This book book is a good reference for those writing speculative fiction, with working examples on how to build your worlds and convey on the page what your characters experience. A wide range of topics are covered, and there is a companion YouTube channel for the book (see below for link).
Thoughts from the BW Book Club
The BW Book Club found that this book was a good book on world building, BUT only for those who have a background in reading fantasy and science fiction. While the early chapters of the book are relevant for any genre, the examples leaned heavily into fantasy and sci-fi. We felt that the examples were important to understanding the concepts that the author was trying to convey, but without an understanding of the tropes associated with fantasy and sci-fi, the finer details were lost.
The BW Book Club found that this book was connected to a series of YouTube videos. The first chapter in this book can be found on YouTube at: youtube.com/watch?v=Qv9qcTbwAiw
The entire series (and other videos) can be found on the Hello Future Me YouTube channel.
(This book was reviewed by the BW Book Club in August 2022.)
Writing advice tends to be full of ‘rules’ and ‘tips’ which are either too broad to be helpful or outright wrong. With over 35,000 copies sold, On Writing and Worldbuilding: Volume I discusses specific and applicable ideas for your writing, from effective methods of delivering exposition and foreshadowing, to how communication, commerce, and control play into the fall of an empire. Volume II, a sequel with a host of new topics, released in December 2021.
On Writing
- Prologues
- The First Chapter
- The Exposition Problem
- Foreshadowing
- Villain Motivation
- Hero-Villain Relationships
- Final Battles
- The Chosen One
- Hard Magic Systems
- Soft Magic Systems
- Magic Systems and Storytelling
On Worldbuilding
- Polytheistic Religions
- Hidden Magical Worlds
- How Empires Rise
- How Empires Work
- How Empires Fall
Exclusive Content
- How I Plan a Novel