Snoopy Of The Day

Conveying Worldbuilding Without Exposition!

(As requested by both an anon and @my-words-are-light​)

One of the hardest parts of writing speculative fiction is presenting readers with a world that’s interesting and different from our own in a way that’s both immersive and understandable at the same time. 

Thankfully, there are a few techniques that can help you present worldbuilding information to your readers in a natural way, as well as many tricks to tweaking the presentation until it’s just right.

Four basic techniques:

1. The ignorant character. 

By introducing a character who doesn’t know about the aspects of the world building you’re trying to convey, you can let the ignorant character voice the questions the reader naturally wants to ask. Traditionally, this is seen when the protagonist or (another character) is brought into a new world, society, organization. In cases where that’s the natural outcome of the plot, and the character has a purpose in the story outside of simply asking questions, it can be pulled off just fine. But there’s another aspect to this which writers don’t often consider: 

Every character is your ignorant character. 

In a realistic world, no person knows everything. Someone will be behind on the news. Someone won’t know all the facts. Many, many someones won’t have studied a common part of their society simply because they aren’t large part of that fraction or don’t have the time for it.

Instead of inserting an ignorant character and creating a stiff and annoying piece of expository dialogue, find the character already existing in the story who doesn’t know about the thing being learned.

2. Conflicting opinions.

A fantastic way to convey detailed world building concepts is to have characters with conflicting viewpoints discuss or argue about them. Unless you’re working with a brainwashed society, every character should hold their own set of religious, political, and social beliefs. 

Examples of this kind of dialogue:

Seguir leyendo

people

some fucking resources for all ur writing fuckin needs

* body language masterlist

* a translator that doesn’t eat ass like google translate does

* a reverse dictionary for when ur brain freezes

* 550 words to say instead of fuckin said

* 638 character traits for when ur brain freezes again

* some more body language help

(hope this helps some ppl)

i post for the girls who used to read obsessively but can no longer pick up a book and also are no longer girls

my favorite love language is trying, actually

im sorry but this timing is way too funny do you understand how fucking insane it is to be a jujutsu kaisen AND a bungou stray dogs fan in this day september 20th 2023. it feels like bones did this on purpose oh my god im pissing myself

the fact that adam is the one who tells us "[Ronan's] code of honor left no room for infidelity, for casual relationships. it wasn't that he didn't condone them; he couldn't understand them." will forever get me like adam is always reiterating ronan's capacity for love and intense devotion without even knowing that he PRAYED FOR HIM ON FIRST SIGHT.... & then he takes the time to completely process that before allowing himself to be with ronan (this didn't feel like a game and ASKING GANSEY ABT LOVE AFTER THEIR FIRST KISS) knowing how badly he wanted to accept it but wanting to be sure that he could return it. he approaches it differently but every bit as seriously as ronan does. bc it means so much to both of them, it isn't a game, they both know what this will be if they let it. who has he ever had to love him ever adam parrish is loved by someone that he himself has described multiple times as being intensely and singularly dedicated to what he loves, and expressing that love without restraint on a level adam marvels at. it is literally like nothing adam has ever known and every ounce of it is directed right at him.

why did God give me these battles (getting dressed and leaving the house)

Mitski for Pitchfork // Richard Siken for TinHouse

How will the world end?

it’s genuinely not something i think too much about. there are people to love and dishes to do in the meantime.