makingplaces:

Let’s try to get this thing started up again with some quick links and question-answering. I just found this great roundup of unattributed advice on writing from the Clarion Writing Workshop, much of which is invented-world-related. Some relevant excerpts:

“In-cluing, AKA Heinleining, is when you don’t infodump, you just show the tech or whatever working.”

“When we don’t understand what’s happening, or the world we’re reading, we fill in the blanks from what we already know—some other fictional world that seems pretty close. This can be dangerous, so you have to give people enough information to convince them otherwise.”

“A nice way to make me “buy” complex technology and a rich world is to just give me a great character whose dilemma shapes and filters the world, and focus on that.”