On Writing: Exposition - magic systems and worldbuilding [ Avatar l Rowling l Inception l Asimov ] 

Hello Future Me early squad

Hi

I am here

I am here because I am subed

I gotta recommend the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik (again) for worldbuilding. It has to introduce not only a world full of dragons, but also a world full of dragons 200 years ago (1800s). Not only do you learn about how dragons work in this world, you also have to learn about how mundane life works because the difference in time and technology and society leaves you nearly as a fish out of water as the multi-ton flying lizards thing. Going in, you know just as much about Chinese court life or the British navy as you do dragons (unless you are a total history nerd, in which case you get to see how these things change with the introduction of dragons). The series also starts off small- one dragon, a Western European country. Then later on you are introduced to stranger variants of dragons, societies more affected by the presence of dragons, and cultures across the world. It's a series that I adore and wish was better known.

Same. I subscribed to this channel because he always talks about my favorite show. I love it.

Seriously, the show deserves the amount of respect this channel gives it!

4:14 there it is! XD

I’m several years behind everyone on this page and I already have this same question almost every video 😅

Encyclopedia of backstories is what Appendices are for! And are therefore completely optional reading (ala Tolkien).

True. Tim brought up a good example about The Road. People scavenging through the ruins of a charred landscape says enough. Details about the war could be a reveal later.

Poisonedblade Yeah. And even with appendices, you should write your story in a way that gives info even if the reader doesn't look at the appendix.

Yeah, the appendixes found in video games like the Witcher are great. Optional for people who want a ton of backstory. They're interesting and rewarding if you want to read them, but they don't slow down the action.

In other words, write a book assuming most of your audience is somewhat intelligent: if you treat them like they're idiots, you're gonna write a book for idiots - boring and just too much to swallow. :)

What he also did a very good job at was burning the image of rabbits slaughtering each other into my memory for the rest of my life

It's almost morning here

I did this. Like 3 days ago. It was not okay, but the story came out good so...

#relatable

It's 3:41am here

Definitely! This series is not dedicated to worldbuilding or big-picture stuff. We will be looking at stuff like that someday. ~ Tim

Hello Future Me Oh Shoot you replied. Thank you, this series is fantastic, I’ve been pulled out of school since about 2 years ago due to illness and writing is the only thing that’s remained in my mind and kept me sane.

I recommend taking inspiration from the people around you. Idk about development and world culture tho. My advice is to think about the main personality traits they have. Look at how you would interact with your siblings and friends. And try to base it off that. Maybe that can help.

Amber Beam I'm in pretty much the opposite place as you--I have a knack for making characters breathe, but when it comes to plot or worldbuilding, I struggle a great deal. One trick I use is to actually work backwards--start with the character's behaviors, beliefs, or personality and ask what experiences or inherent traits might be behind it. Say I have a mage character, and that's all you have. Where did they learn magic? The character's mother taught him. How did she learn? She worked in a library that had many magical tomes, and would always take a few home with her. How long did his mother do this? She started bringing books home to read to her darling son when he was only three years old, teaching him to love reading and learning at such a young age; he actually became quite the bookworm, spending his afternoons after school in the library with his mom. How does this behavior affect the character? How do his classmates treat him? Perhaps this passion makes him a target for bullies, which means he has personal enemies at the start of the campaign for you to use in your stories. Maybe he gains a reputation for his intelligence, and students start offering him their lunch money in exchange for help on (or just plain doing) their homework. Why does the character leave to start on their quest? Maybe one day he finds something he shouldn't have: a book on demonology or blood magic. In his curiosity and in hopes of making his mother proud, he takes the book home planning to cast one of the more difficult rituals. But something goes wrong, the ritual curses him and nearly costs him his life; in order to remove the curse, he must journey to a distant country to find a paladin mighty enough for the task before the unholy magic kills him, or worse, corrupts him entirely. I'd highly recommend a specific channel for just this sort of thing. How to avoid dumb character backstories: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BugFN73U71w.html Making a better character using quirks: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-T2wqkZNKIlM.html 6 steps to creating your perfect character: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-poNYN7-1B-E.html

^^^The comments above are very good advice^^^

I love Ellen Brock's videos, but if you stop and think, you realize that Tolkien didn't care for that at all. Not only he didn't care for this, he didn't care for most of what is considered basic writing advice... And as George R.R. Martin said, "Be compared to Tolkien is the greatest compliment​ you can give to any fantasy writer... Tokien essentially created modern fantasy."

@@rafaelcavalcantibiz yeah, but in time of Tolkien this arms race of who can grab the reader's attention the quickest didn't start yet.

Yes, Tolkien didn't care about that at all, his writing is heavy of info dump that in big parts never gets relevant for the actual conflict and sommetimes gives you the impression that you are reading a history book instead of a Novel. That's why Tolkien is actually not very good at creating entertaining and suspenseful writing and IMHO is heavily overrated. Tolkiens fame is due to the fact that he was among the first authors to write modern fantasy, i.e. a story set in a fantastical completely fictional world by his own creation, so he does deserve credit for that, but modern Fantasy authors who came after him did it in a much more compelling and entertaining way. If someone tried to get a book published today that copies Tolkien's style 1:1, including the 10.000 words inconsequential info dump before the story has even starded, publishers would reject it. I read the Lord of the Rings and I did kinda like it overall, but there were times in which I was severely tempted to put that tedious snooze-fest of a book down and never pick it up again. The pacing was horribly slow.

Rafael Cavalcanti I found Tolkien too hard to read when I was young and when I got older I chose to skip text that was too difficult to grasp. It was, to me, too much details to understand, and without the conscious choice of skipping text I’d re-read a paragraph too many times. I dont feel that word-intelligent, but I love lotr ‘despite’ the writing style, not ‘because of it’. Not saying you are entitled to your opinion, just adding mine. For balance.

@@chrisrudolf9839 Yeah, I kept falling asleep in the LOTR books. Then when Gandalf goes on for 200 pages about his adventures, you know he survives because he is telling the story. Steven Erikson is even worse. He'll interrupt a scene and talk about the history of the hill they are fighting on for 2 or 3 pages, and you forget what was going on. And he writes like an encyclopedia, so you can't even visualize what he is saying. "1000 years ago, General Karn and his 5,000 warriors held this hill from a southern invasion. The battle..."

I'm late (as French as it is), but I want you to know I absolutely love Dark Souls, and it is one of the most influential pieces of art for both me and my writing inspirations (with Berserk, of course, among others).

Yeah I always felt that either A: Midichlorians were the *how* of the connection between the force and force-sensitives, but not the what, or why of the force. Or B: they were merely attracted to force sensitives and didn't do anything at all beyond living.

Thank you to giving voice to what I've not been able to adequately phrase. Just now, I reread the page about it in Wookiepedia and... uuggghhh... talking about things like midi-chlorian count per cells, determining how powerful a jedi can be... especially with how Anakin was concieved by midichlorians, completely takes the impetus off of all the characters in the story. We could literally start talking about how the Jedi are like the Saiyans and other races in DB/DBZ. "Like: Why did Anakin beat Count Dooku in their final meeting?" "Well, Billy, he grew up as a character, yes, but more importantly his midichlorian microbe to cell count was OVER 9000!"

Imagine if the original trilogy had been written like the prequels. The first scene would have been Leia and Capt. Antilles discussing all of the details of the plans, Vaders star destroyer, etc for 5 minutes while moving as little as possible and showing no emotion. On Tatooine R2-D2 would have told C-3PO all about his mission with C-3P2 relaying every detail to the viewer, etc.

It also adds a plot hole. Why don't people take a bunch of midiclorlians and inject themselves with it? Or run experiments? Why aren't the Jedi children tested when they come in? Why doesn't the empire test every prisoner or a bunch of people and get rid of the ones with high counts? Or better yet test all children and keep the ones who have high counts and train them? When your exposition gives more questions and more plot holes then just staying quiet, DON'T say it!

I couldn't spell it better. Great job!

I got one of those books and ragequited at the prologue.

@@Fif0l which one? I'd love to recommend another one if you disliked it.

The discworld has some of the best footnotes in my opinion.

ironicallynice amen😂

@@Fif0l don't leave us hanging

Same man! His videos really go a long way to help me better understand the Art of Storytelling! It's so awesome! :)

Problem 1: a book is not the movies

+Asanjawa Star Wars isn't a movie franchise it is a multi-media franchise and has been since its inception in the 70s. Star Wars also relies on its expanded universe to explain things that the movies glossed over.

@@JediAcolyte94 I know that, but people only see it as the movies

+Asanjawa Those people don't realize how good or how vast the Star Wars universe really is. And it is a shame as they are really missing out on a lot of good stories that rival, surpass, or exceed those in other fictional universes whether that be Marvel, DC, video games, or anime.

@@JediAcolyte94 True, but that's the problem with franchises who started/made their debut as movies and games. Most people don't actually look further into it which is a shame, and it's happening to basically all franchises like star wars, warcraft or warhammer

Is he not already doing that? ^^

thats just a dream T.T

Poisonedblade no

Except it was always a part of the lore that some people had the natural gift and others didn't. 'The Force is strong in my family. My father has it, I have it, my sister has it.'. If anyone who had the will to train could use the force, this statement wouldn't work.

I never saw it as a natural gift. Japanese karate is strong in my family. My father trained in Japan and became a 2nd Kyu Brown Belt. I become one of the best fighters in CA and later went on to do stunt work for Marvel. My brother became a green belt. No bacteria needed.

@@Poisonedblade Are you sure there are no karate bacteria? Because this story sounds infectious!

Elsa Frost, funny thing is that I do have a genetic mutation that gives me enhanced cardio, so I can train twice as long as other people. I thought they were just lazy. I ended up in the hospital at one point and they scanned me and found out my heart has extra muscles. So my backstory is more like the X-Men, than midichlorians. Then I felt bad for thinking everyone else was just lazy.

Yeah, even if the information is completely extraneous, sometimes rather awkward, often comes off as agenda pushy, and is something literally no one asked about.

The Oversight by the same author is also pretty good. It takes place in the same world, but from a different angle (and timeframe). It jumps off nicely from the world-building of the Stoneheart books, particularly the line about a city having multiple layers to it (the characters interact with a completely different one than the one of living statues, but other elements still show up, like Glints and parallel mirrors).

Personally, the Inheritance Cycle was the first book series that got me into reading. I'd say it is decently well known, if not exactly known by name (most people I know who do know the series just know it as the "Eragon series", and usually only know the first two books). It's in that weird space between obscurity and simple lack of discussion.

damn, you put it so much better than I did, you also put a smile on my face

Well as a writing device it’s both useless and bad considering that yes that does explain how the force runs in family’s but considering the force can do shit like keep you alive after death and give you future visions it’s both inconsistent as well as needless considering despite midiclorians the force is still painted as this all powerful essence so as a story thing it’s inconsistent and badly written

Jenny Sweeney although I do agree about the whole richer experience thing because I think that an informed audience is more appreciative

@@momgirlcop1 Midi-clorians aren´t the force. Its in the name, midi. they´re a medium for the force, just living things with a stronger connection to the force that can be used to channel it.

@@momgirlcop1 Each time I read and hear those things about the midichlorians it looks to me like ethnocentrism. China and India never stops to be spiritual because of testing empirically and (pseudo)scientifically their hypothesis about their spirituality. Developping technical practices did not stop spirituality there either. In fact it had the contrary effect of tying the practical and the spiritual more and midichlorians had the same effect in the Star Wars' setting and it also had more effects and meanings about what kind of magic the Force truly was. I'd clearly say that this scene was badly written and lacked subtlety (to such an extent that it hid what it was supposed to reveal and made it excessively mysterious), but I won't say that midichlorians (or their thematics whatever the setting element used to introduce them) in themselves are bad writting. In fact I'd say that them not being there would be inferior writing than introducing them in a better way (like explaining more about jedi spirituality and the specific acceptance problems tied to the Force it poses to Anakin while still posing the Force, the Jedi and their place in the galaxy as being about being interconnected and how to connect correctly, how to accept it, etc without invading the rest of the story). (In the end what the midichlorians had to introduce thematically was so badly introduced that lots of things seemed either idiotic either pompous in the prelogy.)

Phantasma RosePlancton well I certainly agree on that, the whole reason that midichlorians were introduced in the first place was because they were a literary device made for that one scene in phantom menace to explain “oh yeah this kids got a real strong connection to the force”. They’re there just to explain that skywalkers are amazing force sensitives, it falls into the same pitfall as many story’s with bad writing, they tell but don’t show, they just introduce something and say this is like this because of this thing I just told you about. Not to say midichlorians are inherently bad, they’ve been used quite well, Darth palagus the wise for example and that whole shit with the midichlorians and how he could influence them was good. It shows but doesn’t tell, it gives us the story in the form of a myth or suggestion something that isn’t outright stating the truth which is good writing in my opinion