authors and it is AMAZING, like readers are helping me improve as I write and it's great
@@junjunjamore7735 Dear Authors, yes it is. Sincerely, a nerd who gets distracted thinking about how the magic system works whenever reading anything with a soft magic system.
@@AaronRotenberg I see your point, but I've found that this doesn't happen for me when a soft magic system is done *well*. If a magic system leaves you with more questions than answers, then the author just didn't flesh it out as much (and it's probably not a good magic system lol). But to each their own. For me, I feel like a hard magic system is more like science than magic, so I prefer softer magic systems. Anyway, not trying to start a fight or something. Have a good day.
I really like how Scott Lynch takes a brief aside between different sections of his books to expand his world building. The story of the handball player and judge or how the prostitutes formed guilds in Camorr don't add anything to the story proper, but it makes the city feel alive.
The comment about magic systems affecting how people and societies behave was spot on. It's something that has always annoyed me about Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series - it's a society where some types of magic are specific to gender or else affect men and women differently, to the point where one particular ruler who is required to have a particular magic, MUST be a woman because that magic corrupts any men who have it - and yet women in general in that society are treated like second class citizens. The ruler HAS to be a woman but women are looked down on by society?? I don't think so...
Exactly! And, even if the society historically treats women in unfair and sexist ways, you'd think that a newly anointed female leader would make it one of her first priorities to reform or reverse that, especially in a monarchical society!
Well.... you won't have to worry about that anymore. Also, yeah, he inserted a lot of his own political beliefs and ideals into his works. he didn't even consider his books fantasy, iirc.
@@TheDemonCurupira Oh he absolutely liked to put his political philosophy into the books, reasonably subtly at first but eventually in the form of long lectures that I just ended up skipping to get back to the plot. I gave up on his newer books years back but still occasionally have the urge to reread the first few.
@@khango6138 To be fair, in real history there are any number of women who became rulers in a patriarchy without trying much to improve the lives of other women. However they generally became monarchs *despite* being women and knew it (and knew how easily they could be challenged and maybe overthrown) - not *because* they were women!
@@TheDemonCurupira Ah... after reading your first line, I've just Googled Terry Goodkind. I hadn't heard that he had died, let alone just this week. Seems inappropriate to have criticised his writing now. While I had issues with his books, I did adore the early ones, and they were a major part of my becoming a fantasy fan after picking them up in the library as a teenager.
One reason why info dumps are some of the greatest moments in One Piece is because of how invested everyone is in the story, the characters, the world, and the mystery of the true history of the world that the government hides. I don't think I've ever seen a fan base be so excited for info dumps before lol. This is, of course, a manga/anime and not an actual book, but it's still storytelling and I think I great example of info dumps done right.
It also helps that the author actually relegates some of the world building to the pictures themselves. Instead of leaving it all to the text. An example being the city of Zou, on the back of the giant elephant, after the city was destroyed, the Minks now live inside the giant fruits hanging from the trees, nowhere is this mentioned to the readers, instead, it's shown in the background of some panels, some fruits in the distance with windows, balconies, etc. That makes it more interesting/satisfying to discover, because it's sort of "hidden", and it's up to each reader to actually pay attention and investigate the pages of the manga for themselves to discover small details like this.
Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal talked about how they did the worldbuilding of The Original in a livestream two days ago! It's the Live Signing Session #18 at 1h31 Edit: it's on his channel, forgot to say that
I've just read Warbreaker (my first Sanderson book, based on your recommendation, thank you!) and it did such a great job of giving us different perspectives on history and showing how the different cultures remembered events differently or how the 'truth' had got lost to time.
This was SOO interesting!!! I am writing my own dystopian/post apocalyptic sci fi series and most of my energy is spent on world-building/planning the story and this video helped a lot.
Now I'm thinking more about the world building for my current writing. I feel like I've done well enough throwing in magic and some locations, but cultural/social aspects haven't really been thoroughly figured out thus far. Thankfully I'm barely 40k words in, and once I'm done I'll be doing a thorough re-write.
I am so glad I found this series of videos!! As an author, it is so helpful, and makes it possible to grow as a writer, to know what readers like and dislike!
My favorite series in regards to worldbuilding has the be the Books of Raksura by Martha Wells(same author as murderbot!!) Everything is so original and unique and it’s never dumped on you. The world is introduced so naturally, with a main character who is being introduced to everything along with us.
Merphy this is completely unrelated to the video, but are you interested in Indian mythology? If you are I highly recommend reading The Immortals of Meluha trilogy by Amish Tripathi. You might find it a little bit difficult with the pronunciation of names and certain things in the plot in general. I would love to see you talk about it since I haven't really seen you discussing about historical / mythological books in general. Also there are also other series by the same author like Sita: the warrior of Mithila, the legend of Suheldev etc. if you want to try that. Also try reading Indian epics like Mahabharata or Ramayana. They are pretty lengthy and detailed. It would certainly interest you if you want to know about the origins and basically everything about Indian culture.
I love Lia Gardner's idea, even though I don't know why everyone hates textbooks - they're very interesting! I love the idea of including a charismatic professor in the series, who teaches things in a certain odd way. In fact, I began a story (that I have not yet finished because I'm not sure where it's going) with a teacher describing details about my conlang Lohong to a tired, unwilling, and bored student (who I, therefore, would dislike if he were real. But it's a story.), and I have him describe things in such a weird and unique and tangential way.
I really enjoy when a characters interests show in how their POV shows the world. Ex. if they are an artist or a photographer - i recall merphy mentioning this in an old video - that should show in how that character looks at the world around them. One of my favourite examples of this is Shallan from the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson.
Thank you very much! This is helpful, especially in my current rut of an urban fantasy novel which is completely character focused: Think Violet Evergarden.
I’m going to be honest: worldbuilding saved my story. At first it was a lame Harry Potter knockoff located on an island with an invisibility shield protecting it. I abandoned it for a while, as I was more focused on other stories. I noticed that a lot of my stories had similar settings: wilderness in a fantasy world with magic elements. I picked that original story back up, along with many other small stories, and put them in the same world. I tweaked some parts of the stories and characters to match the world and placed them in various timelines. Some timelines intersect, others are way far apart. What ties it together is that you see the aftermath of those timelines in the main story: a dark academia witch adventure. If I had just shoved that story into the darkest corner of my brain and never fixed the god-awful worldbuilding, then I wouldn’t have the story I’m passionate about today.
It’s pretty interesting how often Daniel’s and your videos of the day go hand-in-hand. So much great info in today’s videos from both of you, and lots to think about for writers or prospective writers.
I love world building. A technique a lot of world builders use is get some small beans rearranged them to make the island or the map. It is very very useful
Personally I think authors should write the way they want and it's up to readers to find the books that appeal to them. No book will ever appeal to every single reader's tastes, and trying to tell an author to write a certain way to appeal to a certain audience is detrimental to the writer
Isn’t giving the past of a kingdoms history basically impossible in 3rd person limited or first person POV other than another character dumping the info in dialogue?
As someone who is building a very expansive world to be in a game, I think most of these principles still apply, but some of the limitations are more relaxed. In a story, everything you "see" is intentional. Every word is there to be read. However, in a game world, in order for your world to feel real and big, you need things for people to discover only if they go looking for them. Certain animals which have no relevance to the story, but just happen to live in the mountains -- that's just where they are. If you find a ton of animals you can start to understand how different species are related to each other, etc. Their habits reflect their climate, etc. I think worldbuilding for a grand game world is more conducive to people who like to build systems of things, rather than just the things themselves. Like the horse joke for Java, "You want to build a horse, but first you have to build a horse factory". In a book universe, maybe you'll have some kind of giant flying leopard animal and that's all. However, in a game world, especially a massive one, you do get much more mileage out of designing a system of species evolution, families of species, etc. In a book, all of that work is basically wasted except precisely the words you put onto the page. Whereas, in a game world, the most effective kinds of worldbuilding are those where you DON'T put the information right in front of players. People explore in games, they don't really explore in books (not in the same way). In book worldbuilding, relevance is key because people get through those words. However, in game worldbuilding, breadth is key. You should have tons of books lying around for players to read, *if they want to*. Optional worldbuilding in games is absolutely beautiful and refreshing, whereas it can feel tedious in books.
This is a video I'll be refering back to very often. I am starting to draft a really expansive sci-fi world (kinda like Asimov's Robots to Foundation verse in scope) and want to really flesh it out to feel as real as possible. Giving other perspectives will surely help me avoid tunneling in some aspects and forgeting about others. Great video as always!
The problem with me is that I'm writing a book for my world, not making a world for my book, so a good deal of this stuff doesn't apply to me well. Can't wait for a video called "Dear Worldbuilders... Book Writing"
That's sort of what Tolkien did. Created languages (he's a philologist by profession) and then made books to have speakers for them. Which is even wilder than creating a world then a book. What you're probably looking for is standard book writing advice lol.
I cannot agree enough with the statement that many authors do not pay enough attention to culture. Most generic fantasy sadly is just "orcs bad", "elves good", "dwarfs live in mountains". This is the main reason I prefer the fantasy books with little or even no fantasy races, not because I dislike them, but because then the author usually writes more about different cultures, than if they were different races.
If you want a massive info dump at the beginning of your book, perhaps present it as a Preface, so people can just skip to Chapter 1 without feeling they are skipping any of the actual book. They can refer back to the preface whenever they want, and if they do want to read the whole thing before starting the book, that's up to them.
Malazan is the exception, not the norm. It’s heavy stuff. I’m reading book three now, and have read the first book twice and still find new things within it. It’s a deep drink that needs to be taken slowly.
I don't mind the author throwing things in just because they are cool, provided that they can then handle it and make that minimum level of sense of it. Araki is a good example of an author who goes batshit insane in what he puts in Jojo's Bizzare Adventure, but it usually just works and if it doesn't make sense we are just like "yeah alright Araki, I buy it". One of the many many reasons why we fans love Jojo so much is because he has ZERO restraints, but it all works out so well and is just so interesting, beautiful, artistic and amazing! Araki is extreme and bizzare like Erikson is epic and big.
I feel I've been spending more time on the worldbuilding than the actual story. I have whole ass political and social systems for each kingdom(even those that play a perifial at best role in the story). 3000 years worth of history(most of which is not relevant), I've figured out how the economy and geopolitics of the world functions, and have even thought about how different laws(mostly regarding the use of magic) in each kingdom have affected the development of theater and opera. I've got about 20 pages of actual story.
Yeah, that's a serious case of Tolkien's disease... That's why I don't recommend starting from the world and instead, I'd say to begin writing the story and build the world artificially as your story progresses. Otherwise, you'll contract Tolkien's disease, and much like Tolkien, you'll spend your entire life worldbuilding instead of writing a book xD
I'm in the middle of worldbuilding right now and it's honestly really tedious. I have the modern world (countries, some basic customs, government systems, etc.) but now I'm building up the basic world history just to have if I need to reference and it's taking so much time. Btw, I want to see what you think of the hook I have right now. I think I might have this as the first sentence but I need a few extra opinions. So tell me if you would continue reading for at least a paragraph or page: "In her rush to arrive at the Florentina Opening Ceremonies, Harmony Verbena had left her dorm without waiting for her cousin Zeolite, a mistake she came to regret the moment she stepped foot on the campus. "
Lol, 62% of the way through the Complete Malazan Book of the Fallen (aka a bit over half-way through Book 7). I'm going to finish it, and there are some great sections, but sometimes it's hard to see the forest through the trees; this means sometimes we don't see the world through the details.
No mention of Ursula LeGuin or Patricia McKillip or Diane Wynne Jones? Sure, they're not all hard world builders. But their worlds feel real. ALSO C.L.Wilson, Lord of the Fading Lands Also Terry Pratchett
Dear Merphy, I have only been subscribed for a couple of days, but I have listened to so many of your videos already. I'm a student custodian at my university, and the boss allows us yo wear headphones and listen to stuff while we work, as long as we pay attention to people and get our job done. Anyway, I'm a reader but I'm gonna say I'm an author as well. My book is a bit strange as far as genres go, because it is a Christian/Fantasy novel. It has a magic system (of some kind; not sure if it's really magic, but I call it magical energy, because it can be magical in nature, but there is an element to each individual. Different peoples more commonly have similar kinds. My point or question was to ask how I might find readers for that? Would you potentially be interested in reading it? I am not asking for a review or any time on your channel, but I'm looking for readers who I think might enjoy the characters, story, and world building, and be able to help me with my editing (I'm doing all this on my own since I haven't the funds for company publishing) by giving me constructive feedback without forgetting the rest of the story or just saying "it's good!" Out of bias... Right now, it's a massive book (named "Fatal Redemption") with over 100 chapters, and over 1,000 pages...But when I look at that, my thought is that I want to split it into three or four books so that way I can get the whole story in and not bore readers to death with the content because there's just so much of it...I have a Facebook page called Redemption Series, and over 2 years, I've gotten something like 60+ followers who like my content. But I cannot seem to find readers to help me with editing, and I'd like to do some fine tuning, but I'm not sure what is fine to leave, and what's not...any advice?
Another example of infodumping is the beginning of gemina from the illuminae files, the first few chapters are a huge infodump, I was almost about to DNF it, but it got better in the second half : )
Don't go overboard with fictional aspects of the story. There is a danger to open a can of worms, where some cool factor could have so many implications that anything happening in the books stops being an organic development, but a blatant attempt of the author to force it on a specific direction. The author should be invisible in the story.
@@liz428 yes!! I read "a strange man in a strange land"this summer and from time to time a chapter would start with a description and I would just skim hahaha
I also think it's super unrealistic and weird when all people from one kingdom/race/religion/group of sorts just think the same and agree on everything while the members of the other group(s) are always on different sides. It's natural that within groups there will still be different opinions on certain issues. In our world not all Christians think the same and they don't always blieve the opposite of what Muslims believe and within each religion there will still always be different views or teachings, even though they generally are one group and just because your characters all are from the same race, live in the same city and share a general culture, their world views and identities still wouldn't be exact copy and pastes from each other. People are not only defined by one characteristic at a time. People can simultaneously be influenced in their identity by their gender, race, sexuality, religion, culture, social class (income, job, inheritance, reputation, ...), origin, personal family story... Intersectionality is a thing.
Unless you're slightly isolated from the rest of the world. I mean, pre-christian Ireland was a tribal society, and it seems they barely have different perspectives on their religion. Mostly because, well, they had barely any contact with the outside world, except Britain.
Imo world building is probably the hardest part of the story to expand on. Since i mostly read medieval/fantasy/fiction/historical fiction, and almost all of which, kinda bothers me on why its story is only revolving within either on a city, country or at best a continent, i've rarely read a book which have an entire world with its own races, language, culture, governments with their own laws and heirarchy, a unique set of faunas and floras while also having an interesting story that has relevance on our world. Tolkien's world of middle earth(lotr trilogy+silmarillion+the hobbit) may be the closest of having this of all the books i've ever read. And i've read quite a few series, like king killer chronicles, green rider, his dark materials, world of warcraft book series, the gentleman bastard, the throne of glass and the famous harry potter series. I even excluded all the one-shot books i've read.
Um, we do have magic. Fair enough if you don't believe it's real, but we would not be able to talk about it if we didn't have magical traditions. Prior to the 19th century people did believe in it and it affected decisions and behaviour. Just like Jesus or Arthur
Strap in because she isn't kidding. You just get names thrown at you with zero exposition whether by dialogue or exposition. It probably took me twice as long to get through the initial chapters as later ones while I tried to piece it together.
Glen Cook use that kind of writing in The Black Company series as well. Unlike Steven Erikson where he does that on purpose, Cook's writing is very straightforward and doesn't have any "flowery" writing or does massive info dumps on buildings or what a character would look like. A lot of it leaves up to your imagination of what they look like, which I really like.
Yep malazan is just like a cake given by the author to taste but before you can scoop a piece he throws it on your face and you have to guess how it tastes. I had to put the first book on hold to return later once I get better a reading, I’m still a noob reading books and it was hard to read for me. Is still a interesting world to read
So after I watched some of Brandon Sanderson's lectures I was thinking about how he mentioned that he hadn't gotten published until he had written twelve or thirteen books. Realizing that I would probably have a similar experience and it would be a good idea to write some "throwaway" material before I really had a go at the important series I had in mind, I came to a realization. Instead of just making throwaway stories to start out, I could write stories that take place in the historical past of the big novel series I was working on. This would serve to flesh out those events so they could strengthen the main story better. As a result, my worldbuilding has taken a huge leap forward. For new authors, that initial period where getting published will probably take a while could be a good opportunity to flesh out your world while increasing your craft at the same time.
@Green Gobby I don't mind sharing it but I have very little prose actually written for any of those things yet. As I come up with story ideas for the various events and concepts I need to explore I find other events and concepts that they depend on and I have to flesh out even more. Throw in a time rift that I came up with early on and getting everything set up to actually write prose for it may take a while. I plan on eventually setting up a website with snippets of the historical stories, but I'm not fully organized yet. I have some unrelated fanfic that I shared on Tumblr, although I forget the account name because I haven't used it for so long. The longest stretch of prose I have is for the first of these stories involving a dryad protagonist. I'll have to figure out how to share some of that.
I am guessing your no longer in middle school, but my literature teachers assigned us short stories to write (I think one was a Katabasis), and I would suggest writing those like a novel or some form of a book.
To be fair, he does it really well cuz at first you're like, "why is he telling me all of this?" But once you read deeper into the story all of a sudden that "useless" info plays a crucial part in the story, and gives you a better appreciation for the author.
I like when authors have their characters off-handedly reference other places. It also tells us about the place: "You think this is hot? Wait 'til yo've been to Arizona." P.S I stole the example from one of the replies.
But that's clunky and cheesy dialog. Put it this way: in real life, is it witty when someone says, for instance, 'It's hot as Arizona!' or is that just dully and uninventive?
IggyTthunders Have you never heard someone go "you think this is cold? Wait till you go to Maine" or some other variation? It's not clunky and in fact actually quite realistic. It only becomes cheesy when characters overdo it and even then, there are people in real life who overdo it as well.
@@azarolizxa8579 Yes, I've heard that kind of dialog, and it's dull and uninventive. Look, there are good regional jokes and bad ones. I'll give an example from where I'm from: "In AZ, we have two seasons: summer and practice." See? that's snappy dialog. Another example, one of my favorites, is from 'King Arthur', complaining about England: "Gods, I can't wait to leave this bloody country; if it's not rainy, it's snowy, if it's not snow it's foggy, and *that's* in the summer time!" See? That's how you talk about a region, you make fun of it, you exaggerate. 'Have you ever been to Maine?' is mmmaybe funny if you're from Maine, if you're the rest of the planet it's not funny, because it's an inside joke. It's not evocative or descriptive so the joke falls flat; whereas the two jokes I gave are visceral and silly. You don't have to live or have to visit Arizona or England to laugh at those jokes.
maybe this sounds obvious, but i think it helps a lot to write your own "information dump" but don't put that in the book, use it as a guide for yourself. not just words, draw maps and sketches of creatures/places too! it's fun and a good way to add to your story when you're too scared to start writing the actual story. merphy kinda mentioned this but tolkein puts a glossary/index at the end of return of the king with maps and family trees and an elvish dictionary, i think that's okay and cool to have! as long as readers can follow your story without it
I'm thinking about writing (for the first time ever) about a sci-fi world where earths inhabitants have left the planet centuries ago because the planet was dying. After several centuries each planet have established their own, separate societies and cultures based on the stories they've heard about earth. After some centuries one planet discovers instant intergalactic travel and the worlds are suddenly connected again after they all thought they were the only humans left in the galaxy. It's only the backdrop for the story, but it's an important part of it.
Ursula LeGuin's 'Earthsea' books are a master class in efficient worldbuilding and storytelling. The initial trilogy is shorter than a single 'Harry Potter' book but we get to experience more than seven different cultures and three completely distinct adventures (with overlapping characters). The reason it works is that LeGuin trusts her readers to intuit things. She'll use a word and not define it, but you can tell from context that it is a flower, or a type of grain, or a kind of fabric. Awesome.
I'm so glad that someone mentioned her and her work. I have imprssion that she's so understimated and maybe even forgotten nowadays. Maybe it's just in my country, but I rarely can hear someone talking about Le Guin, like she just desappeard from the reading scene.
@@elentari_22 It's sad that I don't hear about her as much anymore. She even wrote in one of her many essays about the "terminal inattention" that many authors (especially female) suffer from after they die. I try to tell people about her books. There's a beautiful bind-up of her Earthsea books available right now! Don't have to buy from Amazon (I got it from my local bookseller!), but this is what it looks like: www.amazon.com/Books-Earthsea-Complete-Illustrated-Cycle/dp/1481465589
@@kathleenbrashier2579 This book looks so well. Fortunately one of publishing house in my country re-published her works with beautiful covers. What cheers me up is, that she got some of important awards, like Nebula or Hugo.
I was just commenting the same thing before I saw yours. These books didn't make an immediate impression on me when I read them, but 3 years later they're still floating around my mind. Maybe it's time for a re-read. I think one of the reasons they don't get much focus now is that they use that "older" fantasy tone in the writing style that can take a while do adapt to if you're used to reading modern fantasy. A bit like lord of the rings, but they don't have blockbuster feature films helping them stay popular.
Tolkien was the KING of world building. He got you invested in the world AND the characters at the same time. I take my time reading LOTR and STILL find something new. It's why he's one of my favorite authors.
I think a big part of it is that he created the world first, and wrote stories in it second (plus his ludicrous attention to detail, e.g. ensuring the moon was in the right phase every time it was mentioned). There's just no substitute for spending a few decades doodling scraps of a mythology on the backs of exam papers before you actually write your book. A lot of other authors set out to write "a fantasy book with a big world like Tolkien's" and end up with something very derivative and paper-thin, because they didn't have enough of a driving reason to create this non-earth world besides "fantasy."
@@imperium3556 Oh, I totally agree. But he also never seemed satisfied with the story. There was always a new prolouge to his stories. It is his world building that makes the reader slow down and read what he built. None of it ever seems out of place. You feel that every character and race he put in his books; his stories had a reason to be there and added to the story; that every thing affected everybody and every race. And because of the fast stories of today, every story that attempts to be like Tolkien's do fail. Tolkien was never satisfied and always attempted to better his stories and so few today do that.
I have seen it done badly if you lay it on too thick I can easily figure out exactly how and why the narrotor lied. If the big twist is the narrator is unreliable it has to be discreet and subtle.
Oh yeah big time. "History is written by the victors" is best when the victors have ulterior motives or there are scenarios without clear victors, like apocalyptic events.
@@DaedalusShard What I loved most about the worldbuilding there went far beyond those tropes about history and victors. But that diefic entity... Not to spoil anything, but what could actually be trusted? Less to do with will of the victors, but will and history of simply another group entirely, in combat with another, outside of most people even noticing how their own histories and narratives would be changing to fit another's goal over centuries. That is something I haven't really seen in another world's lorebuilding that much, even when there are such entities that should/could have been doing the same thing to as great an effect, but just never realized such potentials.
I think the problem is, and I learned this the hard way, the main focus, at least at first, should be on characters and most of us wanting to write fantasy and sci fi don't realize that. We're eager to get into the world we want to build. But it's a critical error. Another common beginning mistake is writing extravagant words and over doing it. It's much more important to be focused on what the character is about and who they are as people with problems and dreams, like all of us. Connection is vital.
@@johnblessing1165 True, sadly though, not everyone can be Tolkien. Don't get me wrong, it's okay to focus on creating your universe, but many young authors tend to fall into a trap of endless worldbuilding, that effectively prevents them from getting the actual story done. I mean, I'm enjoying the hell out of creating my own world, but I don't think I'm ever going to actually write anything original - but if your main goal is to write a book and have it published, you should be really careful about the amount of time you spend on crafting your universe.
I think the important thing to remember is that human beings are social creatures. Many people who are rich and successful can be terribly unhappy because of lack of good family, consistent values and certain ineffables which are missing. Essentially, you need to construct a world as a foundation or a part of the "source code" but the face of the app needs to be social/emotional in nature and pay very careful attention to aesthetics and the viscera.
True, but because of the way the story was written, the ending just doesn't stick in the way all the other episodes did. It's great but could have been better
Have Wissmart yeah the ending was a bit abrupt and had a... well I’ll avoid spoilers but y’all know (not that it’s bad per say but less than the perfection the rest of the show was)... butttt see with a book instead of a show this is so much easier to correct :p
Really? "unobtainium", "Pandora" = some of the laziest Just yanking your chain. I know you're talking about Avatar: The Last Airbender and not James Cameron's blue cat people movie.
@paula the ending was lowkey ass. azula became a mad woman trope out of nowhere (really, her friends betraying her is what made her unhinged when we've seen her get back up every time she was betrayed or lost previously) , whereas katara became the typical token "saccirfice myself for the girl (zuko)" / "the boy gets the girl in the end (aang)" when katara was so much more than that. she had barely 5 lines in the FOUR episode finale!!!! underdeveloped writing of azula and katara who were used as props for the development of zuko and aang pissed me off. also the lack of dynamic between aang/ozai made their fight seem very low stakes cause we knew aang was oging to win and half that fight was ltierally a chase with aang coming after ozai! 2D good guy, 2D bad guy. Thats why azula/zuko fight is much more revered. The finale was lowkey ass.
@@havewissmart9602 That's because they actually wanted to make a 4th season - Book 4: Air - but the producers cancelled it. Azula was supposed to get a redemption arc and her and Zuko were gonna look for their mother. A lot of that material got adopted in the comics.
I personally love it when the main character is new to the world and we discover it with them. It really puts you in the story and makes you feel like you’re part of their world!
Great thoughts! This series is so helpful. I have a really hard time with world building that either ignores, condemns, or shrinks down religion. I get that many writers aren't religious these days, which is cool, but culture without religion simply isn't real, and fantasy cultures without it generally aren't believable or immersive. Religion isn't like a small thing that just sort of happens in ignorant corners of society; for literally all of human history people understand and explain their world through through the lens of religion. It's second nature in human experience. It informs politics, morals, medical and scientific approaches, social hierarchies, intercultural relations, marriage and sexual policies, fashion, architecture, calendars, values and functions of natural resources, legal and judicial codes, personal goals, social expectations, magic systems, etc. Most intercultural conflict is inextricably religious and ideological in nature. Everybody believes in something. There is so much about people that is inherently religious (even as a departure from it), that to leave it out of a world entirely feels either lazy, ignorant, or irresponsible on the part of the writer. At best, it's a missed opportunity to explore the depth and non-binary worldbuilding we're all after! Believable cultures need believable world views, which *must* at some point be expressed through a believable religious ideology. It obviously doesn't have to be in your face, but it has to be present somewhere. I want to see how people in this world have assumptions about the universe and "leak" those beliefs in their normal life. Religion is absolutely central to developing realistic human civilizations, and when it's nowhere to be found in the world and character building process I lose trust in the author.
@@Fang_Zheng who says you're not allowed to offend people? Besides, fantasy religions are distinctly *not* real world religions, so I doubt complaints about them would hold any weight. And again, there is no world or culture that doesn't have a religious worldview, so as annoying as it might be to write, it's exceptionally more annoying to *read* about worlds without it.
@@Fang_Zheng Brandon Sanderson does a good job in the Stormlight Archives. I recommend that series as a great example of religions done unoffensively. :)
I'm a teenage author and I just want to say thank you for this series! It's helped me a lot, especially with avoiding tropes. I'm a reader too, but for some reason when I write, it's like I don't think about that anymore. So thank you!! PS: I love writing dystopian fantasy, so this is great for me!!
It usually makes total sense in your head, so you forget to see it through the reader's perspective. Getting a second person's opinion is the best you can do
If you want a lesson on world building, take a leap and start the adventure of a lifetime with the One Piece manga. It's getting a Netflix adaption soon and has moments that fit almost any category you could think of. Truly a classic in the making.
Imho, One Piece is the best anime/manga ever written/drawn/animated. It is the funniest, the truest, and has the best depiction of what true friendship is I've seen anywhere. And the worldbuilding is phenomenal. The anime is showing on Netflix now. I haven't heard anything about an adaptation of it though. A live-action version would be prohibitively expensive unless it was a one-off movie. Japanese studios tend to capitalize on the idea of theaters and produce movies with the characters of different franchises whenever they find it convenient.
@@jchinckley the Netflix adaption is 10 episodes and they have stated they are throwing whatever at it in terms of money. I do think One piece is great, but not the greatest ever. It just hits so many check marks that it's hard not to have it in the top. Recently it has been a struggle because it feels like Oda is skipping things due to constraints, which isn't a problem in most cases, but when it's every other chapter, it gets hard. All that said, I personally put attack on titan above it as an example of the long game. But, to each their own because there will never truly be an undisputed number 1 when everyone likes different things.
@@keenangant982 I agree that people like different things, but for me, AoT is missing the humor and friendship elements so stressed in One Piece. Perhaps I need to go back and watch the whole anime to find these things, but so far there isn't much humor and the whole premise is too dark when compared with OP for me to enjoy it as much as you do. Perhaps watching it again and all the way through would change my mind, but I'm unconvinced at this point.
Something interesting I find about Medieval fantasy is that it is done a lot, but often not even accurately. I feel like a lot of the time Medieval England rip offs often just have a basic King-Lords-Knight-Peasant hierarchy’s , when in truth feudalism was 10x as complex. Plus, there is so much of medieval European culture that isn’t known. I am constantly studying Medieval Eurasian history for my book to learn more about the cultures that existed. There is so much that is surprising that is never included in many Medieval fantasy worlds. I think if authors did more historical research, they would make better worlds that would be really unique
Do you have any tips or interesting tidbits? I’m making a comic, mostly so that I can practice drawing poses, but I still want it be fun in some way. Even if I’m going to look back on it and despair at me lack of skill. And I get it if not! Aaaaanyway, have a nice day.
@@erinyes3943 Go on r/askhistorians. Can't go wrong there. Herei is a fun fact, though: in the early middle ages many villages didn't get priests come around for months on end, if not years, so to be considered married a couple just had to state that they were married in front of God, so...anywhere. And then as longa s they act married they were married.
Yeah, for example, I found out about the system of government of Friesland and other northern dutch/german lands wich due to their marshy terrain were never conquered by the feudal nobility of the Holy Roman Empire. As a direct consequence, they never adopted feudalism and they instead developed into a unique form of government with a peasant oligarchy which is very similar to how the Roman Republic counted the wealth of its citizens by the amount of land they had. By combining this system with the Italian communes, and giving some "ideology" touch to it I created a form of government for my world, an ideology and the culture of a people. That's efficient worldbuilding if you ask me xD
While listening I thought of your fav. P.P. and the Wizard of Oz. They went out the window, blew into a dif world . It wasn't suddenly our world had these strange occurrences .
zahra ardiany there are multiple examples of how OP does perfect world building and it is actually too much to explain in a single yt comment lol. What Op does is that it makes sure the reader knows the rest of the world is moving and is alive while the strawhats also move within it. Along with the greater world building, there are smaller examples of it seen for specific islands, say Alabasta. You enter the arc not knowing abt the country but by the end you understand how it works, its govt, its culture, and more, and that is consistent for every new island. Hope this helps and you start to read Op :)
Highly recommend getting into it. It feels like the world is ever expanding, and if you read the manga, you get cover pages that show the states of "off screen" characters, making the world feel real and forever moving forward
@@zahraardiany9699 The anime is great for the first 400 episodes or so. After that, you should switch to the manga as the anime gets the "dragon ball z" treatment (too many overly extended scenes and episodes, which is a problem with an anime that releases an episode weekly all year long)
What are those pinkish books at her right right next to the jane austen collection? They look beautiful and I don't know if she's made a video on them already
If you want some of the best world building that is done by exploring it with the character One Piece is KING. BE WARNED it is a wheel of time level EPIC that is still on going. It is also a manga, and just as with all manga it is going to have tropes, running gags, and themes that are popular in Japan.
Side note: If you decide to read Go in Blind The easiest way to give an "update" on were your at is by what "arc" you finished. And Keep in mind this is a VERY popular series, It's within spitting distance of Harry F-ing Potter, and that's all without a popular US release or a multi-billion dollar movie franchise.
@Hans Hanzo To second the weird I will say that aside from Terry Pratchett no other author can make the weird feel so real. Everyone else feels like they are trying to hard.
@@ender4344 the non spoiler answer is a pirate adventure were if you eat a curse fruit you can't swim but you gain a superpower unique to you. The manga is the best, but if you don't like manga the anime is good enough to get the basic idea and the first few arcs are on netflix. The manga can be read at viz.com for 2.00 a mouth and you get their entire library of translated work. Again this a LONG store that has 990 chapter as of this comment but it has so much to offer.
