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comicteaparty · 4 years

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October 26th-November 1st, 2019 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from October 26th, 2019 to November 1st, 2019. The chat focused on the following question:

Describe your process for world-building. How do you go about it both outside and inside the story?

The Q - working on WAYFINDERS

Oooooh, last time it was @Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS 's time to shine, but this time it's me! I LOVE world building. Who doesn't, amirite? For me, there are a few different ways to go about world building, depending on what I need the world for. For general solo-projects, it usually starts with a QUESTION ("What if the world was turned on its side?") - and then we build from there. WAYFINDERS (working title) started as a D&D campaign. I knew I wanted 1) lots of islands and 2) weird magic effects on the islands. That was it. Luckily I had the absolute luxury of PLAYERS to help shape the world: - one wanted to be a trickery cleric, so I created a pantheon of gods - one wanted a warlock of the Great Old One, so I [spoilers] and created an eldritch-type patron - one wanted to be a frankenstein's monster-type girl, created in a lab, so I stared into nothing for a few days and then integrated laboratories and science projects - they all wanted to be casters, so I made magic an important, integral part of the world and plot (and I made them a barbarian friend so they wouldn't, you know, die immediately) From there, the ball rolls: Why would there be labs creating people? Answer: there was recently a war and wars need soldiers. How do people worship the pantheon of gods? How long has the war been going on? What does the Great Old One-patron have to do with anything? You answer one question and new questions arise. Then you answer those. Suddenly, you have a rich world with countries, trade routes, a magic system, a way to cheat the magic system, politics, architectural styles, divine intrigue, etc. etc. etc. ... Then you make a comic out of it.

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

To add design wise to world building! Since there is 2 countries, I wanted each country to have their own feel, their own design, in buildings and furniture so unconscious we can show what islands belongs to what territory because of that! So especially, how would the countries build kitchens, what is a living space like, for both poor and rich, colors used, material used. So one country is Norse viking inspired, the other more Mediterranean and Persian

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Seconding the questioning method for sure. I didn’t start from a question about the world, moreso “What would I like to draw for years?” but the questions came from that. Why is the world this way? Was it always like that? What changed to make it that way? Was it someone’s fault or was it random/accidental? What does everyone think about the state of the world? Are there factions that have arisen from these feelings? From that you can already create so many things: a mood, a lore, a main character, a societal tone, and a conflict. It’s a huge help for starting a basic world.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Then I just... went to Pinterest Once I 'solved' the main aspects of the world, I went image-searching for inspiration. Motifs, symbols, textures, color schemes, clothing, food, architecture... Find things that exist in our world, bring them into yours, meld them as you see fit. Comic work is such a steady combination of words influencing images, and images influencing words, and your worldbuilding should be the same way. Let them work together!

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

But that's outside the story - inside the story, I still have lots of opportunity to worldbuild, and I'm still asking questions and solving problems throughout the process. Just from the questioning method, I've already created a lot of secondary conflicts that didn't exist when I started. Secondary conflicts are great at fleshing out a world. If you have an army/military as part of your world, who do they fight? If you have some sort of 'blight' or ailment common to your world, what effect does it have on society? If you have a rigid, unbending social structure, who/what is keeping it that way, and at what cost? If you work broadly enough in the beginning, you can keep your world open to really interesting changes down the line.(edited)

IzzyNinjaMaster

For Unlikely Heroes, I knew I wanted my world to be expansive and to seem like it was never ending, which can be a difficult task. I still find myself adding more and more things everyday. Such as: how does the magic work in the world? What gods do everyone worship? Are there any major conflicts in the land? Who is the nobility in charge of the land? What languages are spoken? Not to be spoilery but I've even developed drugs that are used and people's reaction to it in different areas in the world.

Right now I've really been focusing on developing my pantheon and the gods in it. I want the worship of the gods to feel like an actual religion. So to do that, I've been developing small stories of the gods and how they created the world and it's people. It's been super fun to do actually, and I know it will be helpful in the long run of the story.

Cronaj

Despite writing fantasy, I actually depend on the real world a lot for inspiration. This isn't just for my comic, but for pretty much all of my fantasy stories. You could consider it a part of my style. With that in mind, the setting of my comic was developed by studying history and many cultures to begin the process of world-building. I depend a great deal on thinking about the little things in life that make us tick. How we live day to day, what we eat, wear, sing, how we make money, what money is used for, what our beauty standards are like, the importance of family and friends and community as a whole. These are the things that make up our cultures, and obviously these things are different for every culture. Understanding that the world is not separate from culture, and vice versa, is also important. They effect each other. Why does one culture eat so much fish? Because they live near an ocean. Well, why do they live there? Because they believe that the ocean is a sacred place. Why do they believe that? Because their ancestors survived persecution by sailing across the ocean, and the story goes on. Nothing in the world of my comic is random. There is always a reason, a connection to some other thing in the world. In some cases, I created a character first, and then based on their personality, I put them in a particular setting or background. In other cases, a character needed to fulfill a specific purpose in the world, so I created them based on a setting or circumstance and developed them later. Obviously, it took a lot of time, but eventually, the gaps kind of fill in themselves. I wish I could be more insightful about how I created the maps, or the languages, or the poetry, stories, and songs, or the religions and ceremonies, but again, it just took a lot of research into real-world histories and culture, and some time to think.

AntiBunny

I use a fairly similar world to ours, aside from a few changes in history. So that said the city in which most of the story takes place is largely where world building happens. I have plenty of files for only my use mapping it out, and its history. That said I only reveal bits when they're significant. Exposition really should only happen when it's necessary to share information that a character wouldn't know. I let readers put together the bits of the world for themselves.

One of the biggest moments of worldbuilding in AntiBunny http://antibunny.net/ happened at the end of chapter 5, which revealed something no one knew, that revealed the origin of the lagosapiens.

keii4ii

For HoK, writing what I know plays a big part. I grew up in both urban and rural Korea. A lot of things that are taken for granted in today's society, both in the US and in Korea (though especially in the US for obvious reasons), were quite different back then. That experience, strengthened with my relationships with my elders who grew up during even older times, informs how I write a fantasy society inspired by Old Korea. One thing that I really want to see more often in media is REAL cultural differences, deeper than the surface. (example: Avatar: the Last Airbender was very American in how the characters thought and behaved, despite the Asian aesthetics. That was fine for that show, but it did leave me wishing there was a show that took it several steps further with the culture.) I can understand why that territory isn't often explored. It's because you want to make your story accessible to your target audience. And if the culture you're depicting is confusing to your target audience (which is a very real possibility with RL cultures), so much of the story is going to be invisible and/or misunderstood to the audience. That's not a good thing! I find myself often struggling to strike a balance between accessibility and authenticity. You'd think I have it easy, with a main character who's from the US. When the MC is confused about something, it's not too hard to convey to the readers that there's a cultural difference issue at hand. But when the MC doesn't even realize he's misunderstood something (THIS HAPPENS A LOT IRL when different cultures mingle), the readers might not realize it either... Thus my struggle. (edited)

keii4ii

Oh and @LadyLazuli (Phantomarine) "What would I like to draw for years and years?" is not only a valid question, but also SMART.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Right?? I'm also lucky that my interests have stayed pretty consistent through the years. I feel terrible for people who get exhausted by their comics, and feel the need to switch to something else - either because they've developed new styles/interests, or because they didn't think the initial idea through It happens to the best of them, though!(edited)

sssfrs

I just include things I think would be cool into my world. I really like realism in worldbuilding so I model a lot after real history. Being in school for ecology helps with designing natural elements too

MJ Massey

I typically start with one singular concept that the main story will revolve around and then work outward from there. For example, Black Ball started with the idea of doing a fantasy concept in a historical setting that wasn't the typical "ye olden times". So I started with "magic in the 1920s" and what that would look like, and started riffing on two major concepts--what happens when magic was an everyday commodity and then suddenly isn't, and having two conflicting ideologies clashing against each other (Practical Sciences vs Arcane Sciences, basically science vs magic)

and I kept building out from there. How would a world where magic could take care of a lot of manual tasks be affected by it? What would society look like? Why are people Practicals over Arcanists, or vice versa? Would there be the same mass immigration to the US? What do race relations look like in this different timeline? And so on and so forth. Needing to answer these questions necessitates building out the world more.

Not all of it will be directly addressed by the story since it's more of a limited scope, but that's kind of the point -- Emily can't affect major change in her world, but she can try and solve her sister's murder case

sssfrs

Is your story Black Ball related to the line of packet ships of the same name?

MJ Massey

no I was not aware there were ships

Black Ball is taken from the saying "behind the eight ball", a 1920s slang meaning to be in a difficult spot or struggle (the 8 ball is black in billards)(edited)

and also being "black balled"

sssfrs

Oh interesting

There was also a Black Ball line of packet ships that ran between Liverpool and NYC sometime in the 19th century

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