World building in sci-fi/fantasy stories?

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  • World building in sci-fi/fantasy stories?

    I am working on a dystopian sci-fi idea that requires a fair amount of exposition and setup in order for the audience to fully understand what is going on in my story world. I am struggling to determine if/when it is better to front-load all of that setup or to embed it within the plot as mysteries/payoffs.

    For example, Star Wars and the first LotR movie open with a brief explanation and overview of the situation and important past events before getting to the main action. Other movies like Terminator, The Matrix, and Inception thrust the audience into the world with no explanation before gradually explaining what is happening.

    How can a writer determine when it is ideal to just dump the info on the audience right away, or when it's better to tease it out slowly? Also, what are some notable movies and stories that accomplish this effectively?

  • #2
    Re: World building in sci-fi/fantasy stories?

    Originally posted by DaltWisney View Post
    How can a writer determine when it is ideal to just dump the info on the audience right away, or when it's better to tease it out slowly? Also, what are some notable movies and stories that accomplish this effectively?
    Just click your heels together:

    Originally posted by DaltWisney View Post
    Star Wars and the first LotR movie open with a brief explanation and overview of the situation and important past events before getting to the main action. Other movies like Terminator, The Matrix, and Inception thrust the audience into the world with no explanation before gradually explaining what is happening.

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    • #3
      Re: World building in sci-fi/fantasy stories?

      Originally posted by DaltWisney View Post
      I am working on a dystopian sci-fi idea that requires a fair amount of exposition and setup in order for the audience to fully understand what is going on in my story world. I am struggling to determine if/when it is better to front-load all of that setup or to embed it within the plot as mysteries/payoffs.

      For example, Star Wars and the first LotR movie open with a brief explanation and overview of the situation and important past events before getting to the main action. Other movies like Terminator, The Matrix, and Inception thrust the audience into the world with no explanation before gradually explaining what is happening.

      How can a writer determine when it is ideal to just dump the info on the audience right away, or when it's better to tease it out slowly? Also, what are some notable movies and stories that accomplish this effectively?
      Pretty much all of these stories, even those who have some sort of prologue or just drop us into the action, depend on an "outsider" character to lead us into the world.

      Even though Luke Skywalker and Frodo Baggins live in their respective universes, they both live on the relatively peaceful outskirts, far away from the main action where things are happening.

      In other words, they live the suburbs where things, strangely enough, are relatively familiar to the audience watching or reading the story.

      Both are drawn into the larger world and have to learn the rules.

      In the same way, Neo has to take the pill and learn the rules of the Matrix.

      You have the Ellen Page character in Inception who's brought in early on, who doesn't know anything about the whole thing -- and as she learns about it, we learn about it.

      And obviously, Sarah Connor is completely in the dark as to what's going on and not only does she have to learn about what's going on, the whole story is really about her learning about what's going on.

      Look at something like the Back to the Future movies -- there's tons of exposition in it, but it's always fed to us through Marty. Marty is always the character who desperately needs to know things, who seeks out the professor and gets him to tell him (and in the process tell us) what he needs to know about what's going on. He learns. We learn.

      The most awkward kind of exposition involves characters telling things to other characters who already know the things that they're being told.

      The key to successful exposition is to create that character who needs to know the stuff that you need to tell and who believably seeks out or receives that information.

      NMS

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      • #4
        Re: World building in sci-fi/fantasy stories?

        Originally posted by nmstevens View Post
        Pretty much all of these stories, even those who have some sort of prologue or just drop us into the action, depend on an "outsider" character to lead us into the world.
        Thanks, NMS. Easy to understand explanation, complete with examples. When is that howto book on screenwriting coming out? I would buy it.
        STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

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        • #5
          Re: World building in sci-fi/fantasy stories?

          John August and Craig Mazin just had a great discussion of this on their podcast this week. Check it out.

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          • #6
            Re: World building in sci-fi/fantasy stories?

            What Neal says...

            But remember that one of the functions of the first 10 pages is to involve the audience in the story, and a big steaming pile of exposition isn't likely to do that.

            I look at World Building in my Hook 'Em In Ten Book, and use STAR WARS as an example... because it gives a bare bones set up in that crawl (I counted the words - it's fewer than you think) then gets us right in the middle of that battle scene.

            One thing to remember about sci-fi is that it's usually the same as our world, with one major difference (everything else logically comes from that difference). Apes have evolved and humans are the test animals. Over population has created a food shortage. Your DNA dictates your place in society. If your world is overly complicated, that may be a problem in a 90-110 minute film.

            - Bill
            Last edited by wcmartell; 12-08-2015, 09:21 PM.
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            • #7
              Re: World building in sci-fi/fantasy stories?

              Originally posted by DaltWisney View Post
              How can a writer determine when it is ideal to just dump the info on the audience right away, or when it's better to tease it out slowly? Also, what are some notable movies and stories that accomplish this effectively?
              You could let the arc help you decide.

              If revealing the world helps you turn your character, then that's a good reason for teasing it out. Seems to me that's what's happening in Matrix / Terminator.
              Story Structure 1
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              Story Structure 3

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              • #8
                Re: World building in sci-fi/fantasy stories?

                Just watch After Earth and do the exact opposite.
                I'm never wrong. Reality is just stubborn.

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                • #9
                  Re: World building in sci-fi/fantasy stories?

                  Originally posted by FoxHound View Post
                  Just watch After Earth and do the exact opposite.
                  LOL
                  I heard the starting gun


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                  • #10
                    Re: World building in sci-fi/fantasy stories?

                    Bare bones and entwined into your story is the key. Otherwise you're not writing a story but a world building bible. (Which if you really have that much to say about your setting may not be a bad idea to actually write first so you can get all the world build out of your system and allow you to focus on story while writing.)

                    I had read the writer of Reel Steel (way better movie than it had any right to be, Robot boxing, seriosuly?) actually wrote like a 150 page history of the robot boxing league or something crazy like that for his film.
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