Bestselling Worldbuilding Tips

Smiling Ted · Jan 15, 2013

I found this on i09.com.

http://io9.com/5976266/three-tips-for-creating-a-brand-new-alien-planet-from-scratch

I found it to be very helpful.

RichardFlea · Jan 15, 2013

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 · Jan 15, 2013

RichardFlea said:
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 · Jan 16, 2013

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)

benbenberi · Jan 16, 2013

I always encountered it as, "The door dilated."

RedRam · Jan 17, 2013

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 · Jan 17, 2013

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 · Jan 17, 2013

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).

Liosse de Velishaf · Jan 17, 2013

I'd call them more "Best-selling Expository Tips" than world-building, because they don't have anything directly to do with world-building in the creation sense and they could be applied to any sort of description or info-dump, whether it be setting or plot, or action sequence.

But they are very effective.

Smiling Ted · Jan 18, 2013

dkamin said:
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...

RobertEvert · Jan 18, 2013

Very useful! Thanks!

RichardFlea · Jan 20, 2013

The door mawed open... mmmm.... now you are talking.

Gynn · Jan 20, 2013

"The door yawned open like a whore's..." ah, nevermind!

"The door slid open of its own accord", will do. :tongue

Roxxsmom · Jan 21, 2013

Thanks, Ted. Nice link, and I checked out the stuff she had linked re the archipelago of Socotra too. The dragon's blood tree was indeed very alien looking

Bestselling Worldbuilding Tips

Smiling Ted

Ah-HA!

RichardFlea

Foo!

Smiling Ted

Ah-HA!

RichardFlea

Foo!

benbenberi

practical experience, FTW

RedRam

It's a dog-eat-waffle world.

benbenberi

practical experience, FTW

dkamin

Liosse de Velishaf

Smiling Ted

Ah-HA!

RobertEvert

practical experience, FTW

RichardFlea

Foo!

Gynn

Wandering worlds

Roxxsmom

Raised by Wolves