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<blockquote data-quote="Ulric" data-source="post: 3459018" data-attributes="member: 31441">Remember, this is coming from a professional novelist. Here are a few things to keep in mind. 1) If a professional writer spends too much time on &quot;world building&quot;, he produces and publishes a book every ten years instead of every year. Unless that ten year book is fabulous, he doesn't have enough money to pay the rent.&nbsp; 2) If a professional novelist spends too much time on &quot;world building&quot;, he may be lacking in his or her ability to plot and/or characterize. Without good characters and a good plot, no novel will work. But without a good, complex world, the novel might still work. EXAMPLES: 1) the movie The Breakfast Club. Not much &quot;world building&quot; there. The world? A few rooms in a highschool. 2) Any &quot;psychological thriller&quot; type book where the point is the mental happenings in the characters minds, regardless of where they might be from moment to moment. Etc...etc....3) Being a wantta-be novelist myself, I've been to plenty of writing conventions and talked to plenty of writers who never finish anything because of &quot;world building&quot;. Most of these writers will probably never finish a book, ever. World Building is just one excuse. Writers have hundreds more that all equal &quot;I'm not really serious about actually producing anything&quot; but I'm not honest enough with myself to admit it.Now, all this being said, I think that, in general, &quot;world building is bad&quot; isn't very good advice. As long as world building doesn't become an excuse to avoid characterization or plot or the completion of a work, then there is nothing wrong with it--and if it's done right, and is related to the type of book or setting you're creating, then it will make everything else stronger and better. So I say, World Build Away! And I probably wouldn't look to M. John Harrison's books if I was thrilled by a complexity of setting. NOTE: &quot;Spending time at Enworld is bad&quot;. Why? Because this is time I should be spending writing. But this is so much easier and fun. HA HA. Spending time at Enworld is bad. Maybe I'll write an article about it and see if Neil Gaiman will post it in his blog.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ulric, post: 3459018, member: 31441"] Remember, this is coming from a professional novelist. Here are a few things to keep in mind. 1) If a professional writer spends too much time on "world building", he produces and publishes a book every ten years instead of every year. Unless that ten year book is fabulous, he doesn't have enough money to pay the rent. 2) If a professional novelist spends too much time on "world building", he may be lacking in his or her ability to plot and/or characterize. Without good characters and a good plot, no novel will work. But without a good, complex world, the novel might still work. EXAMPLES: 1) the movie The Breakfast Club. Not much "world building" there. The world? A few rooms in a highschool. 2) Any "psychological thriller" type book where the point is the mental happenings in the characters minds, regardless of where they might be from moment to moment. Etc...etc.... 3) Being a wantta-be novelist myself, I've been to plenty of writing conventions and talked to plenty of writers who never finish anything because of "world building". Most of these writers will probably never finish a book, ever. World Building is just one excuse. Writers have hundreds more that all equal "I'm not really serious about actually producing anything" but I'm not honest enough with myself to admit it. Now, all this being said, I think that, in general, "world building is bad" isn't very good advice. As long as world building doesn't become an excuse to avoid characterization or plot or the completion of a work, then there is nothing wrong with it--and if it's done right, and is related to the type of book or setting you're creating, then it will make everything else stronger and better. So I say, World Build Away! And I probably wouldn't look to M. John Harrison's books if I was thrilled by a complexity of setting. NOTE: "Spending time at Enworld is bad". Why? Because this is time I should be spending writing. But this is so much easier and fun. HA HA. Spending time at Enworld is bad. Maybe I'll write an article about it and see if Neil Gaiman will post it in his blog. [/QUOTE]

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