Bestselling Worldbuilding Tips

Status
Not open for further replies.

RichardFlea

Foo!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 20, 2011
Messages
509
Reaction score
78
Location
At home - Adelaide (if you know where that is!)
Thanks.

Nice link and excellent advice for any non-earth world regardless as to whether in the future or not.

I particularly liked the bit of describing things as simply as possible and the 'door zipped open automatically' was an excellent example.

Thanks Ted.
 

Smiling Ted

Ah-HA!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 3, 2007
Messages
2,462
Reaction score
420
Location
The Great Wide Open
Nice link and excellent advice for any non-earth world regardless as to whether in the future or not.

I particularly liked the bit of describing things as simply as possible and the 'door zipped open automatically' was an excellent example.

Thanks Ted.

Glad it helped.

BTW, the door bit is actually a classic piece of Heinlein "incluing" - the original phrase was "the door irised open."
 

RichardFlea

Foo!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 20, 2011
Messages
509
Reaction score
78
Location
At home - Adelaide (if you know where that is!)
Mmmm.... 'the door irised open' doesn't do it as much for me.... it doesn't roll off the tongue ...

Lets have a go for fun;

The door blinked open (... a quick iris version)

The door kindly opened with a bow (... ooo an inteligent door with manners)

The door watched (... a beligerent voyeristic creepy door)

The door cascaded open in a shower of liquid metal (nice image, but too many words... and you need a rain coat)

The steel door flowed open (nicer...)

The door warped open (definitely not a door to enter lightly)

The door slowly opened with a sigh (... a bad door day...)

The door simply was not (... a zen door)
 

RedRam

It's a dog-eat-waffle world.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 5, 2013
Messages
80
Reaction score
5
Location
USA
Only loosely related but I've always loved the term gaping maw. Every time I see a CGI monster in a mediocre movie, I imagine that the script has the term gaping maw in it somewhere.
 

benbenberi

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 7, 2012
Messages
2,800
Reaction score
843
Location
Connecticut
Of course it does! What good is a monster without a gaping maw, I ask you?

Speaking of which, I was in the grocery the other day, and the meat counter had packages of hog maws. They were all folded flat, not gaping at all. So disappointing! (And further down in the poultry section were packages of chicken paws. Not hairy -- what the point of a paw that isn't hairy?)
 

dkamin

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 8, 2013
Messages
232
Reaction score
28
Location
Chicago, IL
Good read! The key specifics part was especially good, but then again, to write any good book, you need to have a good number of details that make the work real for you and the reader (but I can see how much more important they would be on an alien world).
 

Smiling Ted

Ah-HA!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 3, 2007
Messages
2,462
Reaction score
420
Location
The Great Wide Open
Good read! The key specifics part was especially good, but then again, to write any good book, you need to have a good number of details that make the work real for you and the reader (but I can see how much more important they would be on an alien world).

I used key details a LOT in TWS. You could call it a form of synecdoche or pars pro toto. Make the detail powerful enough, and the reader has the sense of perceiving the whole of the character or setting.

Get the food and hygiene right, and you're halfway there...
 

Gynn

Wandering worlds
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
684
Reaction score
54
Location
Noth
"The door yawned open like a whore's..." ah, nevermind!

"The door slid open of its own accord", will do. :tongue
 
Status
Not open for further replies.