Hello! I return your STS-- I see that you do a lot of fanfic as well as original writing, which is awesome! Engage with what interests you! I wanted to know what your favorite part of worldbuilding was as well, and what worldbuilding is like in fanfic, if there's worldbuilding at all? I hope that doesn't sound rude, I just haven't really engaged with fanfiction on the writer or reader's end too terribly much, and on one hand, you would think the world is already established, but on the other, I feel like there have to be gaps you need to fill in sometimes? Thank you!
Thanks for returning the STS!!
So, first a disclaimer: I am still very new to worldbuilding! At least, worldbuilding in-depth. I used to just make sure I had basics figured out, enough for the story to progress, and then just figure things out as I went. Worldbuilding used to be super daunting to me 😅 and still is sometimes, I won't lie! But recently I've found myself really invested in it, and it's been a lot more fun than I could have imagined!
Alrighty, that outta the way...
A TL;CR as well because I kinda rambled on: favorite part of worldbuilding is magic systems and was the whole reason I began writing Not of This World. As for fanfics, I personally rarely worldbuild with the exception of my most beloved fic (by me. i adore writing this fic) Eternal, where I did quite a bit of worldbuilding especially where the magic system is concerned.
My favorite part of worldbuilding:
My favorite part of worldbuilding is definitely creating magic systems. I love writing high fantasy, and creating a system (or systems) of magic has always been a part of worldbuilding I've enjoyed, even when I was hesitant to do much worldbuilding. Usually, it's the magic systems that get me really invested in a world.
My current wip Not of This World began, really, with the initial thought of "what if magic physically manifested on a person?". Then it turned to considering what kinds of magic would have a physical manifestation, what those manifestations would look like, why would certain manifestations occur (arms vs legs vs hair vs eyes etc.), what are some kinds that wouldn't have much physical manifestation. This then led to considering, okay, what if people practiced more than one kind of magic? What would the consequences be? What would they look like then? And then as I started writing some characters, I also started considering would these characters feel pain when learning magic? Could this lead to these characters becoming disabled? How would they accommodate those disabilities in the world?
And I gotta say, exploring all that has been probably my favorite part of writing NoTW so far. I could talk all day about the magic system beyond like, the questions that led to my decisions, like full on just ramble about the answers to those questions and more, but I shall move on for now ^^
Worldbuilding in fanfics!
By the way, not rude at all to ask about this! Especially if fics aren't something you dabble in, I think it's really great that you asked, cause there are definitely differences I think! Personally, I don't worldbuild too much in my fics unless I am writing an AU and even then, it's still not often. Often I stick with the canon world, and only worldbuild if I am drastically changing the setting. (my awesome friend @hihopelessromantics does some fantastic worldbuilding for fics though!!)
I will talk about the one fic that I have done more worldbuilding than usual for though!! It's my darling child, Eternal. It's a canon rewrite and divergence of the anime/manga Nanatsu no Taizai (The Seven Deadly Sins). In a lot of aspects, I kept what was from the canon world, because I enjoyed how that world was already built. It was one of the things that drew me to the series originally on top of the potential the characters all had.
However, just because I liked most of what was in the world already does not mean I liked all of it. As you mentioned, there are definitely gaps in places, and in others, there are downright plotholes that, when planning a canon rewrite, just... gave me a headache if I'm honest. And then in some instances, I just outright did not like what was in canon.
Ironically, for me, this happened to be the magic system. Specifically how some characters were impacted by magic they either possessed naturally, were bestowed with by higher beings, or cursed with in some way. So, a lot of my worldbuilding for Eternal has focused on this, altering the magic system to make more sense to me but also, in my opinion, utilize potential that was not met in canon. Figuring out these aspects of worldbuilding genuinely makes ne super excited to write the fic, because I'm excited to share my twists with others and get their takes on it, and see how other's may like it compared to the familiar canon worldbuilding.
I think for me, I have two mindsets when it comes to worldbuilding: original fiction worldbuilding and fanfic worldbuilding. For the first, it's more of a sense of "What do I want to see/explore? How far can I take x concept and what would it then influence in culture, characters, and landscape?" For the latter, for me personally, it is very much a case of "What do I want to change?" And I'll admit, for fics? If I worldbuild too much/too far from the original world, I end up wanting to just turn it into an original story instead. That's how I got wips like You're Something Else and The Prince's Guard (which I still need to put info about here eventually lol).
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