Worldbuilding vs Character

 

Nothing is more fiendish for a writer than the dreaded writer’s block. When it rears its ugly head and roars, writers all over find themselves afflicted by apathy and discouragement for writing. When you encounter writer’s block, not much gets done.

 

Over the past few weeks, I’ve encountered this foul beast. I’ve been working on a fantasy story for the past few weeks. I started the project back in September/October and I took a break from it until now because I’ve been wanting to work on it.

 

However, diving back into the story was difficult for me. And for this, I blame Tolkien, because I’ve been reading so much of him lately.

 

If you have ever read Tolkien and his The Lord of the Rings trilogy, then you know how detailed and intricate his world is. He puts in everything. Histories, backstories for characters, geography, mythology. Being exposed to this, I felt to a certain extent my fantasy world also had to have all these elements. I had to build my world, in a sense, before I could finish my story. 

 

However, worldbuilding isn’t my favorite thing to do. While I enjoy making little maps and cultures for my imaginary world, it’s not what I love to do in essence when writing a book or short story. Soon, I found myself overwhelmed trying to create a living, breathing world in which my story was taking place. In a way, it was paralyzing. 

 

Then I remembered something about my stories. I remembered that my stories tend to be more than anything else driven by the characters in them. For me, it’s not about the world that the characters live in that makes me want to write, but the characters themselves.

 

So I’ve been focusing on the essence of the characters that live within the pages of my story, and by doing so, I see both a plot and a world start to emerge. By detailing the lives of my characters, I have inadvertently been creating my world as well, because as my characters interact with each other and their surroundings, the world begins to take shape. 

 

Now when I write, I find that writer’s block has been banished. I am continually working on the story and enjoying it immensely. Ideas are spilling from my brain onto the page, and whenever I get a chance to put a few words down, I make sure that I do so. 

 

This experience has made me realize that every writer works differently. Some writers love to world build, while others like myself rather spend more time on the characters. At the end of the day, a writer has to find what works for them and execute it to the best of their ability. Find whatever path or avenue that keeps you writing and keeps giving life to your story. 

 

As always, happy reading, and happy writing.