How Sweet It Is To Play God

I’ve been debating on whether or not to write this post for a while. Well, it’s become obvious what my decision was. I was reluctant because this is an area of writing primarily reserved for fantasy and science fiction writers. However, I suppose all writers can benefit from it in one way or another.

In my early days of writing in the fantasy genre, I never put any thought into my settings, characters, or really even the plotline. But this was also a time in my life when I would have been a candidate for an original fiction edition of Godawful.net. Only much less graphic sex. I like to think I might have been good, but… no. Just… no. I’m not great now, but I’m a far cry from that.

Tangents aside, all of that ended when I learned of the term “worldbuilding.” The term itself is pretty self-explanatory. You build a world. But the act itself is far more complicated than that. Every culture, race, national border, and landmark must be fleshed out and explained. Despite these complications, I fell in love with it. Maybe that’s the masochist in me. If anyone else worldbuilds the way I do, it can be agreed that it’s the most time-consuming, painstaking process on the face of the planet. However, that is also the beauty of it.

During the times when I get a fleeting urge to write fantasy, I spend it all worldbuilding. My other projects don’t get much attention at all, much to the dismay of Heidegger [see blogroll]. My playlist is suddenly filled with Welsh folk music, and anything else I can find of that nature. Blame the Celt in me. I become caught up in this world I’m creating, and I get a sudden notion of how a human God might feel. The only difference is there is no seventh day of rest for me. I work until exhausted, then rest for several months, only to work again later. If the universe was created in seven days, I envy the deity who had that kind of work ethic.

I’m well aware that much of the information I store in my folders will never make it into print. Some of it will, no doubt. But a world so extensive would take several books to unearth, and I’m not sure my world has no many stories just yet. If it does, I will naturally oblige. But I’m not in a hurry to work on my first series.

I suppose this would be a good area to begin talking about my world, but there’s not much to talk about yet. This gives me an incentive to settle into a night of worldbuilding. A night that will surely end in frustration somehow mixed with joy. The discussion point I’m posing for this post is: how much effort do you put into the planning process? Regardless of the genre in which you write. Do you find yourself simply writing or is there an extensive process? My approach, judging by this post, is the latter.

I promise I’ll be a bit more speedy with the post output from this point forward. This world and my other projects will hopefully give me something to talk about.