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epic-whimsy · 3 years ago

Note

So true. Good tips.

How do you make your story/world feel big and instil a sense of wonder?

Making Story's World Feel Big

Think of fleshing out your story's world like stamping a map with a gradient circle that shows less as you move out from the center:

The most important part of your story's world is at the center, and it's the most fleshed out. Then, you do a little bit of fleshing out of the areas immediately surrounding your story's world, but you don't go into too much detail. In that outer ring, you're not really fleshing out. If your story takes place entirely in a kingdom, the kingdom is the part of the world you should flesh out the most. But you also probably want to establish the existence of neighboring kingdoms, perhaps through the conflict, related politics, or where characters are from or have visited. Finally, you want to make reference to farther flung places--places that aren't important to the story, but are part of the greater world. These places can be referred to in your story's mythology and folk tales, perhaps distant history, or even via trade or historical conflicts.

By doing this, you can expand the borders of your story's world without taking the focus off the part of the world that's actually important to the story.

A great example of this in practice is George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. The series takes place mostly on the continent of Westeros and partly on the continent of Essos, so Westeros is the most fleshed out, followed by Essos. The Summer Sea islands are mostly referred to in historical back story and as a location people are from or have visited, so they aren't fleshed out much beyond those references. One of the secondary characters is from an island in the Summer Sea, so that allows this particular island (and thus the Summer Sea in general) to be fleshed out a tiny bit more. Sothoryos is the continent south of Essos, and is only referenced a few times, pointed out on a map, briefly mentioned as a place a character had visited, where minor characters were from, or referenced because of an item imported from that land. Even though the reader never sets foot in these places, knowing they're out there and having some association with them helps to make the story's world feel big without taking the focus away from Westeros and Essos, where the story actually plays out.

The sense of wonder comes partly from the mystery of that world lurking beyond, but also the possibilities that lie with in it. And, more than anything else, you can instill that sense of wonder by making sure the parts of the world you actually flesh out are unique, compelling, and feel relevant to the story.

I hope that helps!

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