Writing Lore

[Maltese_Falcon91]

SantaniasGirl

Does anyone have any tips for writing lore? What is your methods for introducing lore into stories?

If you're writing fantasy, then I think the most important thing is to not infodump. A magical world should feel mysterious and exciting.

The Way would not have been as memorable if it ended with Gaius sitting Rhue down and explaining that the Lord Below was actually an alien from another dimension, that the Shadow Swords had achieved sentience because of all the auras they swallowed, and that the fogs that destroyed everything were created by some artificial weather generating satellite designed by spacemen from the ancient past or whatever.

Instead all we see is a brief glimpse of the world, fantastic concepts like the towers that nobody can enter, the motives and origins of the Phantom Slasher, and the dream city are all introduced, but they're never really explained or elaborated on. It makes the world seem bigger than it really is, and the story always remains about the characters, and never the setting.

Compare this to a horrible novel like Rhapsody: Child of Blood, where the author apparently had such a fun time writing her generic fantasy world, that she decided that the reader needed to endure a chapter where they visit a museum and a duke rambles on about things that aren't even remotely important to the reader's understanding of the plot. What's especially egregious is that this is done in the last half of the novel, when things should begin building up to a climax.

[SantaniasGirl]

Maltese_Falcon91

If you're writing fantasy, then I think the most important thing is to not infodump. A magical world should feel mysterious and exciting.

The Way would not have been as memorable if it ended with Gaius sitting Rhue down and explaining that the Lord Below was actually an alien from another dimension, that the Shadow Swords had achieved sentience because of all the auras they swallowed, and that the fogs that destroyed everything were created by some artificial weather generating satellite designed by spacemen from the ancient past or whatever.

Instead all we see is a brief glimpse of the world, fantastic concepts like the towers that nobody can enter, the motives and origins of the Phantom Slasher, and the dream city are all introduced, but they're never really explained or elaborated on. It makes the world seem bigger than it really is, and the story always remains about the characters, and never the setting.

Compare this to a horrible novel like Rhapsody: Child of Blood, where the author apparently had such a fun time writing her generic fantasy world, that she decided that the reader needed to endure a chapter where they visit a museum and a duke rambles on about things that aren't even remotely important to the reader's understanding of the plot. What's especially egregious is that this is done in the last half of the novel, when things should begin building up to a climax.

This I agree with completely because, while I love lore, I know most people don't wanna hear the entirety of the lore.

I tend to try and keep the background in the background but I also like fleshing it out bc I like sharing it and then I panic bc I think the reader needs to know it all and end up with so much. I guess that's what roughdrafts are for though aha

I'm really wanting to get enough wiggle room for people to draw their own conclusions, I suppose. Iunno. I have everything planned out except for what I wanna do with the background info and how much is relevant.