world building

[gx7]

Rohan and I were sitting around watching anime last night... at 12:30, as we're packing it in, he turns to me and asks one of those huge, thought-provoking questions. We talked about it for 30 minutes or so, came to very few conclusions, and then called it a night. I then lay in bed thinking about it for over an hour

Comments

[daunicorn]

I believe that part of the cause is that the worlds somehow feel more hollow than those that Authors come up with (in my experience). I have more thoughts but that is my first impression.

My 2 cents

[phantasm13]

Writing in someone else's world is actually harder, not easier then writing in a setting you create. You have a rule set of how the world works and you have to follow it whether your idea for a story fits it or not

[_loosie_]

I think the idea that and 'author-created world' novel is better, stems from the author have intimate knowledge of the world. They created it, they know every minute detail of the world.

The problem you get with novels in 'pre-fab' settings/worlds, is that certain expectation may or may not be placed in characters/ideas/whatever. I read alot of the Star Wars novels in high school, and some were well done, and others were either cleverly masked reduxes of the triolgy or way out in left field. That and almost every novel written in the Star Wars universe was part of a trilogy.

I haven't read much fantasy other than Sword of Truth and Harry Potter, and in both cases they are universes created by the author. I have thoroughly enjoyed both series, and also now that both of them are coming to an end I will have to find something else to read. :)

[quatch]

Someone elses world is almost always B level because you cant have anything major change. its also just an excuse to pump out a quick book rather than develop everything.

In developing a world, the author can build in story hooks much deeper. When you use soemone elses its just skin deep.

[rverghes]

Dude, you've been hanging out with the free software guys too long. Have you seen the quality of fan fiction?

Far from seeing a big jump in quality, I think we'd see a big jump in second-rate hacks pumping out books at a furious pace for some corp, in order to take advantage of an author's original ideas (a la those Russian/Chinese Harry Potter knock-offs).

How many quality works have you read that used a world/setting that's in the public domain? What few books I've seen that do this are almost always weaker than the originals.

Now, you may see one or two works that supersede the original. If we take Arthurian fiction, and use Le Morte d'Arthur as the bar, how many works would match that quality? Versus how many different versions of the story are published? To be honest, the only one I can think of would be T.H. White's The Once and Future King.