World building done well: what we can learn from Tolkien

And we're back!

I've been having this ongoing feud (with fisticuffs and harsh words) with a friend of mine about world building.  My view of it is "If you're writing speculative fiction, you better be thinking about world building.  Reading lazy world building is one of the worst things ever."  His view (as far as I can tell) is "Thinking about world building is not what I like about writing.  Some people get carried away with it.  And I am disdainful of the whole thing." *

Which is a completely valid point.  Not liking something doesn't mean you're not going to do it on a finished product, and we all have our favorite and least favorite parts of writing.  And, yes, some stories get carried away with unnecessary world building, which I'm going to talk about in a later blog post.

But let's talk about why it's important, and what good world building can do for your story.

One of the great examples of world building, because there's just SO MUCH of it and because it's done really well, and often the first example people think of when talking about world building is The Lord of the Rings.  Now, I'm in no way saying that you have to do as much world building as this in order to have a good speculative story.  I'm saying that it does a lot of stuff right, and we can learn from it.



First of all, it's pervasive.  The history and culture of the different peoples of Middle Earth is sewn into every scene.  I've talked before about what a difference this makes, but it never hurts to have another example.

“It is said by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance that is in this Earth; and many of the Children of Ilúvatar hearken still unsated to the voices of the Sea, and yet know not for what they listen.”

What do any of those words even mean?  So many proper nouns to parse through.  But the cool thing is that I don't really need to know.  It says, "This one group of people say this sea sounds like music, and it's kinda eerie," but it hints at a deeper history. 

• There is "the Music of the Ainur" which must be recognizable and unique enough to be singled out in this description, and we can get some idea of what it must sound like if it sounds kind of like a roaring sea.   
• "It is said by the Eldar" means that the Eldar have enough culture to have their own stories or proverbs or sayings.  They say this.  Other groups don't really.  And is there more to them saying this?  Is there a story there?  It implies something deeper.

Secondly, history set up in world building directly affects character's motivations and actions.  Part of the world building tells this story that back in the day, the king of Gondor and his descendants went into hiding because Sauron was after them.  This left the kingdom of Gondor without a king, so a steward took over and led the people, and his descendants have been ruling ever since.  Okay?  hat's the world building.  Now, that's all well and good, but what makes it great is that this event has direct reprecussions for characters in the main story.

When Aragorn (who is of the line of kings who went into hiding and is therefore heir to be King of Gondor) shows up, Boromir (who is next in line to be Steward of Gondor) says, "Hell no, you're not our king.  We haven't had a king in centuries.  The stewards have ruled over Gondor while you were off dicking around.  You've lost your claim, so GTFO."  Which makes perfect sense!  He's kind of a jerk about it, but he's got a valid point.  And his take on this issue reflects the point of view of a large portion of the people of Gondor.

On the other hand, there's Boromir's brother, Faramir.  He says, "The Stewards are stewards, and their job is to take care of things while the king's away.  That was the deal in the beginning, and the noble thing would be to keep his seat warm, take care of the people, and hand power back when the time comes and the king returns."  This makes sense too!  And again, it's the same point of view as a good chunk of the population of Gondor, who are like "Huzzah!  The king has returned!"

Now, what we can take from this is that this event from the past as part of the world building 1. informs the characters decisions in the main story of the book and 2. highlights differences in the two brothers' personalities.  That's great world building.




* He probably wouldn't start a sentence with a conjunction.  But it's my blog, so eat it!