On World Building (and Fluff)

For those who haven’t already seen it, I dropped by the Bibliosanctum earlier this week to offer my thoughts on world building, among other things. Though I refer to my latest novel, THE BLOODBOUND, the approach to world building is the same in both series, so I thought I’d cross-post here. bibliosanctum.com/2014/10/07/guest-po...

When DARKWALKER came out, I saw quite a few reviews that contained some variation of “I’d like to know more about the Adali/the Darkwalker/Lenoir’s past/the Five Villages”. To my mind, that’s not a criticism; in fact, it’s good thing. It means the reader wants to spend more time in the world. If I tried to cram everything a reader could possibly want to know into the first book, what would be the incentive to stick with the series?

Anyway, as I say in the post, your mileage may vary. Like romance and humour, world building is a deeply personal taste. In this, as in most things, I tend to minimalism.