[Listen]
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[Woman’s Voice]
This is Behind the Cut with Christopher Gronlund. The companion show to Not About Lumberjacks.
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Christopher Gronlund:
Behind the Cut is an in-depth look at the latest episode of Not About Lumberjacks and likely contains spoilers of the most recent story. You’ve been warned…
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J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit is one of the books that changed everything for me. It, and Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine, were novels I read multiple times in elementary school. They shaped my imagination and even the way I looked at the world.
Somewhere along the way after reading The Hobbit, I came into possession of the 1971 Ballantine Paperback Box Set of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings—the set with the trippy Barbara Remington art on the covers.
But no matter how many times I set out to read The Fellowship of the Ring, I always gave up. To this day, much to the surprise of people who know how much I loved The Hobbit as a kid—and all the hours I’ve spent playing Lord of the Rings Online—I’ve still never read the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
But I’ve read the appendices at the end of The Return of the King several times. I found it fascinating to see just how much work went into the books.
A quick aside since I mentioned Lord of the Rings Online. The latest Not About Lumberjacks story, “Rockbiters,” contains the names of two dwarves I’m quite familiar with. Thorvlin is my wife’s main character in the Lord of the Rings Online game…and while Bautigan was created in the early 80s for Dungeons and Dragons, I brought him back when I started playing the game with my wife and some friends.
His name is, admittedly, not very dwarvish-sounding. I was a kid and needed a different sounding name for a Dungeons and Dragons session, so…I looked at a bookcase in the house that housed a Richard Brautigan novel. I dropped the “R” in his last name, and the rest is geeky dwarven history.
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Aside from playing Dungeons and Dragons and other table-top role-playing games, I am not into worldbuilding. In the fiction I write, I usually find it tedious and unnecessary.
In my younger years, when I started taking writing seriously, someone showed me how much they put into creating the characters for their stories—down to knowing what kind of soap they used. But for all their efforts, they still didn’t write very well, and finished very little.
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My main issue with worldbuilding is that it can be a trap. It’s easy to keep tinkering with your world and how every little thing works…down to what soaps your characters prefer. You can convince yourself you’re writing without actually finishing anything.
Sure, depending on the story, worldbuilding is necessary to a point, but I know more than a few writers who have world statistics and places on paper, but no completed stories set in those worlds.
It might sound like I have something against worldbuilding, but that’s hardly the case. I recognize it can be necessary, especially for certain kinds of stories. I just think, instead of knowing what kind of soap a character uses before writing, that you should be able to figure that out in the moment if it ends up having any relevance to the story.
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Genre fiction lends itself to worldbuilding—and with good reason. Writing a literary story taking place in the world in which we all live in obviously has its complexities, but names and places and other things are easier to come up with because this is what we know.
If I set a story in the Dallas area, sure…I might jump into Google Maps and make sure some cross streets I mention are correct, but I don’t need to build the world. I can grab the first name of someone I know or have known…and mash it up with a different person’s last name. BOOM! Character name.
What kind of car does that character drive? Well, they are upper middle class and beginning to become concerned with image, so…they’re in a BMW or Volvo. I might have to look up a model number, but I don’t have to build that world.
If I’m creating Middle Earth or the Star Wars galaxy, though, I need to know where I am.
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Continuing with the point about fiction set in our world, I might have to research some details if I have a character travel from Dallas to Singapore, but I already know a bit about each place and how the characters would get there.
In a sci-fi story, however, if characters travel among planets in a different solar system, it’s not as easy. I have to make up planets and maybe even nations and cities. I have to figure out the method for travel between planets and maybe even galaxies.
I have to build [at least part of] that world or universe.
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In recent years, with the exceptions of the mystery in “Godspeed, Crazy Mike” and the After Life in “A Deathly Mistake,” I’ve charged into the stories I write and share on Not About Lumberjacks with little to no planning. If I write myself into a corner where I’m not sure about something, I jump online, find my answer, and get back to writing.
But with “Rockbiters” I had to build at least the basics of a solar system.
I needed to know what planets made up the system, and I needed character names before beginning. I needed to know where asteroid belts were and some legendary history that guides the dwarves. I had to build all these things up front.
To my credit when it comes to not getting bogged down in unnecessary details, I know nothing about the planets mentioned in the story—other than what’s needed. Thara and Izli especially? No idea what they’re like, other than they are planets and they have names. They don’t matter beyond giving a sense of place.
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I do understand the appeal of worldbuilding.
I want to know more about Izli and Thara…and even additional details about the planets getting more attention in “Rockbiters.” More history and lore and other things.
But had I done that, I’d still be building my worlds and not have a finished story.
Were I to ever return to this system in a future story, then sure…I’d add to what I’ve already made. If I set even more tales there, I might create a story bible…and more cool things to write toward.
But “Rockbiters” didn’t require anything more than some planet names, character names, a few places, and a touch of lore.
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Let’s return to Tolkien’s Middle Earth…
Novels are different than short stories. While I still believe Tolkien’s worldbuilding is a bit much, it obviously worked for him. He not only finished stories, but wrote stories that reached legions of fans. And his worldbuilding led to keeping his tales and legacy alive today.
That’s the important thing: finishing.
“Rockbiters” is my first science-fiction story—at least something screaming sci-fi fantasy—and it required more effort before writing than any other story I’ve shared, here. And I had fun with the bit of worldbuilding the story required; in fact, I’ve had fun with other stories requiring more work up front on Not About Lumberjacks.
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One of my wife’s favorite things I’ve written and recorded for the show is “The Other Side”—a story about a recently-divorced man who travels through a portal back to a fantasy realm he visited when he was young.
I had to make up locations, lore, character names (in fact, there’s a nod to some of those characters in “Rockbiters”), and even some made-up language and grunting, performed so well by my friends, Mark Hosack, Rick Coste, and Shawn Kupfer. Ever since writing “The Other Side,” I’ve wanted to write a fantasy story set in that world…or some other fantastic place requiring some worldbuilding up front.
So maybe 2023 will see another straight-up genre story on Not About Lumberjacks. In high school, a fantasy novel was never out of my reach, and I’ve had the urge to read more in recent years.
Who knows: maybe this is the year I finally get around to reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy…
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Thank you for listening to Not About Lumberjacks and Behind the Cut. Theme music for Behind the Cut is a tune called “Reaper” by Razen. Visit nolumberjacks.com for information about the music, the episodes, and voice talent.
Also, for as little as a dollar a month, you can have access to a bigger behind-the-scenes look at Not About Lumberjacks on Patreon. Check out patreon.com/cgronlund if that sounds like your kinda thing.
In [probably] April—but definitely by early May—it’s another story with things rocky or stoney in the title. “The Song of the Stone” is a tale told through time, about two people drawn to a particular location as they ponder turning points in their lives.
Until next time: be mighty, and keep your axes sharp!
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