Writing Fantasy LORE Instead of Worldbuilding

WATCH MORE:

00:00 Writing Lore
00:45 Lore vs. Worldbuilding
02:39 The Power of Lore
05:55 Efficient Writing Through Lore
08:41 Lore as a Creative Catalyst

[beskamir]

It's also important to realize that we're writing stories not encyclopedias. Worldbuilding is great for supporting lore, but the reader wants to read a story and lore is much easier to turn into a story than raw worldbuilding.

[katsandall]

Instead of actually writing my book I procrastinated and just did more world building instead, at least that is what I thought I was doing untill I forced myself to start chapter 1. This is when I found that my world building notes were actually really usefull lore that fixes many major issues I had with the plot so in the end it was better that I waited because I ended up rewriting my entire plan for most of my book 😅

[MalachiSouth]

This is a fantastic video. Seriously this is one of the most illuminating and helpful videos I’ve seen as writer. It’s like erverything suddenly clicked in my head while watching this video as I realize why my, and other writers, worlds can feel so bland or laborious. Because they are missing lore and focusing only on hard worldbuilding. I now realize that all of my favorite novels actually focus mostly on Lore over concrete facts or systems, notably Tolkien’s work. Thanks so much for sharing this powerful tool.

[bastionbrom]

I would argue that lore isn't separate from worldbuilding, it's just one aspect of it.

[TheRoomforImprovement]

In my series, I’ve been trying to incorporate lore in my series in a similar way from software game do. The idea is that major plot and lore events play out by characters investigating where and how something happened, not unlike how from soft games have you explore worlds long after a catastrophe happened. The difference is that from soft’s intent is to leave things ambiguous for the player to encourage them to explore the world and come to their own conclusion. In my case, these explorations of ancient conflicts are crucial to understanding and solving the main conflicts.

[christopherpoet]

2:00 - From what you have said here I think I use a mix of both or at least do both at the same time. Much of my world-building involves setting up origin stories, exploring the workings of magic, etc while also addressing the "What" elements as you described them. And from time to time I hard alternate between the two depending on what my objective is.

[JynksterDM]

Thanks so much for all the help! This is really super charging and getting me inspired!

[CoyoteGris]

In my TTRPG games, i not only write and tell lore, but I make oneshots inwhich the different tables play in the past as part of it.

[The_Trident_Master]

I’m trying to incorporate lore into my story in the same way that the Myridian Constellation series by Wayne Thomas Batson did: basically just putting snippets of in-world books, journals, proclamations, legends and the like before each chapter. I try to make the specific snippet somewhat relevant to each chapter

[swervyghost]

This is one of my biggest problems rn is the why and how i find myself overthinking and trying to keep things grounded but even in real life there is no structure and order i just cant decide how i want to throw in sci fi with fantasy

[Lorna-JWB]

I am only halfway through this video, and I already utilised questions to get me unstuck and add such rich stock to my story. Honestly, I feel that world-building is or should be born out of lore. It is more organic that way.

[ImmortalLemon]

I’m gonna take notes here, cuz I made one world for a story and I somehow managed to create a FANTASTIC fantasy world while having no idea what I was doing. But now I’m expanding the project to involve the multiverse and I need to start making more realities for the story. So is gonna help a lot!

[beccaknight]

Thank you! This video is so straightforward and helpful

[germoneysuniverse]

I've seen at least a dozen of your videos and I must say, every single one is TOP NOTCH!! Much respect and also THANK YOUUUU!! You are very much appreciated brother, great work!! I think you should make sure to ask people to SUBSCRIBE to your channel, ask at least once in every video, probably twice would be best, once in the middle and a second time at the end of the video!!! Your channel deserves to grow Wishing you the best!!

[AmandaFessler]

Excellent tips on how to make outstanding lore. I've been doing some worldbuilding myself (or is it lore writing?) as of the past month or so. What I'm doing instead of what I normally do - write wiki-esque matter of fact stuff - is write the title of a specific subject, then under it, put in a quote from a either character, document, or whatnot. And it's not always 100% clear or reliable. Rumors, comments about certain elements, personal anecdotes, even dialogue exchanges sometimes.

For example, there are several quotes concerning the special metal in my story. Several from modern people concerning its rarity, or apparent properties. A few from a certain religious sect that's trying to recover the lost history of the old world - including the religion it's modelled after - since a great disaster reset everything. A couple more from people in ancient times who knew what the metal was for. And finally, the metal's creator, a major background character, who explains its true nature and purpose. Presumably when he is finally revealed to the main characters or something.

I sometimes wish I could write more factual elements, since the AI often can't distinguish between fact and legend/rumor, but the exercise is just so much fun. I did eventually add in some directly stated notes, but the vast majority is quotes. Not everything will make it into the manuscript, and of those that do, they probably need to be rewritten to keep them from becoming exposition dumps. But it's certainly different from what I used to do. No idea why. Just felt like trying it, I suppose.

[Tuesday_Mourning]

Thank you for this!
I love the ideas in this video

[Nightmarc]

One thing to consider when writing lore and mythology for your story is if if you compare it and read a lot of the other established mythologies of the world, a lot of them can be... Weird. A good kind of weird, to where it sounds like an actual mythology. Dont be afraid to get crafty when it comes to the explanation of things in your world. And tell it not as if its an encyclopedia, but more as if its a snippet from a fable.

[generationm]

Thank you so much for the info and for inspiring me!

[immortaljanus]

Solid advice. I do this all the time. I don't have a map of my world drawn but I have a few thousand years of history written down simply by going back from the starting point, asking myself "Why does this issue exist? What caused it?"

[sethreyes]

I'm curious, are you still a Warcraft fan, at least lore wise? I ask because I too kind of started with the Warcraft universe before becoming fascinated with fantasy worlds and exploring other ones and wanting to build one of my own. I think it was the cosmology of the Warcraft universe that really sparked my interest at first. I don't play the games anymore, but I still think the lore is pretty cool. The legend of the ashbringer is a great example of storytelling making lore.