When I write fiction I always focus too much on world-building?

Question

I tend to fall into the information overload catergory when describing a setting. It's like I'm fascinated with describing the visual details of the place, its society, or the history of the place I'm writing about, regardless of whether the reader cares. How can I train myself focus more on character development, and not just descriptive worlds and complicated plots (at the cost of not having developed characters?)

Answer 1

You never want to stop the story to descrive something, be it a place, an object, or even a character.

If you can't fit a description into the flow of the narrative, simply leave it out. Instead of doing this:

John climbed atop the wall. The wall was old and broken near the top, along both sides grew long chains of ivy, it was mostly made of red brick. He walked along the top, carefully avoiding the cracked bricks, and hopped across to the building next to the wall. The building was more like a castle, grandiose in scope, yet simple in its design. There were many turrets at the top and very few windows, despite the condition of the wall the castle appeared relatively new and unbroken.

You would do this:

John climbed atop the old red brick wall, using the ivy that had grown on both sides to aid his climb, as he reached the top he had to move carefully, avoiding the spots where the brick began to crumble. Sitting beside the old wall was a castle, very likely as old yet it showed no signs of age, John lept from the wall onto the castle, catching onto a parapet next to an imense turret and pulling himself up.

You can get a good idea of what the wall and castle look like, but while you were reading their descriptions the character was doing something as well and therefore the plot was advancing.

Answer 2

I knew what you mean man. First of all you dont have to do more information than the readers need to know for the story. If it doesnt matter who is president of the us then dont mention it. Another tip is ot try to make the world building/information giving more interessesting. Say that you have a story about a town getting drowned by a dam collapse. Instead of telling everybody about the area you can have the main caracters look at a tv reportage about the dam accident. Or you can have two people arguing about why the heck this thing happened. Another good tip is to have one of the main caracters to guide a journalist around the setting of your book. A great chance to realise a lot of info that the caracters already know about. Another idea is to have the newbie (to a company for example) to be guided around by the boss. Thats works in a simular way.

Also try to reduce the info given away in the beginning and let that came later on, just before its realy needed.

But the basic info giving/world building is theese two question:

-Whats make the world of yours different from ours? Can your hero fly? Then show it at the opening scene. Is USA a nazist state? Then show it but no more. People arent stupid.

-What info does the reader need and when does he or she need it? Dont give away more or less info than nessesery. Johan

Answer 3

Hi Ashly...I had to focus myself away from so much description too, and I did it by writing a play... almost strictly dialog, and that helped a lot. The play even got produced and brought in a grand or so on top, to be sent back to the company. Big fun!
Try writing a few pages of only dialog and a small amount of description, see what you think.
I always like to read outloud too, and see what others think. (even if they're not there...takes imagination)
Good luck!

Answer 4

Try to leave your readers with scope for using their own imagination, ashly. Hint at a detail, tell the reader that there is more to know about a particular thing or person, but don't say what. Write conversationally, too, as if you were talking to the reader personally.

Answer 5

Well, I have the reverse problem.. I know every detail about my characters.. but when it comes to surroundings.. not much.. So, one thing I started doing is doing "character" sketches for locations as well as people.. it may not all end up in the story itself, but you'll know what's there, it helps get the details out of your head and on paper without taking over the story.. and you never know when you'll want to use the location again, so having it written out keeps it consistant..

Answer 6

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