Why Build a World?

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Some people do it for fun, some do it for their stories, and some might do it from a sense of obligation (it’s expected in their genre), but world building is always voluntary. We can easily craft a story using standard staples like elves and dragons, castles and wizards, or anything else we’ve all seen before. But if you wanted to repeat what everyone else has done, this book wouldn’t have attracted your attention. We can be creative in more than just storytelling. We can do more than slap together a new species after only a little development time because we aren’t going to use it much or dive into details about it.

We’ve all seen something new that made us wish we’d thought of it. We’ve all wanted our work to stand out. And who hasn’t gotten a little bored with those available, public domain ideas? They’re overused because everyone can use them. Why not create something unique, something that makes our world shine brightly?

The answer is that it’s not easy. It can be time consuming. They are so many things to consider. And if no one likes what we’ve built after countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears, we’ve wasted all of that time and effort. Failure costs us respect. People stop enjoying our work. Maybe they write a snarky review online. The more risk we take, the greater our odds of failure.

And the better our odds of being brilliant.

The Art of World Building series ensures you do the latter. It’s designed to help you avoid pitfalls and improve the quality of your ideas so you can create a memorable world that’s respected, fascinating, and a huge asset to your works. If you’re one of the lucky few, there might even be extensive merchandising opportunities if people are captivated with your world. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves or leave all of this to chance.

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