Kureshi Ironclaw

I agree that it needs a proportionate cost, otherwise it will get old really quickly. Think about the old faithful 'yes, but; no, and' rule, and how to apply that to the successes granted by the character's fortune.

I think focusing on the elements that are the most interesting or lead to the most dramatic conflict, whether with your characters or plot, is a good way to narrow the focus of your worldbuilding to things that make a good story.

It's such a good tool for it. Yeah I would note any misunderstandings like that specifically in the notes. Although sometimes I like to leave things ambiguous until I absolutely need to define them within the story. That's often a product of my laziness though.

@Ixthos how I voice the notes depends on what I'm writing about. I write a lot of setting history like it is in-universe documents and that gives the flexibility for me to turn around and say that whatever scholars wrote it were biased and it isn't completely true. For some of the parts where there is a disparity between the in-world document and what I deem to be canon, I leave a footnote to myself with a blander explanation about what went down. I find that having written the notes from in-world perspective I can quote them directly in the text and it is like the time I spent world-building also does some lifting for the prose; two birds with one stone and all that. There have been a few instances where I've had to do the notes from my own perspective -- such as the aforementioned magic system -- because there are things in the setting that characters completely misunderstand. In these instances the things the characters, and the text by extension, present as truth might be completely at odds with what I have defined in the notes; but this is generally for the purpose of mystery for a later reveal.

Pat Rothfuss is probably the most well known example in modern fantasy. His prose is very lyrical, so studying some poetry and lyrics might help you with that. The things that stick out for me in his style are the imagery and rhythm. You could always try looking at some resources designed for songwriters like some of Pat Pattison's books.

@Ixthos I've been using WikidPad to organise all my notes, so it is like separate documents linked with hyperlinks. That way I pretend I'm writing a wikipedia article when I'm filling stuff in so it still engages the creative part of my brain. It's pretty handy because I can see the document tree and search for key words if I need to find anything specific.

@Ixthos yeah I've been working with noting down all the worldbuilding after I've written each scene and it is definitely helping. The old system worked because I was writing most days of the week so I could keep everything in my head as I went. Now I'm too busy for that so the notes help me keep everything consistent in the voids of time between me actually writing.

What if she accidentally teleports herself away in the teleportation hub? From your description it seems like you already did that but brought her back to the town. You could just leave her stranded somewhere else.

My stories usually start from a character idea which then triggers some scenes within my mind. The imagery in those scenes then dictates the main look of the setting (like whether it is a city, desert, or whatever). I might do a little bit of preliminary worldbuilding to set up conflicts with the character but I'm usually so keen to start writing that I just begin writing one of the cool scenes in my head. As I write the scenes I gradually fill in worldbuilding elements that are relevant and there is usually a point, triggered by the introduction of new characters and conflicts, where I start considering bigger picture worldbuilding elements (like galactic empires and whatnot) and then that in turn impacts the main story. I rarely sit down and actively world build in a document, but I do try to keep notes on the things I've established (though I quite often forget to do this when I'm focused on writing characters). I don't think this is a super efficient way to do things, and I don't consider worldbuilding to be my strongest point as a writer. I'm usually trying to give my worldbuilding a 'tip of the iceberg' feel but there isn't usually any huge mass below the surface, it's just propped up by flimsy scaffolding. I once wrote an entire draft of a book without properly worldbuilding important elements like how the magic system worked and how the government of the setting was structured, so I then had to figure all that out and retroactively apply it onto the next draft. That was no fun at all.

I think the basic idea of this is really fun and I'm interested to see where you take it. I don't think you've quite found the right voice for it yet, but that will coalesce as you write more.

A part of me thinks you don't need to define the source of magic. As long as the rules are internally consistent you don't really need to explain where it comes from unless the story is about that. Harry Potter does this (I think from memory); magic simply exists with no explanation of where it comes from to reconcile law of conservation of energy or whatever.

It's fine to not do your worldbuilding first if you're just eager to start writing, but it's probably worth stopping at some point to codify and figure things out properly. Don't do a whole 300k word draft and then realise your worldbuilding doesn't make sense because you'll just have to spend time rewriting (I did this once and it took an entire year to fix all the worldbuilding issues and then make them fit with the story). Keep good worldbuilding notes but don't spend too much time writing them instead of the main story (another thing I'm bad at). All elements of worldbuilding will generate points of conflict that can be used to inform the story, even in subtle ways (I like to weave these small points of conflict into the lives of side characters and auxiliary characters to give them some extra depth). Cultures are not monoliths. Be sure to show individuality and variation within cultures. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I don't actually consider worldbuilding one of my strong points, I think I'm much better at character, but I hope this is till somewhat helpful.

You've got some issues with slipping between present and past tense. Make sure to pick one and stick with it. From there I think it will all take shape as you write more.

I can see it working. I already write most of my world building documents in voice like wikipedia entries so it wouldn't be a stretch to take that a step further and turn it into a storytelling medium. I think if there is enough conflict in the story and still some interesting characters that will cover for the potential dryness of it being wikipedia entries.

I like this take on it. Ancestry and genetics is by no means a bad idea but it has been done many times before. This is a bit of a fresher interpretation and it allows some people to interact with the magic system in different ways. Some people will probably be able to figure out how to use magic from outside their culture and this will probably make their culture treat them differently. They could be ostracised because everyone believes they're a spy for the enemy, or the government and military may want to study their power to weaponise it against enemy tribes.

I can't help so much with that. I'm better at writing prose than lyrics. My roommate for a while was doing an exercise where he was writing a sonnet a day, which he said helped his lyric writing a lot. Pat Pattison also has a couple of great books about writing lyrics and I think he has a few lectures up online. Pat did a guest lecture at my university and it was very enlightening.

Do you play any instruments? What sort of style are you wanting to write? A good start is to listen and analyse music that you like and use the compositional devices you find to write your own music. Imitation is a good first step towards creation, but try not to plagiarise. I often try to imitate and recreate the mood and feeling that a song generates while still using an original melody. Chord progressions can't be copyrighted so go nuts and steal any that you like -- same with drum grooves and rhythms. The most important thing is to trust your ears. If something sounds right, it is right, and don't let any sort of theory knowledge or whatever tell you otherwise.

Every Bari sax player I've met is female. Am I doing this wrong?

Vexed

I don't understand what is happening but I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it somehow.

I think Brandon will show a wedding ceremony when it reveals something or foreshadows something that cannot be shown anywhere else in the story. He talks a lot in his writing lectures about scenes serving multiple functions and I doubt a marriage scene which only does a bit of worldbuilding around marriages, and shows some characters' internal reactions, would satisfy that for him. There would have to be something important in the ceremony, like a clue that foreshadows a later reveal, to make it worthwhile. I don't want to speak too much on Brandon's behalf but I understand how he puts together his stories. If we know the wedding is going to go ahead without a hitch, we don't need to be shown it because the wedding scene won't advance any plotlines. We only need to be shown a wedding scene if something goes wrong, like with Wax and Steris, because that actually moves the plot forward. Don't get me wrong though. I would have liked to see Shallan and Adolin's wedding. It would have been a nice denouement to wind down at the end of Oathbringer. But the book was simply too big to fit it (though at the size it was, what would another 3000 word scene do eh?).

All of the old writing excuses episodes are archived on the writing excuses website. They're great for binge-listening.

I listened to the Interstellar soundtrack a few times while I was reading and it seemed to make it easier for me to immerse myself in the story.

I enjoyed Skyward way more than I expected. I definitely agree that it is probably Brandon's strongest non-cosmere novel. It was a tad predictable and nothing really surprised my except the But I don't think that was necessarily a bad thing as I was more invested in how Spensa was maturing as a character. The only thing I didn't really like was some of the banter between the characters. Most of it was good, but Brandon has a certain style of banter that sometimes falls flat for me, though I can't quite articulate why just yet. Other than that, I'm excited for the sequels.

I'd probably go with Shredder. Maybe Tyger.