5 things every world builder should do more of (Based on the Giant Fantasy Survey)
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- Опубліковано 1 лип 2024
- What do readers really want from fantasy world building? How much do they care about the words you put on the page? What tropes do they really love? All those questions and more are answered today based on the Giant Fantasy Survey!
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Chapters
0:00 Crowd Sourced
1:19 Survey Background
3:11 By the Numbers
5:23 #1 Layers
8:29 #2 Integrated Magic
10:03 #3 Characters
15:52 #4 Thematic Depth
20:47 #5 Beloved Tropes
#justintimeworlds #mariemullany #worldbuilding #fantasy #fantasyworldbuilding #lore #fantasylore
The tropes really surprised me. What about the results from the survey surprised you?
Tropes are like spices; if you don't use them in the right amounts, they overpower the flavor of the dish.
And if you don't use them at all your dish is bland
A really memorable way to handle prophesy is to have not just different interpretations but flat out competing prophesies. I remember a shot story I read had a pair of prophesies one saying that the viewpoint character couldn't fail and the second saying he would, the interesting thing though is that the two prophesies called him by his two different names. So the turning point came down to a duel with a family member and which of these two people did he choose to be.
Great example. Competing prophecy is a fantastic adaptation of the trope. It’s like a built in conflict generator 😏😁
Be very proud of how cool your project was!
In my day job, I'm a physicist and I've had training in statistical analysis as well. I appreciate the explanation at the beginning introducing your analysis.
Mam, you have some of the most insightful, well referenced, and intuitive knowledge on world building and writing I have ever encountered. Absolutely incredible. Thank you for the advice. I've been world building a d&d campaign for roughly 6 years. Your videos have helped me flesh out the skeleton of my story which I had been neglecting. My original story felt more like a book, and now I'm genuinely inclined to make it so. Thank you again.
You're very welcome :)
Omg I love the anachronism part! Everything ive seen thus far says to not use any modern language in medieval fantasy. And since my story is mesolithic im like seesh idk how to let my characters talk. Now im just gonna go with them saying words like "hey" and "yeah"
It’s very liberating to hear from real readers ☺️
@@JustInTimeWorlds FR! Tysm for doing this. This channel is straight 🔥 and I appreciate the free knowledge
Well then, you HAVE to write a magic system based on math. I was so disappointed Yoon Ha Lee ended up never quite using the calendrical one of the Hexarchate. There's bits and pieces throughout the series but so little that it's not satisfying. It's like they made it and then never quite knew what to do with it. Make us a big juicy magic system deconstructed into the world, oh, ArchStatistician!
Heh. I have actually played around with it. If I can come up with a good story for it, I might well write something for it.
@@JustInTimeWorlds Maybe it would help to combine a second known element. I'm writing a story where they write equations of motion for tarot-themed powers using heraldic elements that correspond to their lineages (a heraldic tarot), and the plot itself is a mystery around two characters, one whose powers should be different and one who shouldn't have powers but does. And they discover the magic is "broken" in an unexpected way. Maybe bringing a second element on top of the math could help you find an interesting conflict that isn't war. For instance, humorous fantasy like Terry Pratchett doesn't seem to sell very well but maybe a dark academia where the chancellor just died and the provost, the dean, and other high ranking staff employ similarly backstabby tactics with those in the Unseen University to win elections and prevent each other from being elected. For instance the ArchStatistician can cast regression to the mean on other people's elections to prevent them from coming to power. In a humorous one, the number theorist can cast modular curves on a meeting, which only creates circular thinking for a brief time but has the huge side effect of boring everyone to sleep, and occasionally to death. And of course, each of the mathematicians vying for power has a secret plan for after they win.
Good call to try and give data driven advice! 👍
Thanks :)
Great video as always!
Thanks ☺️
These videos have definitely been very insightful. Thanks for the great work!
You’re very welcome.
Wonderful channel. Thank you for what you do :)
My pleasure :)
great stuff, counterpoint tho. people dont know what they want and surveys are inherently biased because everyone is more worried about what the response will be than they are in being honest 😅
Heh, true. But that's also why I read for negative responses too. In my video on that, I do indeed point out that readers are like cats. One moment they love a thing, the next your hand is getting ripped apart.
amazing video as usual. But now I'm curious, is there a good femme fatale from a book to take as refference?
Melisande Shahrizai would be my choice. I made a video about her here: ua-cam.com/video/LKE7G6XUvi0/v-deo.html
Lol the bird from intro scared me! I thought another flew into my room
😬 sorry :)
@@JustInTimeWorlds lol nw. I had a good laugh after I realized
Picture of a pretty layered cake.
Me: Cake? Readers love cake... Me too!
Layered Worlds:......
Me: Oh. Duh 😅
Tbf it was a great looking cake.
I am not sure if I can agree with you on the growth arc, I mean a very common pattern is that the hero first has to fall before they can rise to their true potential. But that would not work if the character starts at rock bottom. Thus I think I go on this with Kurt Vonnegut who talked about character arcs in that up an down manner decades ago. For me just growth without any fall will feel hollow.
I think it depends on the type of growth arc. For some character arcs, showing the fall works well. For others, starting at the character's lowest point, right after their fall, is better. For example, with Mizu from Blue Eye Samurai, we start the story when she has already fallen. She is a revenge hungry warrior at the peak of her powers when we meet her and her fall to the driving force of vengeance is gradually shown to us through flashbacks. Her growth arc (rising above revenge and thinking about others) works great because we can clearly see at the end of the season how much she has grown. And her growth is shown in forward and back steps (which I always recommend for the growth arc itself. Take two steps forward, one step back). As long as the reader (or viewer) feels the growth arc down to their bones, where you start isn't that material.
Wow I didn't expect to be going against the zeitgeist so much w/ regards to lvl of fantasy people want. I guess I'm a bit bored w/ powers and magic systems taking the majority of an author's time and effort when worldbuilding. There have been a few times that I feel like the author had a cool concept of a world/magic system and fit a story around it and it just didnt work for me.
Hey if we all liked the same stuff it would be boring AF 😁 There’s a market for everything, just some markets are bigger than others.
@@JustInTimeWorlds For sure! Its just always interesting to learn just how different I had been feeling about this. This will help a lot w/ building out my own world's fantastical elements (for my TTRPG so not exactly the same but close enough).
I like a hero that resembles Abraham Lincoln, a physically capable pioneer with a voracious appetite for reading and a strong sense of morality, but of homely appearance and of minimal resources.
theme is a tricky one. It can be too easy to get off the point. I'm working with an order vs chaos theme but it keeps straying into individualism, which is related, but not the point.
Ain't that the truth. I've had a few wrestling matches with my theme.