All Questions
Tagged with characters world-building
27 questions
1
vote
3
answers
184
views
In my polytheistic world, how should I prevent people fighting over which god to worship? [closed]
Remember when I set the protagonist, Berta Newton (Issac Newton's incarnation into isekai), as an angel? As the accepted answerer aptly said, people will be interested in her magics themselves, rather ...
- 173
3
votes
3
answers
267
views
Can I write a story based in a world without humans?
I have this world I'm building that I want to write a story on, but there's absolutely nothing human in the world.
It's entirely built around elemental creatures including the protagonist.
1
vote
2
answers
184
views
How do I turn my Imagined-Daydream-Fantasy-Book into an Actual Book
Problem
I love writing and I love reading. I also love coming up with all sorts of books/films in my head so that if I'm bored in real life, I can just dive into my imaginary book/films to entertain ...
- 902
1
vote
5
answers
183
views
Is there a smooth way to indicate that third person pronouns don't matter so much in my worldbuilding in English?
For context, I am nonbinary, and also East Asian.
My language of fluency is English, but I know other languages and also have an anthropology degree. (Japanese, Korean, a tiny, tiny bit of Mandarin, ...
5
votes
3
answers
1k
views
How do you know if your story is too complicated or just complicated enough?
I've been working on my current story for almost a year. It's a great story but at times it seems really complicated. How complicated is too complicated in a story?
- 51
2
votes
2
answers
205
views
How would the "one good member" of an evil organization/culture see themselves?
I have a character that is the stereotypical "token good member of an evil organization". The organization is a brutal social darwinist one that sees nothing wrong with killing people and ...
- 4,664
18
votes
13
answers
13k
views
For a fantasy world, what word can I use instead of "human" in order to include elves, dwarves, etc.?
I've been creating this fantasy world where many different races coexist, so most aren't human. I'm trying to write all the worldbuilding details down, and I'm stuck on a phrase "She is the ...
- 189
8
votes
6
answers
2k
views
Is it odd to have a bunch of characters with unique personalities and gimmicks in one place?
I'm writing a fighting/combat type of story like Bloodsport. In Pro Wrestling companies like the WWE and TNA and also fighting games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Tekken it's very common for ...
- 119
4
votes
2
answers
198
views
How do I motivate myself to write when I have been focusing on worldbuilding first?
I had been planning a story/novel for a short while and started by focusing on worldbuilding. After I got the basics down, created a character (with flaws, motivations and hooks into the world I build ...
- 945
0
votes
0
answers
25
views
Is adding too many people/characters to a story bad? [duplicate]
im building a world for a screenplay and i would like to have some main characters I have already made some character profiles for some of them but i was wondering whether or not if adding too many ...
- 58
3
votes
3
answers
229
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Writing confusion in a character who transports to a new world without sounding annoying
I'm writing a fantasy story in which a character accidentally travels into an unfamiliar fantasy coded world. However, I'm finding it difficult to find the voice for this character during this ...
- 31
0
votes
2
answers
109
views
How to integrate a unique world setting in the main story?
I'm writing my first novel which is set in an alternate universe, a place which is set on Earth but in a different ecosystem where story can get affected by nature and might take the reader to ...
- 476
2
votes
6
answers
452
views
Does This Geopolitical Power Balance in my Setting Make it Look Like I am Promoting Colonialism?
Background
The book series I'm working on can basically be summed up as a science-fantasy series that starts out leaning much more on the fantasy end of the spectrum but moves more and more towards ...
- 577
2
votes
0
answers
47
views
Going back in time [closed]
If i were to have a character go back in time, could there be a rule for having only one world exist? So if she goes back in time, the other world would be destroyed? Could that potentially happen, so ...
- 21
2
votes
1
answer
243
views
Realistically writing culture shock for this character?
I wanted help writing a character for my setting.
Basically, in this story I’m writing, I have a character named Christina. Basically, she lived in an underground bunker, in a post-apocalyptic world, ...
- 207
6
votes
4
answers
252
views
How to care about the characters more than the world?
I have a very well-built up world with politics, religions etc, that I've built up over the course of my writing. But I have recently realised that I care more about the world than the character.
I ...
2
votes
3
answers
276
views
Will an unrealistic character be out of place among other realistic ones?
Most of the characters in my story are well thought out and have realistic motivations and backstories, as I think most people agree that believable characters are important in writing (if you’re ...
- 1,006
-1
votes
5
answers
268
views
What techniques authors use to keep track of their cast?
There is a problem as stories progress (especially in never-ending web novels) where the cast of characters keep growing. Some webnovels I follow are in the hundreds!
Is there a technique for authors ...
- 1,185
23
votes
8
answers
5k
views
Dead children in pre-modern setting
The reality of pre-Industrial Revolution times was that about half the children born died before age 5. It would be a mistake to think that parents cared less - we have multiple written records ...
12
votes
5
answers
639
views
How do I respectfully write black characters in a 1930s Arizona setting?
I'm writing a cartoon script aimed at a children/young-adult audience (similar to the audience of Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, and Over the Garden Wall).
It deals with the daughter of a Bonnie-and-...
- 231
1
vote
3
answers
156
views
Fictional cultures and languages existing in the same area? [closed]
So I've got this fantasy planet X, where humanoid peoples Y and Z are at war on an island nation about the size of England, and they've been at war with each other for hundreds of years. They are two ...
user34214
24
votes
7
answers
5k
views
Character is an expert on something I'm not
My OC Edward, who I thought of quite a while ago but haven't done anything with, is a professional cyber spy and hacker. He's employed by an organization (in the future, of course) that is basically ...
user34214
28
votes
9
answers
7k
views
Do readers need to identify with fictional characters?
On the modern day many people complain about how models, actors are damaging to society because people can't identify with them. Males actors or models which are ''too'' muscular are considered ''...
user33870
-4
votes
1
answer
202
views
How could a galactic plague motivate a villain to conquer an entire galaxy? [closed]
A few years before the start of my book series, a galactic plague of a disease called BigPox is going to spread through the galaxy and inflict mass casualties, in addition to setting many of the ...
- 577
3
votes
5
answers
457
views
How to keep the protagonist from being the only interesting person in the world?
I've really enjoyed the CW's show The Flash ever since it came out, but they recently did something that kind of feels like a mistake on the writers' part.
For those unfamiliar with the show, Barry ...
- 1,372
5
votes
2
answers
226
views
A protagonist who knows little about the world he born and grew up in until majority (present)?
This protagonist born and lives in a peasant village in a medieval-like age, where education and science aren't known much. But a certain awful event occurs in this village that leads this character ...
- 4,629
16
votes
7
answers
12k
views
How often do writers develop characters before plot, and why?
As someone who writes a little as a hobby, this is something that I haven't really thought about until just recently, but...
Is it common for a writer to develop characters before actually coming up ...
- 307