Mystic Syn
-
Posts
2165 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
55
Mystic Syn's Achievements
3k
Reputation
Single Status Update
-
So,, this past Monday, I submitted a story in a creative writing class that I’m enrolled in to be critiqued by my classmates; the story went a little bit into Ji’s backstory and all that
might share it here.. depends on what y’all want, so of course it’s set in Zvso.Anyways, we were given a maximum limit of ten pages, because.. well, ain’t no college student got time to read a novel in a week while maintaining good grades and maybe a social life. Because of that, I could only give so much detail about Zvso and the setting while also telling my story; so, I basically was just doing subtle/silent worldbuilding by giving more and more details over time, ‘cause what I was writing was obviously not the full story of Ji and we’re not focusing on the world but the story.
I got my critiques yesterday, and they were all really good, helpful for me to know what to keep doing and what to work on, all that jazz. Then there’s this one person. I mean, they also gave great feedback
besides when they confused me by saying that I gave good description and then suggested on using stronger descriptive words, so that made me confused on whether or not they liked how I explained things, but there was this one thing that just made me go.. h u h ?They start off by saying that my writing style is a bit odd, but thought it was very unique, which I’m going to take as a compliment. Then they started to go off about how I didn’t explain the world, races, magic system, etc. the way they wanted me to do, and said that they wished that would’ve gotten addressed in the second chapter I posted this past Monday.
When I read that I literally looked at my computer, then to an imaginary camera like:
Spoiler
Hast thou heard of subtle/silent worldbuilding?
We’re focusing on the story, not the world in this class. If I wanted to focus on the world, I would’ve just sent in my worldbuilding doc for y’all to plow through,, which would’ve been a wee bit boring. Besides, if I were to focus on the world, I know you would’ve complained about there being no story,, you know,,, the thing I’m supposed to be submitting in this class.
This is obviously not the end of Ji’s story; if you were actually reading it, you would’ve known or have caught on to that detail. There’s still room for me to explain the world, through subtle ways and not have a paragraph or two explaining how the world works. What I’m trying to do is make you want to know more, which – to be fair – I’m already doing since you said you wanted to know more, so ha.
I know I’m not perfect on worldbuilding or writing in general – I already have myself to remind me as is – but I know a thing or two about how and when to focus on a story while giving small, but gradual details about the world as the story goes on. Makes the story better, in my opinion.
I mean, I didn’t say my little rant above to them, ‘cause I basically let it go when I began to play CrisTales last night. I did, however, rant about it a bit to my brother, who’s also in the same class, and we shared the same feelings.
I also told him that if/when I decide to sit down and write out my story for Zvso, Ji was not going to be one of the protagonists, and he was just relieved and I agreed with him lol.
