Hiding the Worldbuilding Iceberg
“I want to elaborate on this tonight after work,” I told Twitter, as I QT’d @PaulJessup sharing Lincoln Michel’s article “Worldbuilding Doesn’t Need to Build Everything.”
After my book came out, I learned that worldbuilding is oneof my strengths. This shouldn’t have surprised me. When entering college, Irationalized studying aerospace engineering as a means not only to get a dayjob but also to “write better science fiction.” I thought studying aerospacewould help me with world building—and it has in many unexpected ways.
Despite that intentional selection and the years I’ve putinto developing the Project Black Book world, I don’t yet think criticallyabout what to include or exclude as far as details when I’m drafting. I knowwhat information is important to my characters in the moment, and my firstdrafts follow their trains of thought. Since that leaves my poor alpha readerslost and confused, I’m working on elaborating the details that the reader needsto understand.
But the Percallans who get referenced as Gertewet allies in Rightsof Use? No one needs to know that yet.
The scuffles that grounded the motherships in book 2? Notrelevant to that plot.
In various writing groups, I’ve been called out forinfodumping so many times that I now err on the side of too little information.There is a balance of how much of the worldbuilding iceberg to show, and that balanceis going to be different for every author, maybe every world that authorwrites.
I think Lincoln Michel’s worldbuilding essay is great, but asan Extended Universe fan, I’m going to have to disagree with their assessment ofStar Wars. Yes, the throwaway lines in the original trilogy are part of whatmake it feel so rich, but prequels to explain aspects of a thing can bewonderfully entertaining. (Unless it’s Prelude to Foundation.) Myproblem is that, too often, prequels don’t continue to expand by adding thesame proportion of throwaway lines. This is a whole new universe! You shouldn’treach the limits of new things until your stories have covered lifetimes. That’sone of the things the old Extended Universe (or the best parts of it) didreally well: continue to add the little details. Continue to not tie up everyloose end.
Michel’s “world seeds” approach is interesting, but it woulddrive me crazy to work that way. I need to delve deep into how my world worksand how the elements interrelate. I need to understand what medical access isavailable on each planet, how they handle their sewage, where their water comesfrom, and what their gender distribution is and what they tell themselves aboutthat. I’m a woman in STEM. I need to thoroughly understand everything I’m saying,and I will tell you only the part of it that is relevant in this particularmoment.
Maybe in time, I’ll be less terse.
