RockiesRetriever
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2022
- Messages
- 81
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- 58
If you've ever struggled to write in a world different from our own, you likely have faced a great struggle - while fantasy, sci fi, and even much of horror can play with so many fantastical elements, it can often be hard to ground the human element. How do you make what you're writing seem plausible? How do you write a scene where a character is weaving on a loom, or making a log cabin? To some extent, it helps your writing to know some things to enrich your world, to bring interest by showing your reader an activity they are not familiar with.
Much of this can be accomplished on Youtube and other sites. In addition to many great videos on the writing process itself, there are so many people out there with interesting hobbies or knowledge of history out there you can reference to guide your work.
Then there is another source, a place where you can ask questions directly: worldbuilding stack exchange.
The idea of the stack exchange network, an outgrowth of stack overflow, is to give people a place where they can ask questions pertaining to specific topics. It is a place for writers to get help on checking whether a creature is somewhat plausible, or if their fictional government would function. It seems like a great resource.
But nay! Nay I say to thee! For it is a deceitful snare!
The site has helped me a great deal in the past, getting really good answers to questions sometimes - once I was working on a short story about a base on Mars, and someone gave me unbelievably detailed info on NASA studies regarding suitable sites for a Mars base. It was fantastic. But for every victory on the site, there were four or more painful failures. Ask someone a question, and you are just as likely to get people marking your question as a duplicate as they are to seriously consider your question.
Also common are the sarcastic "do you want us to write your book for you too?" or "you're asking the wrong question" etc.
My thesis, this site, and likely much of the stack exchange network, supposedly made to help people discover knowledge, is actually a means for those with puny amounts of power to belittle you for asking for help. It can have great helpful people on it, and if you really really need some help, it may work if you make an ironclad question.
So I ask all of you, what is your experience with this site? If you haven't used it before, with a brief look at it, do you think you would find it useful? Should this forum post be marked as a duplicate?
Much of this can be accomplished on Youtube and other sites. In addition to many great videos on the writing process itself, there are so many people out there with interesting hobbies or knowledge of history out there you can reference to guide your work.
Then there is another source, a place where you can ask questions directly: worldbuilding stack exchange.
The idea of the stack exchange network, an outgrowth of stack overflow, is to give people a place where they can ask questions pertaining to specific topics. It is a place for writers to get help on checking whether a creature is somewhat plausible, or if their fictional government would function. It seems like a great resource.
But nay! Nay I say to thee! For it is a deceitful snare!
The site has helped me a great deal in the past, getting really good answers to questions sometimes - once I was working on a short story about a base on Mars, and someone gave me unbelievably detailed info on NASA studies regarding suitable sites for a Mars base. It was fantastic. But for every victory on the site, there were four or more painful failures. Ask someone a question, and you are just as likely to get people marking your question as a duplicate as they are to seriously consider your question.
Also common are the sarcastic "do you want us to write your book for you too?" or "you're asking the wrong question" etc.
My thesis, this site, and likely much of the stack exchange network, supposedly made to help people discover knowledge, is actually a means for those with puny amounts of power to belittle you for asking for help. It can have great helpful people on it, and if you really really need some help, it may work if you make an ironclad question.
So I ask all of you, what is your experience with this site? If you haven't used it before, with a brief look at it, do you think you would find it useful? Should this forum post be marked as a duplicate?