D&D
It was very spontaneous, Steph, no worries. No introspection here.
One of the fun things about Dungeons and Dragons--the most fun thing, if you have my mindset--is inventing worlds. It's a lot of work. To take only a tiny example, even a very simple language would probably take weeks to make semi-functional.
I wonder sometimes if Tolkein hasn't put the fantasy community up a false path in this respect. Middle-Earth is so fully realized, and so impressive, that many would-be writers of science fiction and fantasy have taken it as axiomatic that a writer must have a fully developed and complex world behind his books for them to be any good.
Although I can think of several cases where an author's world is highly detailed in a way that adds a great deal to the story (Dune is a good example), many other stories get away with quite a bit less, and some have very little indeed (Narnia springs to mind). I think the story has to begin with a story; no amount of background can save a story which has no intrinsic interest, so an author's focus should always be there first.
One of the fun things about Dungeons and Dragons--the most fun thing, if you have my mindset--is inventing worlds. It's a lot of work. To take only a tiny example, even a very simple language would probably take weeks to make semi-functional.
I wonder sometimes if Tolkein hasn't put the fantasy community up a false path in this respect. Middle-Earth is so fully realized, and so impressive, that many would-be writers of science fiction and fantasy have taken it as axiomatic that a writer must have a fully developed and complex world behind his books for them to be any good.
Although I can think of several cases where an author's world is highly detailed in a way that adds a great deal to the story (Dune is a good example), many other stories get away with quite a bit less, and some have very little indeed (Narnia springs to mind). I think the story has to begin with a story; no amount of background can save a story which has no intrinsic interest, so an author's focus should always be there first.