Your Hosts: Dan Wells, Fonda Lee, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Howard Tayler
Here at the end of our 8-episode intensive series on Worldbuilding we discuss stepping away from the defaults, the clichés, and the tropes, and choosing every element deliberately. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the tropes. We’re just suggesting that they be included only after deciding we actually want them.
Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:45 — 13.8MB)
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An essay question: What are your armored bears? What element of your work-in-progress makes you most excited about worldbuilding and why?
Black Sun, by Rebecca Roanhorse
This week, in a grand climax of worldbuilding, Dan, Fonda, Mary Robinette, and Howard tied it all up in a very intelligent bow. Why and how do worldbuilding choices reinforce plot, character, and theme. Avoid wiggly wobbly metrics. Make sure your time and culture reinforce your theme. Interrogate your setting! Watch out for the dragons in your painted backdrop eating the sheep. Answer the question, “What are your armored bears?” And with all the awesome worldbuilding, make sure you have a kernel of cool. Read all about it in the transcript, available now in the archives.
The transcript is also available over here:
https://wetranscripts.dreamwidth.org/191746.html