World Building
One of my biggest challenges with The Bond That Ties Us is building a believable world. One that draws you into the story without it hitting you over the head telling you it’s there. I think this is one of those writing skills that some people have naturally. Me? I have to work on adding layers.
I think this comes down to how I write. I like to start with a single scene. I can picture this very clearly, every detail with great clarity. I then take a step back and ask myself, what type of character would involve themselves in that situation. I spend a lot of time getting to know my characters, usually through dialogue. I can hear them talking, and that gives me a better idea of who they are and how they will react.
Once I get all that done, I usually realize I need to beef up my world building. And then I start to get picky. It’s hard to add in external elements when you are satisfied with how everything has fit together so far. I debate over whether or not I’m adding too much fluff, or if it’s not enough.
So my question to you is this, as a reader (or writer), what is it about a novel’s setting that draws you in? What do you look for, or what do you notice if it’s not there?
March 28th, 2007 at 8:41 am
I tend to like fantasy worlds over contemporary worlds. Unusual names or even a lot of strange place names don’t really bother me. Magic, or unusual creatures, okay. AS LONG AS IT MAKES SENSE. I want the world to be a real home for the characters and story, to be so integral that the setting is basically a character.
March 28th, 2007 at 8:52 am
It depends.. If the writer is good at descriptives, then they can write a lot about the setting and I won’t get bored and it’ll pull me into the scene. (Steven King goes overboard.) But, if the writer is better at dialog, I can overlook a less descriptive background and consentrate on what’s actually happening. Every writer has their strengths and weaknesses. That’s what makes finding new and fresh authors so fun.
It certainly scores points with me when they send their books to me for free for review too! LOL .. Is that bad? LOL
March 28th, 2007 at 9:05 am
Is that a hint Angela? LOL Cause it just might be in the cards.
March 28th, 2007 at 11:58 am
I have to agree with above. Different authors have different styles. As long as they have a good mixture of how they present the scene with what is going on in the scene then I’m happy. I’m reviewing a challenging first person story written in the present tense. In this scenario, from the first draft, there are places where the author has a certain level of intensity with the action that is occuring and then in the middle of the action, there is a small pull to the side to take the time to describe the area where the action is occuring. This is very distracting. I’ve worked with the author to do three things in this case: 1) Tone down the describing process so that it doesn’t distract from the action. 2) Try to integrate some of the action into the describing so that we don’t lose pace with the action. 3) Pull some of the description out of the describing part and insert them into the action part so that you can shorten the describing part without losing any of the description.
I’m falling prey to this problem during the writing of my own book. I know as I’m writing that I’m doing at least two things I’ll have to fix: 1) I’m focusing on the plots and characters more than the scene and how the character interacts with the scene. I know that there are many places (probably most of the story so far) where I need to add more interaction with the scenery. In some aspects this is good for me since I know that there is lots of space to add more words and build out the story more. I will just have to take extra care to make sure I don’t lose the pace of the story. 2) Sometimes I’m interrupting the flow of my story to break out into some detail about some technology and how it works. I will have to go back to these sections and rework the technology descriptions so that I can impart the knowledge of the technology to the reader without giving them a cranial short circuit.
I’m noticing that I’m starting to write a book here instead of a comment so I will stop. (My comments are turning out longer than my own blogs!)
March 29th, 2007 at 9:24 am
That’s a hint for every author.. LOL