On Writing and Worldbuilding, Volume I

On Writing and Worldbuilding #1

by Timothy Hickson

Writing advice tends to be full of 'rules' and 'tips' which are either too broad to be helpful or outright wrong. In On Writing and Worldbuilding, we will discuss specific and applicable ideas to consider, from effective methods of delivering exposition and foreshadowing, to how communication, commerce, and control play into the fall of an empire.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Reference, Self Help, Audiobook, Research, Art

243 pages, ebook

First published March 15, 2019

About the author

I host the channel Hello Future Me dedicated to discussing writing and worldbuilding.

And here, you can tell me how wrong my opinions are!

Reviews

[zerogravitas · Rating 1 out of 5]

On Writing and Worldbuilding: Volume 1 – already sounds impressive, doesn’t it? A bit like Critique of Pure Reason . Or maybe Being and Time , right? Or at the very least like On the electrodynamics of moving bodies .

Well this book declares upfront that it proposes to do a better job of explaining how to build a world through really good, discussed examples. Not like those other amateurs who can’t give examples for the life of them. This caught my interest right away because Sanderson’s Writing Excuses sometimes has trouble giving advice that’s really how-to. So this book promised to do just that and so of course I was chuffed.

Writing advice tends to be full of 'rules' and 'tips' which are either too broad to be helpful or outright wrong. In 'On Writing and Worldbuilding', we will discuss specific and applicable ideas to consider, from effective methods of delivering exposition and foreshadowing, to how communication, commerce, and control play into the fall of an empire.

Oh. My. God. Drop everything you’re doing and read this right now!

Right?

Having listened to all episodes of Writing Excuses published so far and read this book, I have several points to make.

All the advice in this book is taken from Sanderson – with the notable exception that Sanderson gives it for free and has spent years and years developing the Sanderson laws, giving university lectures, and creating a huge podcast series, not to mention a huge series of books from which you can learn by reading. By contrast, this book gives you Sanderson’s writing advice with a price tag of $5.95 Kindle and $11.77 paperback on Amazon.

But the book really teaches you how to apply Sanderson’s advice! With examples!!

...riiiight?

Both Writing Excuses and this book discuss how to apply writing best practices by referring to other published stories. Actually every writing advice book I read did the same thing. What it didn’t do was trash other writers for not being good enough in their example giving.

Hmm, but surely the book has examples and that helps you learn.

Riiiiiiiiiiiight?

Yes the book has examples. What the author does is put a list of titles at the beginning of all chapters, presumably homework. Some of these titles even are Sanderson books.

And then 80% of the examples it uses are from Avatar: The Last Airbender (a 2005-2008 anime series about a 12-year old) and its sequel, The Legend of Korra (2012-2014 YA anime). No wait, I’m badmouthing the book for nothing. It also has examples from Supernatural and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. What do all these have in common? They're published as moving visual media.

Not books, right? Actually the author has so many references from the moving visual medium that you have to wonder if he stopped reading around 20, after finishing the Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Eragon, which are among the first examples. (It’s around here that you also have to start wondering what novels did he write, and no, this book and YouTube scripts don’t count as novels).

Books and movies/anime have totally different approaches to worldbuilding and writing. With visuals, you can communicate a lot more of the background in an instant whereas with writing you have to decide what to put in and what to remove. Dialogues are treated differently, you can rely a lot more on special effects and blow-by-blow action sequences to create tension and suspense.

Which is why around here, the book was falling somewhere in the alright-to-mediocre range that lies between 2 and 2.5 stars. Sadly, there’s a slope and it’s really slippery.

While the book starts with more diversified examples from Harry Potter, The Fault in Our Stars, Eragon, and even some Sanderson stuff (1 example of each), these are touched-upon and soon left behind to leave room for the real meat of the book, Avatar. Avatar and its sequel are treated in exquisite detail that actually managed to demonstrate their childish plot and simplistic worldbuilding, similar to the arbitrary caste separation you find in every dystopian young adult novel, except with elemental powers. Not to mention the drama and character arcs which even the author himself is criticizing at some point.

So then why would an aspiring writer of books want to focus on cartoons rather than learning “effective methods of delivering exposition and foreshadowing, to how communication, commerce, and control play into the fall of an empire”, which are what is advertised on the cover?
Because Avatar is the teacher’s pet. A direct quote that is most underwhelming.

For those of you who have never watched Avatar (which, given you bought this book, is extremely unlikely), I am unsure whether I should (a) imprison you and pin your eyes open, forcing you to watch all sixty-one episodes or (b) exile you to the uncivilized lands where good storytelling does not grace you.

Here, the author is dickslapping those idiots who bought the book and dared not to watch AND like his favorite cartoons. His readers are less than human beings and deserve no respect. We’re only good to serve as a source of income by paying for Sanderson’s writing advice and laws to Hickson, who must be his cashier.

This is beyond despicable, it’s immoral. The book is breaking the writer’s promise by being a narrow case study into the author’s fetish rather than being a general how-to write and worldbuild book. Moreover, instead of placing a clear warning, preferably on the cover, that you need to have watched Avatar and the Legend of Korra and if you’re not a fan you better be ready to be insulted and used as a doormat, the book makes you a surprise by inserting this prerequisite halfway and shaming you for not meeting it. It must be a plot twist.

Is this material for requesting a refund or what.

If you were taking a course and the prof would suddenly come up with a prerequisite only after you paid and went to half the course, and moreover, insulted you by suggesting you’re a low creature undeserving to live in civilization and being taught the very subject of the course for not meeting it, would it be basis for suing?

Pretty much, yeah.

Again, what novels did he publish?

Ratings and comments suggest that this book is highly scored by those who watch the author’s YouTube channel, which means some ratings might reflect certain bias. Possibly some of the humor that comes across well on YouTube translates miserably into writing, which he should be able to tell, given how he's a writer and all.

1 star for the most disappointing unfulfilled promise and addition of literally insult to injury.

BONUS
Here is some real writing advice, how-to included, from Jonathan Stroud, the author of the superb Lockwood & Co. pentalogy:

TOP TIPS FOR A SCARY STORY BY JONATHAN STROUD

What you can't, in fact, easily do with writing but visual media excels at is showing character charm. It's unbelievably powerful and equally hard to show how the room lights up when a character smiles. Stroud is a master at that so aspiring writers should pick up Lockwod & Co. right now.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

In this review I wish to discuss this book titled On Writing and Worldbuilding Volume I by Timothy Hickson in detail. Hickson is a popular YouTube personality known for his Avatar the Last Airbender videos. This post's goal is to warn those new to the craft of writing and worldbuilding not to purchase this book.

First, a short summary. Timothy Hickson operates a successful YouTube channel predominantly focused on Avatar the Last Airbender, Writing and Worldbuilding. Hickson never published any piece of his own writing. To anyone with some writing experience his videos are lacking in depth and appeal to the younger "RanDoM" audience. From sudden interruption of otherwise quite well put together videos to shout DEUS VULT INFIDELS, as if that's even remotely funny, to mentions of the Supreme Leader Mishka, Hickson's cat, his videos are not exactly on par with those made by published authors.

Now to the book. I do apologize for the overall negative tone this review will have but I am of the opinion that books such as this can extremely harm new writers and cause them to watch hours of YouTube videos rather than actually writing. The review on both Goodreads and Amazon are filled with fans of the author's YouTube channel and a very critical, yet honest and fair, review was shouted out on Twitter by the author sending his fans to defend him, on purpose or not it's in poor taste.

First, let us look at the listing on Amazon.

"Writing advice tends to be full of 'rules' and 'tips' which are either too broad to be helpful or outright wrong. In On Writing and Worldbuilding, we will discuss specific and applicable ideas to consider, from effective methods of delivering exposition and foreshadowing, to how communication, commerce, and control play into the fall of an empire."

Let us dissect this a bit before we go further. The major issue lies with the first sentence. Yes there are rules and tips that are broad, but I'd never say that they are wrong. It depends of course on what advice author is referring to. Is it your run of the mill reddit post or an advice given by a published author? We don't know. There is also an issue with the word broad. There is a reason why much of writing advice is extremely broad, it's to be helpful to most people even if just little. Specific writing advice is extremely subjective and heavily depends on the story you are trying to tell.

Then we get to the second major issue with the description. It doesn't specify for whom and what genre the book relates to. We can, based on the title alone, presume it's applicable across genres and touches on both fiction and non-fiction writing. That is of course not true, the book is focused on fantasy far more than anything else.

In the last portion of the description we can find a real example of what we just may learn, "effective methods of delivering exposition and foreshadowing, to how communication, commerce, and control play into the fall of an empire," describes only three of the authors videos. This is not original to the book, these are real videos on his channel - I am not sure if I am allowed to post links so I won't.

The description isn't exactly bad but in it are hidden the problems of this 'book' including what it really is. It's his YouTube scripts lazily thrown into a word documents and published as a book. It's not really original, it reads as YouTube scripts. The jokes and references to Avatar and his cat are not so dominant but still present.

"For those of you who have never watched Avatar (which, given you bought this book, is extremely unlikely), I am unsure whether I should (a) imprison you and pin your eyes open, forcing you to watch all sixty-one episodes or (b) exile you to the uncivilized lands where good storytelling does not grace you. However, as a kind overlord, and for the pretenses of this book, I should give those few plebeians amongst you a rundown."

This is an actual quote from the book. Here the author calls those who are not familiar with a cartoon plebeians and implies that they cannot distinguish "good storytelling". I find this, even though it's clearly meant as a joke, extremely inappropriate for what is attempting, poorly one must admit, to be an educational piece of writing.

Avatar is a major issue of not just the book but the author's YouTube channel as well. While I can forgive mentioning Avatar in a YouTube video that's clearly marketed to younger and writers who see writing more as hobby than anything else, I cannot forgive this in a book that is marketed to writers and those who wish to get better at the craft.

The book has 17 chapters. They are separated into three categories.

ON WRITING

Part I: Prologues

Part II: The First Chapter

Part III: The Exposition Problem

Part IV: Foreshadowing

Part V: Villain Motivation

Part VI: Hero-Villain Relationships

Part VII: Final Battles

Part VIII: The Chosen One

Part IX: Hard Magic Systems

Part X: Soft Magic Systems

Part XI: Magic Systems and Storytelling

ON WORLDBUILDING

Part XII: Polytheistic Religions

Part XIII: Hidden Magical Worlds

Part XIV: How Empires Rise

Part XV: How Empires Work

Part XVI: How Empires Fall

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

Part XVII: How I Plan a Novel

Yes, the only chapter that is unique to this book and is not a recycled YouTube script is XVII and it's about how the author plans a novel. Let me remind this is a man who has never published a book before, this is his first publication. Not only you are meant to pay for this advice, but you are expected to want to hear his personal approach rather than advice supported by various sources.

Avatar The Last Airbender (or Legend of Korra, the cartoon's sequel) are mentioned in every chapter but two (X, XIII). In most either one is listed as a primary source and in an entire chapter (or part as the author calls them) Avatar is the ONLY source, that is where the insulting quote from before comes from.

Let's look at other sources the author provides:

Song of Ice and Fire

Doctor Who

Harry Potter

Eragon

Percy Jackson

The Matrix

Lord of the Rings

Star Wars

The Avengers

I think you get the idea here. Majority of these are the most widely popular things on offer and almost everything mentioned has a movie/tv show adaptation. Not to say the author does not provide sources from other books, Brandon Sanderson's work appears quite often, Issac Asimov, Blake Snyder, Ernest Hemingway, William Shakespeare and more appear as a listed source. The issue is that Avatar is still the major source for all but two chapters. The author obviously adores that cartoon and he wants his readers to watch it, like a spoiled child who complains someone doesn't know what Pikachu is. It may come as a surprise that Avatar isn't exactly to best place where to gain insight into worldbuilding and writing.

Finally, this book has very little in it. The chapters are short (book is only 243 pages) and they're a YouTube video script, the contrast between the final "exclusive" chapter and the rest is jarring to say the least. I much enjoyed the last chapter even if I don't want advice about writing from someone like the author. The very favored defense of his fans is that you don't need to publish before you write about it, if you studied it enough and provide enough sources and then they, all proud of themselves for protecting their favorite content creator, they show you the list of all those sources.

That's not how it works. This is still the author's interpretation of those works. He doesn't cite anything but fiction, a lot of which are movies and TV shows lessening the advice as there isn't a word about writing movie scripts. Why does it really matter? Writing is an art form, it's extremely difficult to be a good artist. Painters, sculptors, tailors, designers,... and writers are all artists and art can't be subjugated to a number of rules too easily. There are valid 'rules' and pieces of advice that come from people with decades of experience. What is even more important is that such rules and advice can't be verified. There isn't a scholarly source to cite, so all that matters when a piece of advice is given is who is it from and even then you must take it with a grain of salt.

Stephen King says that a first draft shouldn't take longer than three months. There isn't a way to verify it, because the advice is true only for some people. I disagree with King's take, greatly mind you, but I still listen and consider what he says because he is an accomplished author. If George R.R. Martin came up to me and gave me advice I would listen to it, I may not utilize it but I will listen given his experience with the craft.

This attempt at a book is the same as the author's YouTube videos. It's goal is to waste time instead of writing. There is little you can learn besides how great Avatar The Last Airbender is. I voiced my view on Goodreads but in the flood of positive reviews by fans my voice is futile.

I urge you not to purchase this book. It's awful. If you want to get this advice he's offering watch it on YouTube for free. It's the same, this book looks barely edited.

I could go in detail chapter by chapter but this review is long enough.

[T.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the Hello Future Me YouTube channel this author runs and really appreciate his insight into what makes a good story and characters, so even though I knew this book was just going to be basically all the videos he's made in his On Writing series in written form, I was still excited to read it. It's nice to have the words right in front of you for easy reference when you're looking for a specific thing (which is made all the more easier in the ebook version where you can just search something or pull up your highlights instantly). Anyone who's been writing for a decent amount of time will probably already be somewhat familiar with a lot of the stuff in here, but the author explains those things in such a way that shed light on another perspective and helped me gain a better understanding of how different elements of story and worldbuilding fit together - and how those pieces can in turn be used to make your characters and plot more compelling. It's a great read for any writer, but especially those who write speculative fiction, and I would highly recommend it. You can always get this stuff for free through the YouTube channel (and if you're on the fence about buying it, you should definitely go watch some videos first), but as I said, having it in writing for easy reference was well worth the price of purchase for me.

[Isabella Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book. I am doing English and was struggling at the creative writing section. This book is absolutely chock full of helpful tips without shoving it down your throat or sounding preachy. Easy to reference and I am recommending to my entire class as is helping elevate my writing to a new level. Love the part on how to write a "chosen one" as have fallen into the cliche traps before. Would reccomend to everyone I know.

[Carl Bluesy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does happily focus on the aspects of written that contains to fantasy stories. But there is a lot to take away from the book, regardless to the story you’re writing. It has many illness that would work well in any form of fiction. I definitely feel like I’ve learned a lot from this book and will continue to learn upon further rereads.

The only complain I can have what the fuck is that felt a little short considering all the content I was trying to cover. But since there are more volumes that issues it’s gonna be fixed with these other books.

[Jacob Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book for the speculative fiction writer, everything I could have wanted. Based on the authors YouTube video essay series of the same title, the author created a reference book of all the essays. Having followed the channel for nearly 2 years now, it is apparent that his wisdom and knowledge is fantastic and should never be ignored. Can’t wait to see if a volume 2 pops up :)

[Prithviraj · Rating 4 out of 5]

So... I have mixed feelings about this one.

YouTuber Hello Future Me has a series on his channel called 'On Writing' and this book is more or less a transcript of that series.

I would not recommend this book to someone who has read books about writing before. They won't derive much utility from this one.

But, if you're just getting into studying writing, then this might be a good introductory guide for you. It has some fine advice in it, and the author explains his points using a lot of examples from books from authors all across the board.

3.8/5

[Steven Partridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is derived from the videos of the author's YouTube platform, specifically his On Writing series.

As a massive fan of the On Writing Series, I knew I'd at least somewhat enjoy this book. Its goal is to make writing concepts and principles more accessible, especially to those of us who might be casual writers or those without literary degrees.

The author does cite his sources for concepts derived from other writers and instructors of writing, and he pulls upon examples from popular media, ranging from things like Mistborn and Eragon to Avatar: The Last Airbender and Fullmetal Alchemist.

The examples in themselves were enough to draw me in, as I can dissect my favorite stories for hours on end. In a striking stylistic choice, the author's dissertations feel balanced between being conversational and intellectual, and many of them resonated as if I were having a discussion on fandoms with my own friend group.

Another key strength of this work is that it's riddled with humor. From tongue-in-cheek comments to footnotes that made me laugh out loud, I had a blast reading this.

As with all books, none are perfect.

Among my criticisms, I'd include that the book just sort of ends, without any real semblance of closure. It didn't even really have a conclusive, poignant line. It just sort of finished a thought and said, "I'm done, now." (not literally, but...)

The book's printing (to no fault of the author's) was subpar in quality, a side effect of amazon.

Additionally, the book does presuppose familiarity with a variety of media, including books, anime, movies, etc. Those without the time to invest in experiencing these references are likely to not grasp some of the book's core concepts to the fullest.

However, despite my (few) qualms with the book, I must say that this book still deserves 5 stars from me. No book is flawless, and for a debut, this book is incredible! I highly recommend this book to those interested in learning to write better, especially if interested in any of the aforementioned fandoms. If you don't have a lot of time to invest in unfamiliar reference material, you may want to pass, though I do think that you're missing out on some fantastic stories if you do.

At any rate, the author did an excellent job, and I'll absolutely be picking up his next installment in this series.

[Liz Janet]

My fav of his videos:
Avatar: A Study in Worldbuilding — The Water Tribe

The Psychology of Zuko | Avatar: The Last Airbender

SHOW, DON'T TELL (is a lie) | On Writing

What is Toph's character arc? | Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Last Airbender is the Worst Film Ever Made — HERE'S WHY

Tolkien's Philosophy: Why couldn't Frodo destroy the One Ring?


(PS: some of the content of the book is in some of his videos)

[Іван Синєпалов · Rating 5 out of 5]

Я вже давно із захопленням дивлюсь ютубівські відео Тіма Гіксона про письменство, тож щодо цієї книги упереджений. І моє упередження таке: книга прекрасна.

Автор на дуже популярних прикладах пояснює, чому якісь штуки працюють, а якісь - ні. При чому він звертається як до сучасних творів (наприклад, до "Аватара: Останнього захисника", до "Гаррі Поттера" чи "The Elder Scrolls"), так і до всякої класичної класики на кшталт Шекспіра і Софокла. Словом, це книга не про "5 способів для мотивації лиходія", а про те, як ті способи реалізувати.

Дуже корисне чтиво для тих, хто хоче писати. Чи й ширше: створювати історії у будь-якій формі.

[J.F.R. Coates · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't a book that necessarily tells you *how* to write a book - there are far too many ways to write one to be covered. What this book does do, though, is prompt questions and spark ideas - I came up with a few new plot ideas while reading it, before even taking any of the suggestions into practice.

I found this book to be well-researched and generally full of great examples. I did find that the same examples were sometimes re-used, with one particular example used to make four different points. There was nothing inherently wrong with this, though it did get a little repetitive.

Otherwise though, a great book for beginners and more advanced writers alike.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!!!

I would recommend this to anyone that is looking to go in to writing. Great book, will be buying any sequels.

[Suze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent with great explanations. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about world building and sorry structures. bonus points for making me laugh!!

[Misha · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book's rating is greatly skewed by Mr. Hickson's YouTube fanbase. The 4 stars do not, at all, represent a fair, unbiased rating.

I made an utterly terrible, outright awful, mistake. I believed that a book written by a YouTuber with no works of fiction to his name could provide something of value. It cannot.

The book, and the author, lie to you in the title and then again in the book's description. It is not about writing, but it is also not about worldbuilding. This book is a way for an internet personality with a large following to garner views. Most likely you came here, because you watched Mr. Hickson's YouTube videos and came here to defend him. If so, please disregard this review.

There are sixteen chapters in the book. Right from the start I felt that to be a little too many, especially given how low the page count is! I was right to fear. Not one of Hickson's chapters go beyond surface level. This is advice fitting for high school. Let me stress this a bit further. If you want to write a novel of your own, this book will NOT help you.

Majority of the chapters include a cartoon by the name of Avatar: The Last Airbender as a primary source. Why? It's the author's favorite cartoon. He even calls those who dared not to watch it plebeians. What a joke! The cartoon is fine, of course it is, but let us not pretend a Nickelodeon cartoon is a prime example of storytelling, because it is not.

After finishing the book, I took a look at his videos. Many of the chapters are identical to his videos. There is little new. You could watch his videos, which do include some slightly offensive jokes, and many more references to the Avatar cartoon, but in general you would learn the same - nothing, or very little.

The final insult is the final chapter of the book - "How I Plan a Novel". Mind you Mr. Hickson has published exactly ZERO books in his entire career. In his debut book he tells you how to write. I was unable to find any works credited to Mr. Hickson either, as such I conclude he is not a writer. What Mr. Hickson is I can't really tell.

[Glenn Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is a good reference for beginning writers/authors to get their feet wet on basics of world building and story construction. It has simple short chapters with overviews and examples, but be aware that the examples are also very specific to many movies, books and pop culture stories with which you may or may not be familiar. For instance there is a LOT, maybe an excessive amount, of "examples" that use "The Last Air Bender". That is fine for someone familiar with the story but a bit less impactful for those not familiar with it. There is also a lot more focus on the Fantasy genre', than any other. Several chapters deal with magic systems and how to develop ideas ... which I just skipped because that is not really my interest, but I suppose they would be good for others. All that said, it does have some good basic structure and ideas for new writers to get started with and could be useful, although there might be better books, this is short and easy read (as long as you know the examples he uses - harry potter, air bender and other more recent stories- with a few more classical stories it can be insightful for new authors). One last concerning comment, this is the author's first published book. Congratulations on that... but, seems like a book giving advice on story writing and development should have a published fiction novel before advising how... so... there is that.

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a useful read, with two main points of praise: it does a lot with a little (being able to provide a lot of good advice even if it uses relatively few examples), and it is not overly didactic. Hickson offers questions and along with a few loose insights that can help guide you through the process.

The main limitations are as follows:

Hickson uses very few examples, and those he does use are often left almost completely underexplained, or are actually poor examples. For instance, he makes use of the Wheel of Time series as an example of how not to do something and in so doing, reveals that he did not really get what Jordan was doing within that text. To be fair to Hickson, many others have made the same mistake.

Keeping with examples, it is worth mentioning that Hickson really, really needs to talk about something other than Avatar the Last Airbender. I get it, dude, it's great and was formative for many of us. But it is used as an example in nearly every chapter and honestly, I think this really hurts the reach of the book, as it just feels like any comments Hickson makes about a particular element of worldbuilding become delineated by whether or not Avatar did it well or poorly.

As a final note, and this may simply be an issue with my copy, but the copy-editing of this book is atrocious. The line spacing is weird, there are plenty of grammar and even spelling errors, and there are so many headings that are left floating at the bottom of the page.

[Steven Eisner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a fan of Tim's youtube channel which is why I bought this book, but unfortunately, that took away from my experience reading this. I felt like I was mostly just reading the transcripts of his videos and, after a time, began to wish I had saved money. None of this is to say that the book isn't well written. Rather, the problem is that Tim has mostly marketed this book to his fans but has included minimal content that would be new to his fans. If you are not familiar with the content or just really want to add this resource to your bookshelf, then, by all means, buy it. Otherwise, save yourself some money and just watch his youtube videos.

I also think that it would lend this book some ethos if it came from the point of view of an established novelist. Not to say that his analysis is inaccurate, but I would respect the analyses and criticisms more from someone who spoke from experience.

[Thelma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very fun to read. There was a lot that I already knew but some things also sparked inspiration and made me want to do my own research. Overall I'm glad I can refer back to this in the future.

[Jd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Informative

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 11 22 33 44 55 66 77 88 99 00

[Rachel Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent compilation of his wonderful YouTube channel, everything is in an easy to read and find format.

[Thirza · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, the book itself looks gorgeous. I was a bit sceptic when I first saw the cover online but once I held it in my hands it is truly a beautiful addition to my shelves. I am not the biggest fan of the font though, it is occasionally difficult to read. Not all t's are crossed and sometimes the uppercase P's are missing ink. I am, however, not sure if that is because of the font, because I happen to own a copy that went a bit wrong in the factory or because I read a book with a really nice font just before this. Anyway, these are all completely irrelevant things regarding actual content. The real question is, does it help you create stories?


The answer to that, in my opinion, is yes. Timothy Hickson's clear structure and simple language are a breath of fresh air compared to other writing books, which often contain stuffy language with too many rules and references to old books and movies nobody has read or seen. On Writing And Worldbuilding has modern, accessible examples, announced at the beginning of each chapter, and every chapter is closed by a quick summary. Instead of stating rules and regulations, Timothy explains what works in a story, and why it works. He also gives tips on creating a realistic world, looking at real-world examples to show how empires and religions are upheld.

The book doesn't only work for wanting to create a world yourself, but also helps you to analyse other people's worlds. As an English student, I can imagine that I would use some of the information given if I have to close-read and analyse a novel.


The examples given are not limited to books, but extend to games, series and movies. This makes On Writing And Worldbuilding not only a great resource for those wanting to write a novel, but for anyone trying to create a story, whether it is through words, visuals or any other possible media. The book is intended for stories of fiction, with a focus on fantasy or science fiction. However, it also contains handy tips for those looking to write more realistic fiction.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this book and Timothy Hickson's YouTube channel hellofutureme. They are both great resources for creators and for people analysising other people's creations.

[Reading Through the Lists · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read many a book on writing, and even a few devoted solely to writing fantasy, but this may be my favorite one yet. Hickson skips past vague and boring questions like “what is fantasy? How can I use active verbs?” and straight into the good stuff: “How do I create a convincing polytheistic religion for my world? Should I have a prologue? How can I make my ‘Chosen One’ an interesting character?”

Even better, he builds and illustrates his points by citing extensively from other works of fantasy (with particular emphasis on Avatar: The Last Airbender). Even a non-writer could enjoy this book because it makes you notice and appreciate the good writing and world-building in all your favorite works.

My only complaint is that each chapter concludes with a (fairly unnecessary) summary of the information and not any writing prompts. Give me a good prompt so that I can practice the suggestions you just gave me for building my empire!

4 stars. Can’t wait for Volume 2!

[Jonas Doms · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik ben aant twijfelen tusse 3 en 4 sterren.
Het boek doet wat het wou, tips over schrijven en worldbuilden geven. Maar sommige aspecten van het worldbuilden miste ik echter (mapmaking, klimaten, invloed van klimaten op culturen,...).
Daarbuiten geeft hij wel goede info over magiesystemen, religie, empires,... waar ik niet altijd over had nagedacht.
En dan is er avatar. Ik hou van avatar, beste serie ooit, maar 3 of 4 keer dezelfde scene beschrijven om verschillende punten aan te halen is misschien wat te veel van het goede.

[Riley Schlosser · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is useful advice in this book, and Tim does a good job of laying out his content in digestible ways, writing with humour, and making information easy to reference back to.

Yes, there’s some advice in here that seems… obvious(?) if you’re in the writing community, but it’s not anything crazy. I’m interested to read Vol.2, because even Tim claims it’s the superior of the two.

And, also yes, most of this book is just adapted from the scripts to his YouTube videos; however, even after having watched those all over the years, I still felt like reading it all in one volume helped me more than the videos did. And it’s a great way to support a creator I enjoy, so that’s a plus!

4/5 room for improvement, but I definitely got something out of it and would recommend it to a certain type of reader

[Giorgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Senza fornire regole e imporre divieti l'autore è un grado di dare grande risalto ad aspetti e riflessioni utili alla scrittura di un romanzo e che spesso, invece, non vengono approfonditi a dovere - o quantomeno lasciati in secondo piano. La panoramica che fornisce è completa ed efficace anche grazie agli esempi, che però potrebbero essere un problema per chi non conosce le opere citate (soprattutto Avatar).

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend of mine introduced me to the channel that Tim has. And now I'm hooked! It's become my access into writing better!! I cant wait to start the next book!

If anyone is a writer or a wannabe writer, please check out this book or the channel that inspired the books!
Thank you Tim for all your hard work to make us all better writers!!!

[Gianni Dellea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice interesting reading about wordbuilding. A little too much focused on YA Fantasy and television in the examples citeds for my tastes but overall very smart in it's analysis. Looking forward tho the second volume. I hope it will contain a little more variety in the type of literature observed.

[Maya Roels · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intens en gedetailleerd boek dat veel uitleg en praktische informatie geeft. Zalige combo van literatuur en geschiedenis. Heeft me veel inspiratie gebracht, maar was wel nogal text heavy met momenten. Goed wakker zijn tijdens het lezen is de boodschap :p

[Tobias Wallbaum · Rating 4 out of 5]

A damm good work that helpd one understand how the stories we only consume work, and why some work better, some work good and some are just garbage made by Zack Snyder

[Bert De Wilde · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best writing craft books of recent years.
Both recommended to read the different chapters whe needed, as to read it cover to cover.