Setting Search FAQ?

[Jürgen Hubert]

I'm trying to help someone with his worldbuilding efforts, and I've suggested to him that, as an exercise, he should write up a summary of his world just as if it were a proposal for Wizards of the Coast's Setting Search - this should help him focus on what the core ideas and elements of his setting are.

But... wasn't there an "unofficial FAQ" floating around that explained the questions of the template in more depth? Does anyone still have the link to this FAQ?

 

[Dragon-Slayer]

This is not a FAQ, but it is a helpful Yahoogroup on world/setting creation:

World-Create

Hope that is of some help.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

This is not a FAQ, but it is a helpful Yahoogroup on world/setting creation:

World-Create

Hope that is of some help.

Thanks - I can use that for my own worldbuilding efforts.

However, I wanted to look for that FAQ because writing his setting into a one-page proposal might help him clarify just what his setting was all about - and how to write that into short, concise paragraphs. And therefore I'm still looking for it - perhaps it is buried somewhere in the archives of these message boards?


As a side note, I remember many would-be writers who entered the Setting Search complained that one page was too little space to encompass all the ideas in the setting. At the time, I thought in a similar way, but just wrote it up to the limitations of the jury who had to look at all the proposals - they would have been overwhelmed if everyone just sent in a manuscript of whatever length they were comfortable with.

But now that I've had some more experience with setting design, I've come to realize that this is only one part of the story. Now I think that if you can't wow potential customers with a one-page summary of your setting, then how are you going to do it with a dozen pages? Or a hundred? I think that being able to distill the essence of your setting into a single page really helps you focus on what the very core of your setting is. If you've been able to do that, you are halfway there - now you only need to write up all the details.


Sorry for the rambling. Anyway, if anyone can find the unofficial FAQ, I'd be much obliged...

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

(bump)

No one?

C'mon, I'm pretty sure that it was available here on ENWorld somewhere!

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Ignore: I thought the question was for the content of the template...

 

[Darklone]

Jürgen, perhaps you could send an email to the Giant in the Playground (Order of the Stick webcomic, google finds it)... since he was one of the last three, he should have that stuff somewhere

 

[Knight Otu]

... since he was one of the last three, he should have that stuff somewhere

First three.

The only FAQ that talks about the questions is here (2nd post), but it really only talks about question #2 in more detail. Maybe there is another thread giving more detail.